PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN

One indicator of the trend toward taking animals seriously (I said toward - we're nowhere near it yet) is an increase in discussion of the fact that there's a terrible, gruesome reality behind America's animal-based diet, one that most of us are too cowardly to confront. This, for example, from an AP story on possible reforms: "As millions of Americans sit down for dinner each night, no one wants to think about the waste-filled sheds, crammed cages and electric stun baths that were part of the chicken's life before it became a delicious drumstick, nugget or wing." Funny thing is, the more these get mentioned, the harder it is to dismiss them as some extreme phenomenon animal activists happen to have caught on tape. Especially when regular non-AR workers quit in disgust over the constant animal abuse they're expected to participate in. Times are a-changin' - slowly.