What an interesting mess this New York Times piece is. It starts by looking at the fact that Spain is now poised to grant certain apes limited human rights. And from there, the question turns to how this precedent might one day affect the rights accorded to “food” animals. Here, we get this extraordinary confession:
As someone who eats foie gras and veal (made from tortured animals) and has eaten whale (in Iceland), I don’t know why I suddenly turned squeamish when offered a nibble of primate.
Wow. The author believes veal and foie gras come from tortured animals, but he volunteers that he still eats these foods anyway — and he makes this admission in no less a public forum than the pages of the Times.
Anyway, this article is all over the place — there’s plenty of good thinking and info but much of this article is incoherent. When it comes to extending human rights to animals, this piece offers possibly the most worthwhile bad writing on the subject you’ll see this year. Link.
