let's eat

let's eat

i don't really understand this phrase:

save a cow, eat a vegetarian

other than the fact that it makes for an easy bumper sticker since the words are so easily defined and recognizable, there isn't much logic behind it.

in our culture, the best way we can defend animals from those who would normally eat them is to keep them as pets. when people see that they are intelligent and relational - they make good pets - they will be less likely to eat them. in fact, the more human we perceive something to be, the less likely we are to kill it or eat it. the whole process of keeping something as a pet increases its humanness.

we give them names.
we nurture them as toddlers.
we make them dinner.
sometimes we have their friends over for dinner.
we give them baths.
we trim their nails.
we buy them gifts, and not only on holidays.
we take them to the doctor.
we talk to them.
we spend time with them.
we grow old with them.
they become our companions.

we even ask questions like, "do dogs go to heaven?" i rarely hear the question asked about factory farmed cows or chickens...

eventually i'll have a convincing ethical argument for vegetarianism. it'll probably shoulder itself on the question, "why don't we eat our pets?"