Protest Against Serving Veal

Eighbor derides animal rights activists--myself included--for our recent demonstration against restaurants that serve veal, because she finds the matter trivial compared with human problems such as famine and homelessness.

If anyone doubts that this tired old argument merely reveals Eighbor’s shameless bigotry (speciesism) against non-human beings, he need only attempt to apply it in a human context: Is child abuse to be minimized because the slaughter of thousands in Afghanistan seems much worse? Should the struggle of women for equal wages be ridiculed because the problem pales in comparison with the torture of dissidents in South American prisons?

No one who has actually seen a veal calf languishing for his entire 16-week life in a crate barely larger than his body could be so dismissive of the anti-veal campaign. One need only contemplate what a dog would experience if shut up for four months in a small box, to have a good idea how that calf must feel.

Of all the world’s injustices, this way may not be the one that Eighbor finds most compelling; but each of us must choose his battles according to what moves him. In truth, animal rights activists have historically been champions of other social reforms, including women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery. But even if it were otherwise, no one who takes up a worthy cause deserves criticism on the grounds that other causes, on someone else’s scale, rank higher.

STEVEN ZAK

Los Angeles