Comments on: Food For Thought

Andy Ponders Eating Spinach, Horsemeat And Vegetarianism

[rooneyrocks1]

Kudos to Andy for recognizing our double standards with regards to how we treat different animals. It takes a lot of courage to do that. I ate baby cows, lambs, ducks, rabbits, pigs, chickens, etc. for 25 years while advocating for dogs, cats, and horses before I realized my inconsistency. Going vegetarian and then vegan was the best thing I've ever done. Now I can honestly look any animal in the eye and say, "I would never hurt you."

[Syndicate]

I never understood the vegan mentality. What is the differance between a cow and a carrot? Both are life forms that are grow to be consumed. Is it that the vegan can relate to the cow because it is an animal? Does a carrot feel pain? How does a carrot feel about being a salad. I think vegans are hypocrits. They never stoped to consider the feelings of the plants they are eating. Vegans should not eat other life forms or they are hypocrits. As much as I like pigs and feel for the suffering they go through I am not willing to starve for them. Cows on the other hand are very stupid and deserve to be eaten. I guess thats what they were bred for.

[mylucie]

Dear Andy--

It's wonderful to hear someone of your stature and influence start to "get" the idea that animals shouldn't be treated like commodities by humans. Animals obviously have feelings and know fear, and factory farms are monstrous places. Humans can enjoy wonderful non-meat food (yes, including spinach!) and not cause suffering. Thanks for being so enlightened, and for saying so!

[vabeachhuskr]

Animals have no souls. Animals are also very tasty. Yum Yum.

You go eat your veggies, I'll go eat my steak.

[monica81003]

Thank you for having the courage to acknowledge that it is only a matter of time before those of us who claim to be civilized stop the barbaric practice of eating animals. I hope that you will do more segments exploring our food and how it ends up on our plates. The horrific living conditions and abuses on factory farms and the brutality of slaughter that is the norm in slaughterhouses would be front page news if people had enough integrity to stop supporting animal abuse and if the media had the nerve to unflinchingly take on the multi-billion dollar agribusiness industry.

[monica81003]

Thank you for having the courage to acknowledge that it is only a matter of time before those of us who claim to be civilized stop the barbaric practice of eating animals. I hope that you will do more segments exploring our food and how it ends up on our plates. The horrific living conditions and abuses on factory farms and the brutality of slaughter that is the norm in slaughterhouses would be front page news if people had enough integrity to stop supporting animal abuse and if the media had the nerve to unflinchingly take on the multi-billion dollar agribusiness industry.

[lovinlife4]

Dear Mr. Rooney,
Loved your Food for Thought piece! As you pointed out, we humans are not perfect (and oftentimes downright inconsistent)when it comes to making ethical choices; however, we shouldn't let perfection be the enemy of good. I think it's wonderful that you cannot justify eating horses-you are right-they are amazingly sentient creatures. Perhaps your journey will lead you to that same conclusion about cows and other "acceptable" food animals. If it does, you might just be around in 50 years to see the evolution to vegetarianism that you spoke of since going veggie is a healthier lifestyle choice!

[jbull11]

Wow, the veggie population loved this rant.
Personally, I thought it was incredibly bland, uninsightful, and just plain hard to follow. It may have even cost me a few brain cells.

The 60 minutes procuders should be ashamed that they put this kind of garbage on network TV. Granted, I don't watch 60 minutes or Andy Rooney all that often, but this was so rediculous that I was disgusted that this rant even made its way to the airwaves.

Does someone even read over his rant before he tapes this garbage, or is this just his typical, selling to the lowest common denominator, style?

http://jamesonbull.blogspot.com/2006/10/andy-rooney-made-me-dumber.html#links

Thank you Andy, for stealing 2 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.

[karendawn1]

Thanks to Andy Rooney for his thoughtful commentary! But he spoke of animals grazing in the field! Most animals raised for food in this country live hideous lives confined in tiny crates of cages. Far better to choose a nice protein packed, cholesterol free veggie burger than support that kind of cruelty.

[beacheshuman]

Well, Andy opened a can of worms there. Or was it a bag of spinach? Ya know, I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to graze with the cows. Didja ever notice, animals at the top of the food chain are carnivores? Lions and tigers, and bears OH MY! Although bears are technically omnivores, just like us. Just because we have more efficient ways of harvesting our prey in no way makes it wrong. On the contrary, it frees up our time for inventing stuff like microwaves, television, and the internet, so the vegans and vegetarians can rant and rave about how wrong we are to be eating meat. Unlike the extremist culinary-fascists who look with disdain while I carve up a slab of prime rib, I view their artfully prepared greenery spread and think, Hmmmm, nice salad. So before the meat police have a cow, lets just all agree to disagree, and eat whatever it is that pleases you, but please, don't turn your epicurean preferences into a religious crusade. There are enough of those going around already.

[wmclss]

Please do a special 60 minute segment on horse abuse?

Researching American horse abuse, 70% of our horse companions & wild mustangs, totally 55,000 +,are butchered in slaughterhouses. (www.netposse.com; www.aowha.org). This multimillion dollar industry has devastated people finding their stolen horse companions killed. We were told old, unwanted, dying horses end up horsemeat but soon discovered it was primarily healthy foals & horses!

BLM's gross mismanagment practices are why
horse rustlers steal & sell up to 36,000 horses yearly to these slaughter plants. Now--25,000 are left due to GREED!

Misappropriating our tax dollars helps fuel the most inhumane disregard for intelligent life. Direct violation of Wild Horse Protection Act 1971 is just the tip of the iceberg!

Did you know these horse plants,(old cattle) slaughterhouses, violate Horse Protection Act 2005 & Humane Slaughter Act 1958 using the illegal captive bolt gun? Medical studies conclusively found stunning was "completely ineffective on horses & left them in excrutiating pain, kicking & screaming for their lives while strung up & killed alive."--former DVM, chief of the USDA Inspection Team (http://fund4horses.org).

We cannot be proud when every 4 minutes our American Icons & Companions are tortured & killed! Why won't the President take action? How can 1 USDA chairman stonewall the President, Congress, & Justice Dept.? When will this abuse stop for our horses--who made America?

[mweinberg7]

For me, vegan philosophy comes down to this: "Killing animals for pleasure is wrong."

With so many wonderful, healthy, plant-based foods in today's world, the only reason for eating animal products is human pleasure.

And that's just wrong.

[forfreedom1]

1 person dies from E-coli and 100 some-odd supposedly fall sick...and AmeriKa [mis-spelling intentional] "has a cow". Get over it! I saw on the news one farmer's crop of 70,000 perfectly good plants turned-over...just one farmer. Would you figure that served 70,000 people a vegatable?
How many of those 100 sick are directly attributable to spinach? We have FEAR replacing common sense!! One news guy said the Feds will fix things...oh right!! Result: $7 Irradiated spinach with added FD&C Blue and green to make the brown irradiated color green again. Look... E-coli exists on everything but is very easily killed by the UV rays in normal sunlight...which should now be even better due to Al Gore's global warming invention.

[rooneyfan123]

Thank you for your pointing out how sad it is that some animals are simply raised to be killed and eaten. I became vegetarian, and then vegan, 5 years ago when I made that connection. I always loved animals and nowadays I show that with the food choices I make. As you said, I hope that people will continue to become more compassionate towards all living things. What a better world this would be!

[nancyinca]

Dear Mr. Rooney:

Thank you for bringing up the topic of not eating horses in your piece tonight. This is something that badly needs immediate addressing and action from the media--can you help us?

Currently over 90,000 American horses are still being slaughtered for human consumption in 3 US slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois. A bill to prohibit further slaughter of horses is now stalled in Senate committee, having been passed by the House (and there is lots more to this aspect of the story). Powerful forces are working to keep it stalled and from coming to the Senate floor for a vote, where it is likely to pass--but first it has to get on the floor.

This issue needs all the help from the media that it can get. Americans would be horrified to know what happened to the horse that their kids rode for years and that became part of the family until the kids grew up......and the Europeans need to know what poisonous chemicals they are ingesting, given the medications routinely given to horses that were never intended to end up on anyone%u2019s table.

Your piece tonight was a great beginning--how about a follow up next week that addresses the horse slaughter issue directly...or how about 60 Minutes doing a full segment on it?

[leonardo4561]

Dear Andy Rooney,
Leonardo da Vinci (speaking for the non-human citizens of our planet in particular and ethics in general) thanks you: ""The time will come when men such as I look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

- Perry Walker

[Bernard S]

Vegetables are grown alive, killed, and eaten. Vegetable are also killed and processed into beef, poultry, etc that is again killed and eaten. What is life to do in order to continue existence here on earth.

[epskionline-2009]

It's plain to see that you, Mr. Rooney, are aware of the cruelty inherent in the modern diet. What's surprising to me how many people are aware of this, find it abhorrent, and still have not gone vegetarian, much like yourself. What is the catalyst? What's the tipping point that will send everyone like yourself over the edge toward a vegetarian lifestyle?

To find and *deepen* one's humanity in acknowledging our cruelty to the animals we oppress every day (and to suggest doing something about it) is quite the opposite of losing one's humanity, despite the rantings of urdump. By extending our compassion to all beings on the planet, we will grow as a civilization, and might even find peace among ourselves some day. Hey, it's no more unlikely than everyone going vegetarian.

Mr. Rooney was certainly not telling anyone what to eat. It's amazing how defensive people get about their food sometimes. One wonders how much the foundations of urdump's beliefs were rattled by this plainspoken commentary, which simply shares an unshakable truth: civilized people need not slaughter animals to enjoy their lives.

As Rooney suggests, vegetarianism may seem odd to some now, but years hence we *will* wonder at our current mores, just as we look back in horror on slavery, which to many slave owners seemed like a good business practice at the time.

[joellena]

Dear Mr. Rooney,
I have been vegan for two years and I was delighted when I saw your 'Food for thought' commentary. It is so refreshing to finally hear someone bring up the topic of vegetarianism in a positive light. I hope that one day, the world will see that animals are not meant to be tortured for human taste buds when a perfectly healthy other option is out there. Thank you so much!

from
Joellen Anderson

[heatherma-2009]

I am a vegetarian, and most people do think that I'm nuts. However, I do think that there is hope if Andy Rooney can see that it is terrible that people eat animals. Everyone should educate themselves about factory farming. If anyone saw the way that these poor animals live and die it would surely change many minds. Animals feel pain. This reason alone should be enough not to eat them. THANK YOU ANDY ROONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!