Dear Colleagues:

Earlier today, Anna and I went to Whole Foods. We detest shopping there but we have no choice; our local health food stores have largely disappeared in the wake of chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. On Sundays, there is an outdoor market in the Whole Foods parking lot. Local vendors sell fruits, vegetables, baked goods—and animal flesh and products. One vendor had decorated her “organic meat” stall with pictures of her “free-range” chickens, pigs, and cows. We stopped to look at the pictures. I pointed out to her that there were no pictures of the slaughtering process.

“Oh, well we slaughter our chickens on the premises and our cows and pigs go to a slaughter facility that is only six miles away. They don’t stay overnight and we try to make it as stress free as possible.”

Another shopper had appeared and said, “I feel so much better about buying my meat from farms like this.”

The vendor remarked, “Oh, yes, these animals are our dear friends.”

I responded, politely but seriously: “That’s an odd thing to say; I hope that you don’t treat your other ‘dear friends’ this way.”

The vendor laughed. She thought I was joking.

“These animals are our dear friends.” Think about that. Think about what terrible confusion such a statement reveals.

This is where the happy meat/animal products movement is leading us.

This is where the PETA–KFC controlled-atmosphere killing campaign is taking us.

This is where efforts like Proposition 2 are taking us.

We are moving backward.

Go vegan. It’s the baseline of the abolitionist movement and is nonviolence in action.

Gary L. Francione

© 2008 Gary L. Francione