I so appreciated Mark Bittman’s March 15 opinion piece in the New York Times, “Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.” Our hypocrisy surrounding the treatment of animals is stunning, and Bittman’s essay makes the point powerfully as he recounts the ASPCA’s arrest of a teenage girl for killing her sister’s hamster (a felony) while the routine killing (following nothing short of torture) of billions of other animals in our society is not only legal but ubiquitous.
Bittman’s essay describes the sort of unreflective and hypocritical (as opposed to critical) thinking that prevents us from creating a society that is just and humane and healthy, and I would love to see this essay read in high school classrooms, followed by class projects that uncover various inconsistencies within their own schools and our society that require investigation and, hopefully, rectification.
Imagine what would happen if our students became these sorts of critical and creative thinkers.
Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach”
Image courtesy of meddygarnet via Creative Commons.
We’re mostly vegetarian (not vegan – we have chickens in our backyard) in our house and when we do eat meat, it’s with thoughtful reflection about the treatment of the animals and the cost of death. I don’t want my children growing up with a worldview that believes the styrofoam and cellophane package is “just meat.”