Letters: Pets on your plate? Hardly.

Re “Love cats, eat cows?,” Opinion, Oct. 13

While reading this opinion piece, I couldn’t help but think of another recent article about snowstorms ravaging cattle herds in South Dakota.

The former expresses the inconsistencies in our thinking about animals. As Hal Herzog says, “We simply ignore the inherent paradox of loving the cats in our homes and eating the cows on our plates.” The ranchers are distraught about the horrific deaths suffered by the animals in the storm: “These aren’t just inanimate objects. I personally know each and every one. I bottle fed them as calves.”

Given the ultimate fate of the ranchers’ herds when sent to slaughter, ending up on the plates of meat eaters, this is a prime example of what Herzog was saying.

Melinda Levinson
Los Angeles

Herzog’s piece appears to attempt to state that there is moral reasoning to not exploit animals, yet he ends the piece saying in essence that it’s OK to do so based on his gut. The pleasing of taste buds can just as easily be done with veganism, which extends moral respect and compassion toward animals.

Jules Mari
Cambridge, Mass.

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