ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS?

The UK has been subject to raging controversy and media hype this week following the discovery of traces of horse DNA in the own-brand ‘beef’ burgers of a certain national supermarket chain. To be fair, they weren’t the only company involved in this deception of the British public, it's not an isolated incident, and the term ‘traces’ has been used very inaccurately, given that analysis showed that some of the burgers consisted of 29% horse meat.

I’ve so far resisted discussing the meat industry in my blog, partly because it’s a very serious and highly inflammatory issue, and partly because as an almost lifelong vegetarian and somebody actively involved in animal welfare, I’m aware that my opinions may be considered biased and are often not well received. But I’m taking this opportunity to open up this important debate, and as everybody else seems to be having their say, I can’t resist weighing in…

Despite the media storm, I have to say it’s the public reaction to this apparently shocking revelation that has surprised me most. From what I’ve seen and heard over the last few days, both in person and on social media pages, it seems there are two major issues stemming from this shocking revelation, but I can only truly empathise with one of them.

I agree with the legal issue of ingredient listing to some extent, in that the labelling of processed food in general clearly leaves a lot to be desired if people aren’t aware of what they’re buying or eating, and this needs to be addressed. However, this is an ongoing issue that the public and the politicians have been aware of (and largely chosen to ignore) for a long time. In the last few years alone, we’ve had Jamie Oliver and his Turkey Twizzlers campaign highlighting the routine use of nutrition-free fillers and offal in food. We’ve had outbreaks of Tuberculosis and Foot and Mouth disease in livestock for human consumption, and beef cattle turned into cannibals, leading to the lethal BSE and its zoonotic variant, Creutzfeldt–Jakob (mad cow) disease. There have been reports too numerous to mention of dead rodents and birds, worms, and a large variety of other unexpected content found in pre-packed groceries and fast food over the years. The way I see it, everybody already knew that such products, especially cheap, meat-based junk food, are not entirely consisted of the main ingredient advertised on the packet. Most likely, they will also contain an awful lot of additives that don’t have to be mentioned on the packet at all, or can be disguised with those mysterious ‘E-numbers’ and scientific names.
If people cared as much about this issue as we are currently led to believe, then surely they would have questioned and objected to the impurities in their food more vigorously and the lack of income to this industry would have long since caused its collapse. Look into the legal standards for hygiene and content in processed food – you may be shocked to learn that there are surprisingly high allowable limits for such things as human skin and hair, dead animal parts and bones, insects, urine, faecal matter, chemicals, dust and debris, etc, etc, etc. Yet people continue to turn a blind eye to such undesirable additives, and to buy and consume these products in mass quantities, so unsurprisingly, the huge market for them remains. We have only ourselves to blame for corporations now pushing the boundaries as to what else they can get away with including in such food.

But it’s the second issue that has baffled me most, and that is the disgust shown by consumers of these burgers simply at having eaten horse meat. The same burgers were found to also contain pig meat and assorted other nasties, but I haven’t heard anybody complain about these, despite also not appearing in the listed ingredients. The meat in the burgers poses no threat to human health, yet it seems from the appalled public response that despite all the things I've just mentioned, the worst possible additive in any burger is horse flesh. This I cannot comprehend at all.

I’ve been a strict vegetarian for 23 years, meaning I don’t eat meat, poultry, fish, anything containing gelatine, suet, rennet or other animal fats and derivatives. I don’t wear leather, fur or skin of any kind, nor use toiletries and cosmetics tested on animals or containing animal products. I do still eat dairy (only free range), although I know that the milk industry causes many calf deaths and I am opposed to many aspects of that too. But I’ve thought it through, and I know and accept my limits. It’s sometimes a nightmare of scrutinising labels, interrogating waiters, shop staff and manufacturers, and of sacrifice (especially when the scent of bacon reaches my nostrils), but to me it’s all worth it to be assured that my conscience is clear in adhering to my own moral compass and doing what little I can to protest against and change something I don’t agree with. I’ve never been militant or preachy about it, as my meat-eating family and friends will testify, I’ve even been accidentally served meat dishes by new acquaintances on occasion because vegetarianism is such an ingrained and normal part of my lifestyle that I’ve actually forgotten to mention it.

I’m not against eating meat per se, I recognise that it is perfectly natural to us as homo sapiens, but I also recognise that intensive farming, abattoirs and the questionable methods of the meat industry in general are wholly unnatural for humanity and all other species involved, and this is what I object to. If I was starving on a desert island, would I eat meat? Of course I would, because in that situation, my survival would depend on it and I would be required to catch, kill and prepare the animal for myself. But I live in the civilised, modern world, where it’s no longer necessary for me to take the lives of others in order to survive. Therefore, I see meat-eating as unjustifiable and my vegetarianism as part of my evolutionary process. I’m fully aware that it’s my personal choice, it may not be for everyone, and I accept that all those who are not me are free to live however they wish and I will never judge them for it.

As some of you know, I am also a trustee of a local horse and pony rescue charity, so I am obviously a horse lover, and through experience of livestock auctions, I’m only too aware that Britain has always been heavily involved in the supply and trade of horse meat for both human and animal consumption. Though it may not be a delicacy here, it is something that we as a nation have supported, traded in and financially benefitted from for many years, and there has been no previous public outcry about this. I fail to understand how it differs from the meat production process of any other animal, or why the consumption of horses has suddenly become such a problem for the meat-munching population.

As far as I’m concerned, the meat industry is the meat industry, regardless of which animal it happens to be processing at the time. I have a big problem with it, and thus I do not buy into it and have no part in it. But since this news story broke, I have heard so many people that I know are happy to contribute to and take advantage of the beef, pork, mutton and poultry businesses expressing out-and-out repugnance at the notion that they may have eaten horse meat. I find myself genuinely perplexed at the distinctions made between it being okay to breed one species of animal for meat, but not another. What makes the life of a horse superior to that of a pig, cow or sheep, or its equally edible flesh so much more disgusting? Simply that as Brits, we are not raised to view them as a traditional, meat producing animal, though they are widely bred and used as food here and in many parts of the world, as are cats, dogs, whales, deer, rabbits, guinea pigs and a variety of other species that the omnivorous peoples of our four home countries seem to irrationally object to eating. It seems that if the animal falls into the cute, cuddly, impressive, intelligent or pet categories, that only then does it become somehow morally wrong to eat them. Yet it’s still okay to eat the animals we’re more accustomed to eating, despite their many good qualities. Go figure. I wonder, with these standards, and the current craze for pet ‘micro pigs’, whether pork will suddenly become taboo? But I doubt it.

I have often been accused of double standards and hypocrisy during my vegetarian career, and it’s comforting to find that the meat-eaters are perhaps even more guilty of these charges. Vegetarians have been told for years that they can’t have it both ways, for example protesting about meat, yet wearing or using other animal produce, and that’s true – but the same thing applies in reverse. You can’t state that there’s nothing wrong in farming, processing and eating meat, then give certain species special dispensation from this. Vegetarian or not, it’s your responsibility to educate yourself about the origins and conditions of your food and to set your own boundaries, and to decide whether the industry and methods behind all meat production are acceptable to you or not. If they are, that’s fine, enjoy your steak. Just remember that if you buy it at a reduced price off a refrigerated shelf, you can’t then complain when you discover the glaringly obvious – that it’s not 100% beef - and that you're in no position to discriminate against whatever other species might have got mixed up in its production.

I hope I haven't caused any offence, but much debate on this important subject. 

(Blog title quoted from ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell)

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