Chapter 4
Becoming a Vegetarian ...
orhowtoproducelesssufferingandmorefoodatareduced
cost to the environment
Nowthatwehaveunderstoodthenatureofspeciesismand
seentheconsequencesithasfornonhumananimalsitistime
toask:Whatcanwedoaboutit?Therearemanythingsthat
we can and should do about speciesism. We should, for
instance,writetoourpoliticalrepresentativesabouttheissues
discussedinthisbook;weshouldmakeourfriendsawareof
theseissues;weshouldeducateourchildrentobeconcerned
aboutthewelfareofallsentientbeings;andweshouldprotest
publiclyonbehalfofnonhumananimalswheneverwehave
an effective opportunity to do so.
Whileweshoulddoallthesethings,thereisoneotherthing
wecandothatisofsupremeimportance;itunderpins,makes
consistent,and givesmeaning to allourotheractivities on
behalfofanimals.Thisonethingisthatwetakeresponsibility
forourownlives,andmakethemasfreeofcrueltyaswecan.
Thefirst stepisthatweceasetoeatanimals.Manypeople
who are opposed to cruelty to animals draw the line at
becoming a vegetarian. It wasof such people that Oliver
Goldsmith, the eighteenth-century humanitarian essayist,
wrote: “They pity, and they eat the objects of their
compassion.”^1
Asamatterofstrictlogic,perhaps,thereisnocontradiction
intakingan interestin animalsonbothcompassionateand