We Americans love our dogs and cats but make an artificial distinction between fidos and felines and other domesticated animals such as Bessie and Miss Piggy. In a move I hope will broaden our revulsion at consumption of animal flesh, we can all look forward to The Great American Meatout, coming up on March 20th. Skipping one day of meat consumption is good. Skipping a lifetime of it is better. Not only for the farm animals but for human animals as well.
Vegetarianism boosts heart health and cuts our death rate due to heart disease, stroke and cancer.
It lowers our death rate, too, from salmonella poisoning, E. coli and Campylobacteria, which take 9,000 lives each year and sicken millions more. Then there are the moral reasons to kick the meat habit. Take veal, one of the most cruelly produced of all meats, as well as one of the most harmful to humans. Most of us would answer no. Yet these and countless other substances are now commonly found in veal.