From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Subject: Re: LEATHER
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 20:04:14 GMT

jjohnson@convex.com (Jennifer L. Johnson) writes:


>. . .
>A few years ago, I had the opportunity to ask the "experts" how to deal with
>this problem at the first Texas Conference for the Animals.  Among the
>speakers were John Robbins and the head of HSUS (I can't remember his name).
>At one of the meals, I managed to sit with these folks and I asked them what
>to do about the "feeding animals to my animals" problem.  The consensus was
>that if until (and unless) we (Americans) became a vegetarian society, there
>would always be surplus meat products available for pet food.  Most of what
>goes into pet food isn't legal for sale as human food, so this surplus would
>simply be thrown away if not for the pet food market.

>But, they said (and this is the downside of a vegetarian society) if we did
>become a vegetarian society, we could no longer justify keeping carnivorous
>animals as pets.  While I would like to see us become a largely vegetarian
>society, I don't think it's realistic to expect everyone to stop eating meat.
>So I'll continue to feed animals to my animals until the supply of
>meat-byproducts is gone, which probably won't be in my lifetime.  

I franky don't see why those experts could only conceive of the one
scenario for a future vegetarian society, when such does arrive.
First, dogs can be place on a vegetarian diet with no ill effects.
Cats reguire more careful monitoring and special supplements, but 
in principle at least, this does not seem like something that should
automatically be excluded or deemed impossible.

Now, let's say, for the sake of argument, that some animal flesh, if only
a small portion now and then, was really necessary to sustain cats.  Well,
one simply solution, and please do not think me facetious or ghoulish, is
simply feed our pets the ground up bodies of our dear departed.  Why not?
We humans take inordinately from the planet to no end, here is one way
to return just a little bit of what we take.  Why waste ourselves after
we die by polluting the air through cremation or by polluting the soil with
our bodies contaminated with embalming fluids?  There was a recent story
about one person who in Gr. Brit. who fact did request that his body be used as 
pet food after his death.  Unfortunately, the authorites would not
permit his last request, so his body was instead buried at sea.  I think
I'll should make the same request, so that at least my death will not be a
final act of waste (hopefully my vegan corpse will be reasonaly pesticide
free for the fishes).

Now, the point of this alternative scenario for our future vegetarian
society was not to engage in fiction, but to point out that surely our
human imaginations are not so limited that we cannot think of some way
to keep our furry companions in that better future.  Indeed, I think
we would lose much by not having our evolved symbiotic relationship
with dogs and cats continue.  There is really an unwritten history about
how important these companion animals have been towards actually
"humanizing" us humans towards even ourselves.  I'm not just 
talking about how animals have materially benefited us by lessening
and even preventing some plagues in human history, or how they lower
an owner's blood pressure, or how they help the elderly actually live
longer, and so on, but how they have sensitized us to the shared 
interests of other beings.  We are not alone on this planet, and
by caring for that which is not us, we in turn, I think, have come
to better show concern for each other.  This is a remarkable
non-instumental relationship we have with our companion animals.

There is a chinese story that the cat was created so that human beings
may have the pleasure of petting the tiger.  Indeed, it is a pleasure
if not a priviledge to receive the innocent trust and unsullied 
affection we can earn from our cats and dogs.  Pity the society, pity
the future that is bereft of these fur "persons", these ambassadors of
the natural world that would share their destiny with ours. 

                                           ted
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg