为什么我不反对吃肉

葛兰汀的书

我在美国读大一。因为对动物感兴趣，这学期我修了一门名为“Call of Wild”的课，从文学、伦理、科学等角度探讨动物以及人性问题。最近需要写的一篇论文和吃肉有关，在搜集资料的时候，动物学家坦普·葛兰汀在她的书 Animals Make Us Human的结尾语中提及为什么她工业屠宰房中工作。身为动物保护主义者，她设计工业屠宰房的行为也遭到许多人的质疑。很多反对吃肉的人都认为无辜的动物们是因为我们对肉的无止境需求才死的，然而葛兰汀却赤裸裸的指出：如果没有我们，这些牲畜连出生在这个世上的机会都没有。

事实上，人和这些动物，本身就是一种互惠的关系：人类为它们提供住所、食物、安全保障，它们则在享受完自己短暂的生命后为人类提供自己的肉，或者在这之前为人类付出一定的劳动。如果没有人类，它们也很难在弱肉强食的大自然中生存下去，就算勉强活下去了，生活也是处处艰辛，并没有太多的幸福可言。在野外，某些食肉的猛兽不会讲人道，让猎物一击毙命，它们会用更佳残忍的方式撕咬猎物，甚至为了娱乐而一点点消磨猎物的求生意识，让猎物在绝望和疼痛中逐渐死去。

和葛兰汀一样，我并不反对吃肉，但是我所反对的，是那些无法为那些动物提供合理的生活环境而只想赚钱的想法。葛兰汀之所以能够支持屠宰房的运作，其实和她的早期工作经历也有关系：她所接触的一些屠宰房，都在动物活着的时候为它们提供了良好的生活环境，并且让它们在极少的痛苦下死去，而且那些经营者也非常耐心，从不对自己养的动物发脾气，即使是要把动物们最后送去宰杀，也从来不会吆喝、鞭打动物。所以葛兰汀在带一些游客参观她的屠宰房时，排着队赴死的牛步履从容，就像平时一般，完全不知道自己会死，然后瞬间被一台形似射钉枪的仪器杀死，不会留下时间让它们挣扎和痛苦。

生命总有枯竭的一天，而衡量生命价值和意义的并不是长短，而是质量。如果你的生活总是充满了消极的事物，你活得再长你可能都不会觉得有多好。事实上，现在有很多的宠物生活质量还不如这些牲畜。很多人一时冲动买了宠物来娱乐自己，然后在自己忙的时候把宠物锁在狭小的空间里。有很多宠物狗，因为主人没有花足够的时间陪伴和照顾而容易变得情绪失控，孤独而痛苦。葛兰汀在书中第二章详细阐述了这一点并认为人应该像狗狗的亲人一样花更多的时间陪伴和关爱狗狗。

所以，错的并不是吃肉本身，而是我们在向这些养殖动物索取它们的肉时，没有提供同等条件的环境、饮食和照顾，让它们在活着的时候忍受过多的折磨，在电影《食品公司》，许多黑心公司的把过多的牲畜挤在狭小的空间里，令人发指。

我曾经尝试过只吃素食，但是没有了肉，我觉得生活也失去了原本的色彩，所以最后我选择继续喜欢吃肉，控制食用量。所以也在这里恢复一些动物爱好者：我不会反对你们为了动物成为素食主义者，但是请不要以此为理由绑架我吃肉的权利。

最后附上一些从葛兰汀书中摘录出来的观点英文原句：

From the very beginning of my career I saw that cattle could be raised right and given a good life and painless death.

Our relationship with the animals we use for food must be symbiotic.

We provide the farm animals with food  and housing and in return, most of the offspring from the breeding cows on the ranches are used for food.

None of the cattle that were at this slaughter plant would  have been born if people had not bred raised them. They would never have lived at all.

People forget that nature can be very harsh, and death in the wild is often more painful and stressful than death in a modern plant.

Ranchers worked hard to save their animals. The natural environment can be very tough world.

The animals are instantly killed by a device that looks like a gigantic stainless-steel nail gun.

Many people today are totally insulated from death, but every living thing eventually dies; this is the cycle of life. Since people are responsible for breeding and raising farm animals, they must also take the responsibility to give the animals living conditions that provide a decent life and a painless death. During the animal's life, both its physical needs and its emotional needs should be satisfied. Intensive farming systems need to be improved because the quality of the animals' lives is poor in some of them.

Many cattle have better lives than some of the pampered pets. Too many dogs are alone all day with no human or dog companions.

Dogs that live a more confined existence are less likely to get killed, but their quality of life may be poorer unless their owners spend a lot of time playing and interacting with them.

A good life requires three things: health, freedom from pain and negative emotions, and lots of activities to turn on SEEKING and PLAY.