“Why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows” is an excellent book by social psychologist Melanie Joy. It tackles the ethical issues surrounding eating meat, the meat industry, and carnism. You’ll find the book to be fascinating, and you may find yourself rethinking your own beliefs about meat consumption after reading it.
Contents
Dr. Melanie Joy
In her 2009 book, “Carnism: The Science of Animal Cults”, Dr. Melanie Joy explains the origin of these practices and how they have become a widespread part of human culture. She coined the term carnism in 2001 and developed it further in 2003.
Carnism has long been suspected to have a strong connection to dog behavior, but no one really knows why. However, Dr. Melanie Joy offers a powerful explanation in her book. She argues that eating animals is deeply rooted in carnism, a system of beliefs that is both invisible.
Dr. Joy is a Harvard-educated psychologist whose interests include social transformation and relationships. She has written six books and founded the Beyond Carnism movement, a nonprofit organization aimed at transforming the carnivorous culture. She believes carnism contributes to inequity in gender, race and sexuality. She believes that if enough people follow her lead, most of us will become vegan.
The meat industry
This book is an eye-opening look at the meat industry and its cruelty. It describes the conditions under which animals are killed, boiled alive, and skinned. You may be surprised to learn that dogs are not the only victims of the meat industry.
The meat industry causes the deaths of billions of animals each year in the U.S. and in many other countries. Workers in factory farms are exposed to animal waste and noxious gases. These fumes can cause respiratory problems, neurological degeneration, seizures, and comas. Even the animals themselves are subjected to harmful substances like hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.
Carnism
A book by Melanie Joy, published in 2009, describes the phenomenon of carnism. She first coined the term in 2001 and developed it further in 2003. She says that it is a fundamental principle of modern life, and the study of carnism is important for understanding human nature.
While carnism does not have a strong connection to the ethical choices made by an individual, it is an inevitable outcome of deeply-entrenched beliefs. By rethinking how carnism impacts our lives, we can become more compassionate toward carnists.
The term “carnism” was coined by psychologist Melanie Joy. It describes a belief system in which humans love and respect animals of similar anatomical structure. It also applies to vegetarians and to other animal-based cultures. Joy argues that carnism is a fundamental aspect of our societies’ ideological bias.
The ethics of eating meat
Despite the widespread disapproval, eating meat from cows, pigs and dogs is legal in China. However, the practice has come under criticism, with some claiming that it is cruel. The professor of the Campbell Centre for Study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph wrote that “dogs are kept in horrific conditions” before they are killed.
In The Ethics of Eating Meat for Dogs, Pigs, and Cows, author Melanie Joy argues that eating meat is not entirely wrong. She argues that it’s not about ethics, but about carnism, a system of values that allows our society to eat certain animals and use their products. However, she points out that people can alleviate this cognitive dissonance by embracing a vegan lifestyle or a vegetarian diet.
The death of billions of animals per year in the U.S.
Despite the recent outbreak of a pandemic, we still kill billions of animals each year for our food. In the United States alone, about 160 million cattle and nine billion chickens are killed each year for meat. We waste a staggering amount of resources and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the U.S. Animal Kill Clock, over 55 billion animals die in this country each year. This number doesn’t include chicken or fish, which are usually farmed separately and not killed in large numbers. It also doesn’t include the number of fish and shellfish killed to meet the U.S. demand for seafood. Fish and shellfish lives are often measured by their weight, so the exact number is impossible to determine. However, best estimates estimate that up to 55 billion animals die each year as a result of the food industry.
As of 2009, an estimated 59 billion animals were killed for meat in the U.S., or 138 million less than in 2006. That means that the average meat-eating American killed 1.3 fewer animals last year than in 2006 and almost 3 billion fewer than in 2006. In 2008, we killed almost 300 million fewer land animals than in 2006.
