Vegans unfairly boo when meat-lovers moo

The other day I opened my KSC e-mail and to my delight, there was actually an e-mail that wasn’t hate mail. 

Far from it, in fact.

The e-mail was an invitation requesting yours truly to RSVP for an end of the year BBQ. I’ve never been one to turn down a good burger, so naturally I agreed to attend. Then  I noticed something;  people who RSVP to this event are allowed to leave comments. Out of curiosity, I decided to scroll down the list and see what people had to say. Every single comment I read contained  something along the lines of, “Veggie burger, please.” “Damn those meat-hating fascists,” I thought, “at this rate there will be more veggie burgers than real burgers and the BBQ will be ruined!” Thinking quickly, I sprung into action and  commented on wanting  a real burger, cooked medium and for the staff to have it ready for me before I got there. After all, it’d be tragic if my fellow meat-lovers ate all the real beef before I got there.

Anyway, before I start getting anymore e-mails, I’d like to make it clear  I do not intend to dispute whether a vegetarian diet is healthy or not. If done correctly, almost any kind of diet can be healthy, so that kind of stuff is all relative in my eyes. I will not argue it takes eight cups of broccoli to get the calcium equivalent to one cup of milk (that’d be more of a stab at vegans, anyway). Instead, I’d rather write about the morally-elitist attitude that comes along with many  of the more vocal vegetarians out there.

It has always seemed rather narrow-minded to me when vegetarians claim  they’re saving the world via their dieting habits. However, they cleverly manage to leave out one very important fact when they make this claim: Every year, millions of animals are killed by wheat and soy bean combines during the harvesting season according to a 2002 study done by Steve Davis, professor of animal science at Oregon State University.
Vegetarians are welcome to rant and rave about us meat-eaters being murderers, but what exactly makes a cow’s life any more valuable than the life of a mouse, rabbit, snake, skunk, possum, squirrel, gopher, or  rat?  Millions of these animals are killed as a direct result of a vegetarian’s dieting habit. Unless you plant and grow your own crops, there’s no getting around it. Sure, meat-eaters are also eating the same vegetables, but keep in mind,  we’re not the ones with a moral qualm about it. I suppose it could be argued  vegetarians aren’t responsible for these deaths because they’re somehow unintentional (even though they know it happens). 

Like I stated earlier, the only true and honest way to get around this moral dilemma is to buy your own strip of land and grow your own crops. Impractical? Yeah, but  that doesn’t stop a good amount of Eastern Europeans from doing it and most of them aren’t even vegetarians.   At least vegetarians do their part to “limit the suffering,” right? Me too; I didn’t eat any meat all day yesterday. Is that not enough? In my book, a serial killer that murders ten  people is no better than a serial killer that murders 20, as long as the death is avoidable in the first place.

In the end, what’s worse, being raised for slaughter, or  spending the rest of your life working 60 hours a week  in the back of a hot truck playing “Tetris” with other people’s furniture and  a die-hard Mets fan? Slaughter, please.  Then you’ll get all the great tasting food you want and die with the satisfaction  someone’s going to enjoy eating a burger made out of you.

Matt Miracle can be contacted at mmiracle@ksc.mailcruiser.com.