From Free Life, Issue 22, April 1995
ISSN: 0260 5112

I eat meat. I don't ask if the food in front of me had a fulfilling life, nor if the vegetables were happy, or if the fish swam to warm waters for their holidays. Animals are slaughtered so that I can eat. So long as meat is in good condition when on my plate, I don't care what happened before it got there.

What the animal rights lobby want to do is to impose a whole bag-full of restrictions on how farmers handle their production. Perhaps one would require them to talk nicely to their animals, or even force them into having to negotiate with livestock in order to gain their consent for their flesh to be sold as meat consumable to humans. A sort of animal meat donor card. Of which the wording might be such: "in the event of my death I consent to being cut into chops and steaks and sold for the sole profit of the farmer".

Animal rights lobbyists are in effect seeking to create a new structure of rights. It is the extension of human civil rights to the animal world. Their vanity results in them viewing themselves as descendants of those responsible for the heroic struggle to extend rights to women and then to ethnic groups. They have romantic notions that they are latter day suffragettes. It won't satisfy them that the Govermnent, and Peter Lilley, are currently legislating to give people with disabilities rights. Next stop for these rights agitators are animals. Then plants. And who knows where it will finish? Perhaps in the future the Labour Party will be adopting vegetable only short-lists for Prospective Pailiamentary Candidates in its winnable seats. Maybe it already does. Or the United Nations, ever one for a daft idea, will instigate one of its grandiose projects, declaring a Decade for Fish, campaigning for the advancement of those things you eat with chips.

New political theorists will surely point out how history is a human dominated account which fails to include the story of non-humans. What we need are animal perspectives on humanarchy. This may be over the top, but some people actually do take it seriously. Somewhere somebody is waiting to be discovered by the enlightened brigade for the next assault on the conventional wisdom. If you think about it, then it might not be too difficult to believe this nightmare could become reality. Just look at the development of feminist and ethnic studies. Then it might not sound as implausible as it first seemed.

I am not bothered whether animals are transported in lorries. How else do we propose to get them to the abattoir? First class air tickets? It may upset the sensitive that animals don't get adequate in-travel refreshments, but it doesn't affect me too much. Again, so long as the food on my plate is fine then ... Demonstrators should ask about the distress caused to transported animals by being driven at high speed through a screaming crowd. What has happened is that we have all been separated from the fact that humans kill animals for food. Before butchers and supermarkets there was a time when people killed animals themselves. A family would fatten up its turkey for Xmas and then break its neck. Now people are likely to become all sentimental and allow it to be a domestic pet.

Farmers have a right to dispose of their property as they see fit. Nobody can impinge upon this. If animal rights activists don't like it, then they should themselves buy the animals and care for them. Once more we are seeing a militant minority using democratic institutions to limit the freedoms of others. I won't advocate that farmers should torture their animals but nor will I be part of a campaign to destroy property rights. Anyway I'm sure that there are good commercial reasons for farmers to be concerned with the well-being of their animals, and that is that a well fed healthy beast sells for a higher price.

What I am concerned about is that farmers are being prevented from going about their lawful business. This is symbolic of a wider phenomena, where violent left wing extremists are attacking the workings of the market. Their feeble philosophical attack on free market economics has been rejected comprehensively, and now they strive to stop the transaction of business. It is important that we act now and do so decisively to defend people's property ownership. These food fascists are attempting a long march against the fundamentals of a free human life, the right to own property and use it as they wish.

Government restrictions will result in added costs to business. Increases that are met by the consumer. Oh, but of course we know the consumer doesn't mind. After all opinion surveys tell us this is so. Yeah, just like they tell us that people wouldn't mind paying a few pence more on income tax if it goes to spending on education, or in fact spending on most other areas, except defence. That's why they have rejected the parties saying they will increase taxes if successful in a general election.

If the veal trade stops, what will happen to calves? They are born so that cows will produce milk. If she doesn't calf, her body won't produce milk. Are people going to be happy paying higher prices for milk, because that's what will happen if the supply is reduced?

Will historians have books rejected in the future for failing to include the experiences of animals? Will there be new subject devoted to the experiences of oppression faced by animals in an aggressive human environment?

Will we be forced to be animally correct? Will there be a Commission for the Equality of animals, plants, etc? Will there be an Animals' Charter? Will animals have to be employed? Will there be quotas? Will people be sent on courses, to learn that animals are equal to them?

I place humans first. This may be `undemocratic' (not that I consider it an insult when you consider the misery unleashed by democracy), but, well, tough. No doubt when humans can, like Doctor Dolittle, talk to animals, or, like Prince Charles, talk to plants, then things might be different. But for now, I will go on eating steak and chips, chicken in garlic breadcrumbs, grilled trout, and yes, veal. Lots of veal in fact, because in the near future there will be such glut that it will be the cheapest meat around. Don't get between a man and his food.