‘Holocaust’ Applied to Animals

Re “Animals Suffer a Perpetual ‘Holocaust,’ ” Commentary, April 21: As a German-Russian Jew, I have lost family in the Holocaust (and other atrocities) but don’t think it distasteful that PETA and others compare slaughtering animals to a type of holocaust. We Jews are perhaps “chosen” to help the world move toward equal rights for all sentient beings. Thus we should not weigh someone’s worth by his or her so-called IQ, and certainly should not skin a person alive for the lack thereof.

Pamela Adelman

Studio City

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There is a simple and clear explanation that Stephen Dujack doesn’t seem to understand: Most reasonable people do not equate the lives of animals to those of humans. Though both his and his grandfather’s stories are compelling, it is intellectually and morally dishonest for them to hijack the emotions and history of the Holocaust and apply it to their political agenda.

Perhaps there is a similarity, and Dujack points this out, in that animals are indeed rounded up and trucked to slaughterhouses. But the similarities end there. Further absurd notions are thrown out, attempting to equate animals and people -- for example, eating Holocaust victims. Dujack laments our world, viewing it as only “one little step from killing animals to creating gas chambers a la Hitler.”

Mr. Dujack, that is not a “little step.” It is a giant, fallacious leap. To extend the analogy, Native Americans, pioneers and Eskimos all must be Nazis, as are ranchers, farmers and cattlemen. I have much greater fear of a world where we don’t make a clear distinction between humans and animals.

Mark Joslin

Valencia

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As a Jew and a vegetarian, I am thrilled you had the chutzpah to publish a piece many will no doubt ridicule. To give voice to the tortured billions that pass through our factory farms each year is truly an act of tzedekah, the Jewish term for a combination of charity and justice.

Simon Chaitowitz

Washington

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If you tell people over and over that a slaughterhouse is nothing more than a death camp, you may eventually succeed in convincing them that a death camp is nothing more than a slaughterhouse.

Brian Upton

Los Angeles

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I am not going to argue with Dujack for or against vegetarianism. I would argue that the raising of animals for slaughter is in no way comparable to the murder of 6 million Jews. Here are my reasons. The murdered Jews are gone, never to be replaced. Farmers who send their cattle and chickens to processing plants keep raising more. The Germans and others who gassed and burned the Jews did not eat them. At least we eat the animals we kill, although this is scant consolation to vegetarians.

Finally, there was a systematic, almost industrial effort to first round up and then kill all the Jews for the simple purpose of ridding the world of these people. I don’t think the same thing can be said about chickens.

Larry Shapiro

Calgary, Canada

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When a cow, lamb, chicken or turkey can explain the blatherings of Dujack, then I’ll stop eating meat.

Terrence Beasor

Santa Monica

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In this time of war and unrest, it was enlightening and inspiring to read Dujack’s column, which suggests that we can help end human violence by being more compassionate in our food choices. It is such a simple idea, but potentially a very powerful one.

Could it be that the brutal fate we inflict upon “food” animals normalizes or engenders our own interpersonal and international aggressiveness? Hopefully we will study this question with some seriousness as a society and as individuals and find a way to end the cycle of violence.

Christina J. Johnson

Long Beach