Walter Palmer is a dick. We all agree. Why do meat-eaters get so much shit from vegans when they're in agreement?
Every once in a long while an animal rights issue is brought to the forefront of the national discussion, the offense so obviously heinous that it can’t help but unite us. It doesn’t happen often. Before Walter Palmer it was Blackfish. Before Blackfish I can’t remember.
The trajectory is always the same. Something goes viral, gets picked up by the mainstream, and is pasted all over social media. A groundswell of outrage ensues and everyone is momentarily united in common cause against the villain du jour.
And then people like me jump in and drive a big wedge right down the middle of the rage-a-thon, or, redirect some portion of the rage at ourselves. (See comments below, I’m sure.)
On the one hand, I’m thrilled that people actually give a shit about orcas and lions. That’s awesome. And it’s that sort of sentiment that lead me to abandon an animal based diet in the first place. So I want to encourage that.
On the other hand, reading words from friends and family imbued with the passion of the most ardent animal rights activist that were potentially typed in between bites taken from a cheeseburger is frustrating.
How can they not see the hypocrisy? How is it possible to care so strongly about the one animal while making daily choices that demand the torture and slaughter of another?
I used to be the same way. A head in the sand and a hot dog in the mouth is a pretty satisfying way to live. Ask any vegan how hard it is to get open-minded, intelligent, awesome people to watch a video like Meet Your Meat. They cringe and shake their heads like toddlers trying to avoid a spoonful of cough syrup.
The vegan community may not be as homogenous as you might think. And a moment like this really fractures the group.
The dividing issue is how to approach a moment like this. It’s an opportunity to share knowledge and potentially stimulate some self-reflection, or minimally, a conversation about what we as freethinking people consider to be right and wrong, and why. And the urgency is very real because of how infrequently these moments present themselves. It’s one of the only times when people who are usually not open to discussing issues like these are willing.
Visit any vegan message board and you’ll see a range of suggestions boiling down to two essential courses of action; keep your mouth shut or don’t. Both offer risks.
Speak up, and you may be shouted down as a pesky vegan who has missed the point entirely. Say nothing, and risk missing one of these oh-so-rare opportunities to engage in discussion with animal eaters, who clearly care for animals, about a process that kills billions of them each year.
To me, the solution is simple.
We have to talk about this. Pissing off a few people who were never really willing to think in the first place is worth starting a conversation with others who may be.
So here’s the bottom line.
If you look at Walter Palmer and you think he’s a dick because he “unnecessarily killed an animal” you’re absolutely right. But take the next step and follow that logic through.
Whether you kill an animal because it gives you an adrenaline rush and makes you feel like Ernest Hemingway or you kill an animal because you enjoy the sensation that its dead flesh elicits on your tongue, they are both entirely unnecessary.
There are plenty of places to get your nourishment from that don’t involve the needless slaughter of animals, don’t kid yourself.
If you really give a shit about Cecil, you should give a shit about the billions of animals who weren’t fortunate enough to have a Facebook video; the nameless ones who end up on the end of a fork for no good reason whatsoever.
Your heart is in the right place. Trust it and follow it.