Dan Piraro, the creator of Bizarrzo, a feature I quite like, is a self-proclaimed vegan and animal rights adherent. This cartoon, in which the cat is depicted as evil for wanting to eat the birds, is a classic example of the hyper-romanticism of the mindset. Earth to Piraro: To the cat, the bird is meat. I guess the cat didn’t get the message that those poor birdies have rights.
We shouldn’t be surprised. At his site, Piraro spouts the usual relativistic equivalence of using language about animals as if they were no different from humans. He even denies that we are naturally omnivores. Well, here’s a short test: If Piraro were starving and a good pork chop was there for the taking, he’d wolf it down, if you will pardon the pun. That is because, while people can certainly refuse to eat meat due to moral concerns—and we are the only species to be so capable—animal flesh is a natural part of our diet. (We even have artistic proof in the old cave drawings in France of humans hunting animals.) But put the same pork chop in front of the hungriest cow and she won’t touch it because, unlike us, she is a true herbivore.
I respect people who are vegetarian out of moral concerns. That is an exercise in human exceptionalism. But trying to make animals into people, and people into herbivores, is just a denial of reality.
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