Vegans misrepresented in Monday's Îturkey' column

Jason Baran's piece was clearly biased so far as to misrepresent vegans and even the facts regarding the animal "harvesting" industry (Monday, "Tom Turkey has a friend: Moby fights for fowl rights"). Jason begins his position with the statement, "Turkeys ÷ like other fowl, cattle and chimps ÷ shouldn't be granted the same, or even similar, rights as man" because they don't have cognitive skill. This statement bears no fact at all. They do possess some basic cognitive function.

Very young children often have cognitive abilities similar to those of animals. Example (courtesy of Pet Behavior Clinic): Children manipulate sounds in order to get responses from caretakers before they reach one year of age. They imitate words they hear even before they know the meanings. They even use the word "no" as both a positive and negative response to a question. During the time that baby uses "no" incorrectly, no one doubts that he is discovering language. Can we deny that these children are human? Do we deny that they can think and feel since they will not or cannot communicate?

Secondly, I, speaking as a vegan, do not find people who eat meat the problem in this scenario. All of my better friends are omnivores or ovo-lacto. It is companies like Tyson or Butterball who make billions of dollars annually on the suffering of millions of animals that are the issue. Contrary to Baran's assumptions that it "doesn't involve malicious behavior," the food industry is quite violent. Animals are only required to be stunned (read: beat with a club) before entering a processing machine. Receiving a concussion probably only augments the pain of being boiled alive (common for pigs to soften hides). Maybe you can ignore the suffering of millions; I envy you, for it always haunts me and thousands of others.

Your argument for slaughter is an arrogant misrepresentation of our dominion over animals. The murder industry takes advantage of your ego to make a killing (pun intended) in the business world. If this fact doesn't bother you, great! Have a nice day. Please do not attempt to describe vegans, PETA or animal intelligence. You are clearly not interested enough to do minimal research.

Finally, as for why we "waste" our time with a trivial problem like genocide? I would ask why you have "wasted" your time with your article. Why would you write an article about such an unimportant issue? I would wager to allay some pent up guilt.

Shawn Nock
engineering physics sophomore

Animals can feel pain every bit as much as humans can

This letter is in response to Jason Baran's article, "Tom Turkey has a friend: Moby fights for fowl rights" (Monday). It takes a lot to shock and offend me, but Jason Baran did just that with his scathing article about the animal rights movement. The first thing you should know, Jason, is that there is no such thing as a "food animal." Over time, man has evolved to think he has the right to distinguish certain animals as being edible and others not. But there is no biological difference between Fluffy the cat's meat and Tom Turkey's.

Secondly, it is unfortunate that you think animals exist without cognitive skills. If you want to believe this, it is your right. But there is no denying the fact that all animals feel pain, just like you! Chickens are kept so tightly packed together that they have absolutely no room to move. Due to this aggravation, they resort to pecking each other to death for space. To remedy this problem, farmers simply saw off their beaks. Baby pigs are castrated (without anesthesia) so they won't attack and kill each other for the same reason mentioned above. To end a dairy cow's life, they are strung upside-down by one hoof, and their throat is slashed open. They live for a few minutes, but eventually drown in their own blood.

The American public is in a great state of denial when they visit the meat department of the grocery store. They don't acknowledge that what they are buying, and subsequently eating, was once a living, breathing creature, and that it probably died a horribly painful death.

I pose this challenge to you, Jason: I'll show you video proof that animals feel pain, in the form of the atrocities I mentioned before, and other forms as well. If you can watch this and continue a meat-eating lifestyle, then I will applaud you for your strong convictions. Until then, please do not belittle the animal rights movement by saying it's not a worthy cause. It makes me sad to live in a country where the concept of the ethical treatment of all animals is considered to be radical and unnecessary. I am proud to say that I am a vegan and a member of PETA. And I will continually fight for the humane treatment of those who cannot speak for or defend themselves.

Tricia Lamade
elementary education senior

Baran needs more research before Îshooting off mouth'

To Jason Baran: This letter is in response to your article, "Tom Turkey has a friend: Moby fights for fowl rights" (Monday). As a staunch vegan and animal rights activist, I already knew before I finished the first sentence of your article what you were going to say, because it is the same tired old thing that all uninformed meat-eaters say. It is obvious that you know nothing about the very topic you addressed.

You wrote, "Raising food animals ÷ for those who enjoy a tasty burger ÷ doesn't involve malicious behavior." You couldn't be further from the truth! I highly doubt that you have done five minutes of research into the deplorable and horrendous conditions under which livestock are kept. I have never heard anything more erroneous in my life than, "Raising big turkeys, cattle and chicken is necessary." There is absolutely nothing necessary about meat, and if you knew anything about human biology, you would know that we are actually better equipped to handle the diet of an herbivore. Furthermore, a turkey has a central nervous system lending it the capacity to feel pain and fear, period.

Lastly, you wrote, "What does this hormone-injected, cardiac-strained turkey meat do to humans? If it's anything less than make them tired after dinner, they should move on." What does it do? High intake of meat is scientifically proven to lead to a greater rate of cholesterol, heart conditions, strokes, tumors and obesity. I didn't detail the moral, health and environmental benefits that vegetarianism offers, but whether or not you believe in a meat-free lifestyle, you cannot disregard the efforts of activists, however small. Just because something singly doesn't hold the importance of "AIDS in India" doesn't mean that it isn't a worthwhile fight. All great victories are the sum of many small battles.

Maybe next time you should spend some time researching the topic of your next column before ignorantly shooting your mouth off about a subject in which you are clueless. Thank you for your time.

Laine Buchanan
sophomore majoring in Spanish and pre-law