Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?" ~K.D. Lang
In his article, "The Animal Therefore I Am", Jacques Derrida addresses the question fresh among philosophers of how we as humans can be separated and even placed above animals. He argues that over the years, the treatment of animals has been "turned upside down" by the genetic mutation and ultimate industrialization of consuming animals. He believes that due to our increased obsession with knowledge and human well being, we have done animals a great disservice; that we have subjected animals to cruelty and violence and try hard to hide it from ourselves, so that we can "forget" or "not understand". Why do we question as humans whether or not animals have the ability to suffer, Derrida says, when we have physical evidence of sheer terror or fear in certain animals?
"What of the vulnerability felt on the basis of this inability? What is the non-power at the heart of power? What is it's quality or modality? What right should be accorded to it?...Being able to suffer is no longer a power, it is a possibility without power, a possibility of the impossible"(pg. 3).
One of my good friends, Paige Lord, has been a vegetarian since she turned 12. She explained how one christmas, she vacationed to her grandparent's farm. Every year, her grandfather would raise pigs and slaughter them for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. That particular, he asked for Paige and her brother's help.
"I remember him tying the pig to a post outside the barn, and me asking him if the pig felt anything when he shot it. He said Paige honey, it doesn't feel a thing. The damn thing prolly doesn't even know what's coming. He just look so skittish against the post, and I got this really terrible feeling in my stomach. Then he shot it, and for some reason, I
began to cry. I couldn't eat that pig at dinner, and I refused to eat meat at all after that." Paige was very much impacted by the emotions that she believed that pig felt that day, which is why I have aligned her with Derrida. Paige believes that there is no difference in the way animals should be treated and the way humans expect to be respected. "Why commit an act deemable to practical society as murder okay on something as harmless as a pig or chicken?" Paige says, "Why is it okay for me to eat a cow or sheep and not a dog or cat? Derrida claims that "animal" is a word just like "I" or "you". It is something we have assigned to mean not human. When I told paige about Derrida's article, she actually did some research . After reading parts of it, Paige told me that she felt like her argument was "more real" and that someone got it. When I asked Paige what food or recipe sort of summed up her diet, she said she eats a lot of pasta and hummus. She actually made me a pasta dish to try. It was just whole wheat penne pasta, fresh broccoli, red pepper flakes, fava beans, olive oil, and garlic. It thought it was going to be terrible, but it really wasn't that bad!
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