Protesting meat eating
[Letter written to the Shambhala Sun]
Dear editor,
I was disturbed to find that your March, 2003 food column ["The The Case of the Mysterious Sandwich"] celebrated the author's craving
for an exotic sandwich featuring "charcuterie," a trendy French word that means the sliced up flesh of
beings who lived short, joyless lives on factory farms and died in terror in a
slaughterhouse to satisfy the cravings of people who should know better.
In The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Patrul Rinpoche says, "The beings with
unfortunate karma that we are supposed to be protecting are instead being killed
without the slightest compassion, and their boiled flesh and blood are being
presented to us, and we gobble it up gleefully, smacking our lips. What could
be worse than that?"
I hope that in the future your otherwise outstanding magazine will treat us
to less lip-smacking and more compassion for the ten-billion beings who suffer
and die every year to satisfy our addiction to their flesh.
Norm Phelps
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians
