Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

Do manly thing, dads: Eat plants

Opinion: Consider where the beef comes from before you throw a steak on the barbecue this Father’s Day

By Patricia Tallman and David Steele, Special to The Vancouver Sun June 13, 2013  

What’s wrong with this picture? Just about everything, argues vegan Patricia Tallman and biologist David Steele. The fatherly image of a meat-eating man perpetuates cruelty to animals and does dad’s health no good, they say. Photograph by: iStock , VANCOUVER SUN

Father’s Day is when we honour those who fulfil fatherly roles in our lives. That father figure is often associated with strength, symbolized by slabs of beef steak on the barbecue — the rarer the steak, the “manlier” it is.

But is perpetuating this version of manliness doing any good for those aging fatherly bodies? What ethics do we reflect when we celebrate by mindlessly eating body parts of animals, arguably more intelligent than our pets, animals who wanted to live every bit as much as our beloved dogs?

Canada has 14 million beef cattle, three million of them killed each year for human consumption. Although their natural lifespan is 20 to 25 years, they are typically slaughtered at just 18 months. In their short lives, they endure third degree burns when branded with a hot metal rod against their skin; they suffer from painful castration, dehorning and ear-notching — all without anesthetic. If we wouldn’t subject our pets to such procedures without anesthetics, why do we support industries which do this routinely to other animals? Why do we even tolerate this?

Cows, in fact, are sensitive, intelligent animals who can recognize up to 100 individuals and form lifelong bonds with members of their herds. At just several months old, the human equivalent of toddlers, calves are sent to feedlots, where they live in crowded, often filthy conditions. To fatten them quickly, they are fed grain and soy instead of their natural diet of grasses. This causes bloating, often resulting in diarrhea, thus making cattle a prime source of pathogenic E. coli.

After a year of gaining weight, they are sent to slaughter. That journey from the feedlot to the slaughterhouse can take up to 52 hours — without food, water, or rest — even in extreme weather. There, they line up to face their impending deaths on the conveyor belt. If improperly stunned — an all too common reality — they may have their throats slit, skin removed and feet cut off while fully conscious. When we throw that steak on the barbecue, inevitably we take part in all of this.

Why do we do it?

Culture, tradition, peer pressure, and palette pleasure. We want to fit in and don’t even want to think of who we are eating. Because when we do, we catch a glimpse of our depravity. Wouldn’t it be manlier to face up to our actions and initiate a change for the better? Why not emulate the best traits of strong male characters depicted in movies by the likes of Clint Eastwood and George Clooney — characters who stand up for what is morally right?

Drop animals from your diet. The results will all be positive: improved human health, dramatically reduced environmental degradation, a reduction in the number of animals killed for food each year (which, shockingly, is 64 billion worldwide).

Some of the largest, strongest animals in the world — elephants, rhinoceros, buffaloes and gorillas — are plant-eaters. In fact, those slabs of meat on the barbecue came from powerful creatures who grew their muscles eating plants! Our guts are much more like those of herbivores than those of most omnivores or carnivores. Humans are capable of getting all our protein from plants. Just ask Germany’s strongest man Patrik Baboumian, bodybuilder Jim Morris, and triathlete winner Brendan Brazier.

Besides, wouldn’t you like to live longer and be there for your family? Just this month, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association — Internal Medicine showed how much a plant-based diet can help. The study followed over 73,000 people for six years and found that vegetarians were nine per cent and vegans 15 per cent less likely to die than people eating the standard North American diet.

Another study, (the EPIC study) — of nearly half a million people in Europe — found much the same. Those who ate the most red and processed meat were 44 per cent more likely to die prematurely from any cause than those who ate little or none. High consumption levels increased the risk of death from heart disease by 72 per cent and from cancer by 11 per cent.

A 2011 report by the American Institute for Cancer Research on colorectal cancer and diet confirmed that red and processed meat increase colorectal cancer risk, and that fibre (only available in plant foods) reduces that risk. That same year, CNN reported that men who consumed only two servings per week of red meat were twice as likely to have aggressive prostate cancer as those who ate none.

What about milk? The Harvard School of Public Health concluded in a study of male health professionals that those who consumed over two servings of milk per day were twice as likely to develop advanced prostate cancer as those who didn’t consume milk at all.

So, this Father’s Day, why not choose physical strength and moral integrity simultaneously by adopting a plant-based diet? To be strong is to be gentle and courageous, to do what’s ethically right whatever the societal pressures and norms are. So put the lentil burger on the barbecue instead and find the mighty rhino in you — for your health, for the planet’s health, and for the animals’ lives.

Patricia Tallman is an environmental policy consultant and leader of the Langley Herbivores, an animal rights group. David Steele is a molecular biologist and president of Earthsave Canada, a charity that advocates for a whole-food plant-based diet.

Unrepentant meat-eaters are turning a blind eye

Re: Readers flesh out meat-eating arguments, Letters, June 19 Vancouver Sun

To the letter writers who wanted to enjoy their Father’s Day meal without being reminded that they were consuming the flesh of a once living, breathing creature, I ask, do you also look away from the other atrocities in this world?

Turning a blind eye to our own barbarism does nothing to advance humanity. Feelings of guilt arise from knowing what’s right or wrong.

As Dr. Albert Schweitzer said: “The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs, no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo.” The sooner we awaken to this truth, the better.

CARMINA GOOCH, North Vancouver