Responding to a Pig Roast #5
Dear editor,
Re "Animal rights group cries foul ..." (Aug 7):
I have no authority to tell Bloomsburg Baptist Church parishioners what to eat. But I
ask that they consider a simple question:
If you and your family, having lovingly raised a piglet from birth to childhood on your
small farm, led him trustingly away one day to the local butcher, what would you say
to him (if only in your heart) as you sent him to his death? Would you feel like a parent
that has betrayed a child? Would you leave him to his fate, feeling at peace with God
and creation? And would God and creation still be at peace with you?
If this thought of taking Babe to market disturbs you, could it be a sign that the
compassionate nature of civilised human beings is best suited to loving animals, not
eating them?
Syd Baumel
Part of article being responded to is below.
Animal rights group cries foul over church's planned pig roast
By Susan Gamble
Thursday, August 07, 2003 - 01:00
. . . . [Bruce] Friedrich's letter attacks the practice of factory-farming, where pigs "are
never allowed to feel the grass beneath their feet and the sun upon their face. . ."
But [Rev.] Burr says the organization has the wrong pig. The one that will be served at
Sunday's event is a family farm-raised animal that comes from a local butcher.
"Perhaps they are trying to appeal to us morally, but they don't know my background,"
said Burr. "I was raised on a farm and we raised pigs." Burr said that he, too, can't
support factory-farming animals, but that has little to do with the pig roast that will
take place. . . .
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
