Oh, the irony!

I hate to say it, but I was wrong. This is a rare occurance, so enjoy it whilst you can ;)

Do you all remember Oprah's 21 day Vegan Cleanse? I do. I thought it was fantastic. Her turn to veganism was for the wrong reasons, though - it would seem. All the vegan bloggers and radio hosts who got so excited about this groundbreaking occurance can now sit with their soy lattes and just laugh at the irony.

This is an excerpt from her blog; "...What I'm only now realizing, though, is that while I think about food so much and have used and abused it as a substitute for contentment, I've never been a conscious eater....Oh, I've flirted with the idea of conscious eating—which for me, until recently, meant taking smaller portions, putting down the fork after every bite, not eating to fill emotional voids. But that is just one level of consciousness. Kathy Freston, in her book Quantum Wellness, struck a nerve for me by speaking of a higher level of awareness, what she calls "spiritual integrity."....I learned a lot about how animals are treated and mistreated before they get to our tables. It is appalling and beneath our humanity to allow the torture of animals for the sake of our gluttony. We've neglected basic human decency on such a large scale, and it really does bleed over into every other aspect of life...." Read more here: http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200810_omag_from_oprah

I would have thought she would take the Welfareist path after this cleanse and start eating Happy Meat...maybe even go vegetarian....or God forbid, vegan!

But no.

Another interesting article I read this morning was entited "Fox hunting ban 'harms animal welfare"

...here is an excerpt; "HUNTERS say a new report has "vindicated" their arguments against a ban after it concluded the activity is the most effective way of controlling foxes, and that all arguments of cruelty are "invalid".

The publication states hunting with hounds is "demonstrably the natural and most humane method of control", and there was "never any scientific evidence" to support a ban.

The all-party parliamentary Middle Way Group worked with the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management to produce the document, which concluded the hunting ban of 2004 is "unscientific, unenforceable, socially divisive, and harms, rather than improves, animal welfare".

So, killing foxes is the natural and most humane method? Clearly sterilisation or relocation is barbaric in comparison. It is a wild claim to suggest that death is the most 'effective' way of control. What should we do about all the overpopulation of our species in certain countries? Kill the babies and elderly? It is the most effective way, after all...