Reflection on Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism by Melanie Joy, Ph.D.

               This is a book that advocates for people to become vegetarians due primarily to the suffering of animals in slaughterhouses, the hypocrisy of owning pets while eating other animals, and additionally for the asserted health benefits. I found it interesting in some parts, preachy in others, and largely unconvincing. There are good points that are made about the needless suffering of animals and the monopolies that exist in American food production, but I didn’t feel like I was the book’s intended audience.

               The book introduces a concept called “carnism.” While we call people who are vegetarians by their label, the book makes a good point in noticing that we should have a similar one for those who eat meat. It makes sense not to call them omnivores because omnivore, herbivore, and carnivore refer to biological restraints, not ideological eating habits, like vegetarianism. Another good point in the book is about the American food industry. She points out that in the 1980s, government legislation put the burden of oversight onto the plants that produce food themselves. So now, rather than federal inspectors, the plants’ own employees are responsible for closer inspections. Federal inspectors have also lost the power to stop the slaughter and packaging line; as the author writes, “for a federal inspector’s complaint to be seriously considered, the company itself must agree that there is a problem.” I also thought that the author made a good point about criticism of vegans and vegetarians, stating, “They are stereotyped as hippies, eating disordered, and sometimes antihuman. They are called hypocrites if they wear leather, purists or extremists if they don’t.”

               On the other hand, there a lot of things in this book I thought were stupid or cringe-worthy. For example, there was a line that said, “we can safely say our democracy has become a meatocracy.” I thought that was not something anyone would say, safely or not. This is a book intended for people who are not really “fully actualized” in their meat eating. I think that as someone who doesn’t feel any guilt in eating animals and animal products, she failed to appeal to me, except for with arguments about bad treatment and monopolies in factory farms. For example, Joy makes a big point about how people wouldn’t eat dogs, but I think I would eat a dog if offered to me. She also makes gratuitous allusions to slavery, the Holocaust and other horrific events in human history without acknowledging that most people see a fundamental difference between humans and animals.

               I think the question is not, “can they suffer?” but rather “are they alive?” Plants and animals that we consume deserve our respect and proper treatment in how we handle them as a society from the time they come into existence until they enter our mouths. It is not wrong to eat plants or animals, but it is wrong to disrespect them. We should not waste food and we should not mistreat the animals that feed us. Meat eaters should embrace parts of animals we would not normally eat. If they’re delicious parts like heart or liver, we should just eat them straight up. Other parts that aren’t so popular should be ground up in sausages and the McDonald’s pink slime. It seems like more government intervention is necessary, however, to improve the treatment of the animals we eat. To eat them is not wrong, but to allow them to go to waste is.