A book review: Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows

This past few weeks I’ve been involved in a few arguments discussions on social media centred around carnism. Such is the life of a vegan. Veggie friends and acquaintances feel frustrated that most people are, in general, opposed to animal cruelty but, at the same time, continue to eat animals. Whilst the meat-eaters, on the other hand, feel threatened and put forward numerous reasons why they don’t wish to change. In an attempt to understand the psychology going on here I decided to buy and read Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows by Melanie Joy, PhD. And, as I’m planning to pass my copy on to a friend, I decided to write a review of the book for this week’s blog.

There’s no doubt that in the twenty-first century, in the Age of the Internet, there has never been so much information available in the public domain. The statistics are mind-blowing – Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook between them store 12,000 petabytes (+ 20 zeros) of data. Turn on the news and it seems that every evening there’s a report about climate change, carbon emissions, deforestation, big agriculture or extreme weather events. One of the solutions put forward, supported by some of the world’s leading scientists, is reducing or eliminating meat from the human diet. But the message does not seem to be getting through. Why are people responding to campaigns like #plasticfreejuly but are still reluctant to address their meat-centric diet? And that’s just one reason for adopting veganism, let alone the animal cruelty and human health issues.

The author of Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows has a sound scientific background. Melanie Joy is a professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, USA. The foundations of her book are rooted in research undertaken for her PhD. Melanie Joy examines why people, in general, welcome some species of animal as a member of the family, whilst, at the same time, load slices of other animals onto their dinner plates. Carnism, she explains, is the invisible belief system that allows or enables people to eat animals without even thinking about it. To clarify, she uses the terms meat-eater, carnivore and omnivore to refer to the biological process of consumption, whereas carnism refers to the philosophical position of the consumers. It is the opposite of veganism.

Carnism is an ideology ~ a set of shared beliefs and practices. When an ideology represents the mainstream way of life, what (almost) everyone does, then it is known as entrenched. And, Melanie Joy explains, the reason why carnism has become entrenched is that it is invisible. She quite correctly points out that much of today’s meat production is hidden from view. Yes, we might see cows grazing in the fields in summer and lambs gambolling on the hillside signal the arrival of spring, but what about the chickens, the veal calves and the pigs? Denmark is well-known for its bacon. Remember the TV adverts of the 1970s? Perhaps not. Well, we’ve driven all around Denmark in the campervan and how many pigs did we see? Not one!

So, why is carnism the norm? Why do people continue to eat meat despite the growing body of evidence that it is bad? Bad for the animals; bad for the planet; bad for health. Speaking personally, I’m certainly a latecomer to veganism. Like many people who have not been vegan all their lives (of whom there are very few) it is one of my greatest regrets that I did not see the light or make the connections earlier. Because, once the scales drop from your eyes there is no going back and you wonder why it took so long. As Melanie Joy explains:

“Patterns of thought and behaviour, established long before we were able to act as free agents, become woven into the fabric of our psyche, guiding our choices like an invisible hand.”

Whilst eating meat, we justify our actions by what Melanie Joy calls the ‘Three Ns of Justification’: eating meat is normal, eating meat is natural and eating meat is necessary. Now, we know, this is all a massive lie. Carnism is nothing but a cruel ideology.

Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows is an excellent book. The author’s location naturally means that it is somewhat US-centric. The descriptions of agricultural practices and laws are those of the US and they don’t make for pleasant reading. The situation in Europe may be slightly better, but not much; the end result is the same. I’m not sure this is a book for the bedside table, not if you want a good night’s sleep. The writing is directed at carnists, meat-eaters. It’s a challenging read and I wonder how many people make it past the first few pages. It’s hard to believe that anyone who makes it to the end would not immediately change their diet. I highly recommend Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows, even to fellow vegans. There’s far more detail to the psychology of carnism than I’ve touched on here. It may help to understand why it sometimes feels as if you are pushing a rock up a mountain when you’re engaging with carnists on social media. Buy it, read it, give it to your friends – but, maybe, if you’re a vegan of a sensitive nature, pass swiftly over chapter three.