All of us in society are supposed to believe that cruelty to animals is wrong and that it is a good thing to prevent needless suffering. So if that is true, how can meat be acceptable under any but the most extraordinary circumstances, such as perhaps roasting the bird who died flying into a window?
There's nothing humane about the flesh of animals who have had one or two or even three improvements made in their singularly rotten lives on today's factory farms.
Ninety-five percent of the eggs produced in America come from factory-farmed birds. Even if free-range farms were hugely more humane, the sheer number of animals raised to satisfy people's desire for eggs, meat, and milk makes it impossible for us to raise them all on small, free-range farms.
I think if you're against cruelty and you look at what happens to animals in slaughterhouses and on factory farms, you have to be completely against eating meat.
Going meat-free can make a huge difference. Studies show that vegetarians are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters and that a vegetarian diet reduces our risk of heart disease by 40 percent and adds seven or more years to our lifespan.
Animal hoarding was a dirty secret until hoarders appeared on our TV screens and showed how they are compelled to collect so many dogs, cats or parrots that the animals end up in cages only inches bigger than their own bodies. For life.
Every animal has his or her story, his or her thoughts, daydreams, and interests. All feel joy and love, pain and fear, as we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt. All deserve that the human animal afford them the respect of being cared for with great consideration for those interests or left in peace.
It's the 21st century. It's healthier for us, better for the environment and certainly kinder to be a vegetarian.
Pigeons are among the most maligned urban wildlife despite the fact that human beings brought them to our shores and turned them loose in our cities - not something that they chose.
Today, I marvel at the vegan foods in the supermarket, at the cruelty-free clothing choices in stores, and at the fantastic alternatives to dissection in schools, the modern ways to test medicines without killing rabbits and beagles, the many forms of entertainment involving purely human performers.
When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.
Being asked to support humane meat means being asked to support the suffering of animals in transport, to approve of treatment that causes them palpable fear, their bodies shaking and their eyes wide as saucers, as they are slung by their legs into crates that are slammed onto the back of a truck.
Pigeon racing is a lousy, greedy, and often unlawful activity. One thing that it is not is kind to birds.
Pigeons are gentle and smart and have complex social relationships. Their hearing and vision are both excellent.
Give your dog or cat respect, patience, understanding and love. And if you just change to one vegetarian day a week, that's a wonderful step that will save animal lives. It means you have chosen something kind instead of something cruel.
It's time for the State Department to permanently change its official policy to allow all members of U.S. citizens' families - no matter what size they are or how many legs they have - to evacuate together when disaster strikes.
I hope SeaWorld is exploring how, like Ringling, it can get out of the wild animal business.
