Like Mary, I was invited to write a guest post over at the blog for Paw Talk, a site that is very much developed and promoted from the traditional welfare view. In other words, the animals of concern there are all "pets" and the issues that affect them are those of welfare and the law. The invitation came almost exactly two months ago, and at first I wasn't even sure I'd be able to offer anything. I certainly don't want to reinforce the notion that animals are means to our ends, rather than ends in themselves (the notion of a "pet" or a "companion animal" is rooted in our conception of that animal's relationship to us, rather than that animals' autonomy).
After pondering the matter for a bit, I decided that the only type of post that would make sense for me to provide was the sort of discussion found at the heart of the Boston Vegan Association's "Respecting Animals Means Going Vegan" pamphlet, which addresses people's concern for cats and dogs and extrapolates that to animals beyond those generally considered "pets". I connect to this discussion on a personal level because my own veganism was facilitated by making the connection between animals I had considered family and those I had considered commodities and realizing that my behavior toward animals was inconsistent. Once I had the idea, it took me a couple of months to find time to adapt the pamphlet's base argument into something resembling a blog post, but it was finally published today. Here is a link to the entry if you'd like to check it out. Let me know what you think.
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Labels: animal rights, animal welfare, companion animals, veganism
