Opinions expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.
June 29 was Tel Aviv’s annual “White Night,” an all-night outdoor celebration featuring parties, live music, beers and street performers. I set out with two friends to partake in the festivities. As we traveled down the streets of Tel Aviv, we encountered a protest. On this white night, there was a group of about 50 protesters, donning all black, in support of veganism and putting a stop to animal cruelty. Many of them stood silently and held signs. Fair enough. Many more, however, hounded passers-by, pestering them to join their cause.
As we attempted to navigate our way through the madness, trying to indulge in the treasures of this fantastic city on a beautiful summer night, one of my friends said that these protesters were crazy. One of the protesters heard him and asserted that we were the insane ones for subsidizing animal cruelty in our sadistic and merciless intake of beef and poultry.
During this spectacle, I noticed the protesters running an enormous projection of disturbing images of animal cruelty on nearby buildings: cows lying in blood, chickens too fat to stand on their own feet and many other distressing images. I was perturbed by these projections. Who let such people project these images in a public setting? Although it was about 10 p.m., many children were out and about with their families; because school had just ended for the year, and this was a once-in-a-summer event, many parents let their children tag along for the early parts of the night. I wondered whether subjecting such images to children was moral. If the projected images were pornographic or of genocidal violence, wouldn’t the police, or someone, put a stop to this? There is a time and a place for everything.
Israel is at the forefront of veganism, with a world-leading 5 percent of its citizens leading a vegan lifestyle. So, it did make some sense that this scene occurred in Tel Aviv, a famously progressive city renowned for its openness for the LGBT community.
Don’t get me wrong: Humans do mistreat the animals we eat. We force them to endure grueling and torturous lives in cramped living quarters with unhealthy and unnatural nutrition.
However, these protesters’ platform was far too extreme, and their talking points were all wrong. Instead of urging people to completely shun indulging in the pleasures of meat, they would have been better off encouraging the intake of only organic beef and eggs and and grass-fed and free-range chickens. We shouldn’t refrain from human nature and not eat meat at all but rather cultivate our livestock in a humane manner. Scrap the R-rated videos.
This brings me to the wise words of the preeminent modern day philosopher and rapper, Dave Burd, aka Lil Dicky. In his philosophical masterpiece, “Pillow Talking,” Burd espouses the merits of humans raising animals for nutrition. This genius oration is set in his bed with a woman, where the two make “small talk.” Burd explains to this woman that just as it is the nature of a wolf to devour whatever comes in its way, it is in the nature of humans to grow animals to eat. I might add that all of this can be done in a kind manner, in which the animals do not suffer at all.
This brings me back to the protester who berated me and my friends. He held a leash for a dog about as small as an obese rat. I cherished the irony of his owning an animal that would never survive out in the wild and existed only because humans had bred it in such a ridiculous manner for enjoyment.
Meanwhile, 50 feet away from us lay a homeless man, looking up at the spectacle with his hand outstretched, hopelessly seeking loose change from about 50 disinterested protesters. I’d had just about enough of their intrusion on this night of enjoyment and celebration. It was time for a beer. And a burger.
Joseph Kuttler is a sophomore English major. He can be reached at jkuttler@umd.edu.
