As vice president of policy and governmental affairs for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), I have debated animal protection issues around the world.
But a funny thing happened seven or eight years ago: The other side stopped showing up.
Even though the livestock industry makes billions of dollars on the backs of unwilling animals every year, its representatives don’t often want to defend it. Thankfully, UF’s College Republicans are up to the task.
Last October, I came to UF to discuss the cruelty and environmental devastation inherent in today’s livestock industry.
Bryan Griffin, chairman of the UF College Republicans, did not attend. If he had, he probably would not have told the Alligator at the People Eating Tasty Animals Barbecue that “loving animals does not exclude you from eating meat.”
To be clear, PETA does not believe that animal rights is a partisan issue — we believe quite the contrary.
In a cover story for The American Conservative, Matthew Scully, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, argued that “when we live off a cruel and disgraceful thing like factory farming, we are to that extent living unjustly, and that is hardly a trivial problem,” regardless of other benefits we individually contribute to society.
But if the College Republicans feel strongly that torturing animals for our meals is acceptable, we are happy to have that discussion.
Cows, turkeys, pigs and chickens living on factory farms and dying in slaughterhouses face abuses so severe that they could warrant felony cruelty to animals charges if dogs or cats were the victims.
Would someone who knew these facts then turn around and organize a barbecue in protest of a group seeking to inform people of such suffering, as Griffin and his organization did?
In light of the cruelty of meat production, I was interested to hear his justification for eating meat, so we challenged the College Republicans to a formal debate on whether animals should have rights.
To their credit, and my surprise, they quickly agreed to participate.
I was surprised because finding people to make the case that such cruelty is acceptable is no easy task.
Last spring, for example, I challenged the dean of Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to a debate on the ethics of eating meat.
He is chair of the United Egg Producers Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and is an adviser to McDonald’s on animal welfare issues. He refused to debate.
A University of Georgia professor in the Poultry Science Department and an adviser to Kentucky Fried Chicken on animal welfare standards, has also declined.
If I included the full list of “respected” industry representatives who have responded in kind, this column would be too long to print.
Thankfully, this is a debate that UF students want to see, and I’m excited to participate.
I encourage people of all backgrounds and viewpoints to attend “The Great Animal Rights Debate” at 11:30 a.m. Friday in FAB 105. Enjoy the free food, listen to the discussion and decide for yourself what’s ethical.
Bruce Friedrich is the vice president of policy and governmental affairs for PETA.
