So you have horse meat in your Tesco cow burger?

Friends, I read yesterday about the “Horse meat scandal wipes £300m off Tesco’s market value”

And really, we have to ask ourselves, what is the scandal? That horses should not be used for food or that the cow flesh burger is “contaminated”? I mean does anyone really know what is in a burger anyway? I would say the issue is the former and it is another example of moral compartmentalization.

Tesco is losing profits after it was discovered a percentage of their cow flesh burger contained horse flesh. So it’s OK to torture and murder cows, but it’s not OK to torture and murder horses. Europe tortures and murders horses for their flesh and other parts. Some parts of S.E.Asia torture and murder dogs and cats for food and other parts. Japan tortures and murders dolphins and whales. Australia tortures and murders kangaroos and wallabies. Here’s the thing — there is no moral difference between a cow, a cat, a lamb, a horse, a sheep, a kangaroo, a whale, a fish, a dolphin, a dog, a child, a goat etc. The only difference is in our mind and we don’t have to believe everything we think. All animals are all equally morally important. So why the horror at being told there is horse flesh in a cow flesh burger? We need to see things clearly.

ALL animals love life as we do, love their young, have their likes and dislikes, have different abilities and do not want to be tortured and murdered. All deserve at least one right — the right not to be used as property.

Please go vegan Not vegan? Please start here http://www.VeganKit.com/

There’s no moral difference between a cow, a hen, a child, a dog, a whale. All are of equal moral importance.

UPDATED:

So I visited the Tesco Facebook site today and Tesco has put up a big sign saying “We apologize”. They are apologizing for the recent discovery that a percentage of horse flesh found was found in their cow flesh burgers. Over 9,000 people “liked” the Tesco “apology” post. There were many thousands of shares of this post and many thousands of comments. Twitter is alight with comments about this as well.

Isn’t it amazing and somewhat sad how we have led ourselves to believe that it’s OK to torture and murder cows for their flesh and body parts, but it’s not OK to torture and murder horses for their flesh and body parts? Do we really think that cows do not love their life or suffer as much as horses?

How do we live with this moral compartmentalization?

We have assigned certain animals to the “food” category, certain animals to the “entertainment” category, and some are in many use categories. But make no mistake, ALL animals, even those who we have chosen arbitrarily as family members like dogs, cats etc, are legally property and anyone can torture and murder them with little consequence. And even dogs and cats in some countries are tortured and murdered for food and their body parts. Do dogs and cats suffer or love their life more than cows, pigs, sheep or hens? No.

We really need to stop deceiving ourselves that somehow different species are more important or are less like “things” or less like resources than other species. While animals are legally property — while society is not vegan– every animal will be victims of our ignorance and our whims. In fact 56 billion each year are victims of our trivial pleasures and used for convenience each year, and that’s just the land animals. Many more sea animals have the same fate.

So please let us take a close look at our discrimination towards other animals, and stop participating in the great violence that is animal use. In other words, take that step into life and interconnectedness and go vegan http://www.VeganKit.com