Nicholas Kristof wrote a thoughtful op-ed the other day about animal rights and an upcoming animal-rights related referendum on the presidential ballot in CA. He says:
In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with uncomprehending revulsion. But in the meantime, I love a good burger.
This comes up because the most important election this November that you’ve never heard of is a referendum on animal rights in California, the vanguard state for social movements. Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages (full text).
I found the article interesting because although Kristof recognizes the intelligence, autonomy, and right to humane treatment of non-human animals, he simply can’t bring himself to stop eating them. This made me skeptical of Kristof’s praise for Proposition 2, and after some research I realized that (surprise) it’s really just a proposal to make the cages bigger.
How could this possibly be a “victory” for animal rights? Sigh…
