Marina Keegan's Essay 'Why We Care About Whales'

Marina Keegan's Essay 'Why We Care About Whales'

Even though Singer uses speciesism to explain the lack of empathy towards animals, a counterargument to his theory exists in Marina Keegan's essay "Why We Care About Whales." Keegan points out that a tremendous amount of money goes towards the rescue of beached whales when it could go towards helping humanity and other more dire issues. The question becomes whether or not our inability to stop the mass consumption of meat is actually because speciesism makes it so we don't care about the rights or lives of other animals, or is there another piece to the puzzle? Keegan argues that we care tremendously, "In theory [Keegan] can say that our resources should be concentrated on saving human lives, that our 'Save the Whales' T–Shirts should read ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...This is why Singer contributed so strongly into the animal rights movement, he wanted to educate people so they would hopefully fall into the "avoidance" category. Johnson states that "Animal Liberation is one of those rare books that demand that you either defend the way you live, or change it" because it does educate people on the brutal conditions that animals deal with in order to be meat on the plates of billions of people (898). Although reality is that the odds that everyone who reads Singer's argument will be persuaded to switch to a plant based diet is slim because most are too accustomed to it. Again, It would be like teaching an old dog new tricks. Johnson even goes as far to mention how "thousands, convinced by Singer and the like, become vegetarians for moral reasons. And then most of those thousands start eating meat again" (898). However, this isn't the individual's fault necessarily. How realistic it is to adhere to a plant based diet when the resources can be so limited? "Often the cheapest high–quality protein available to the poor comes from animals," and then we must wonder is we should let people starve for the sake of animals (899). The answer is a bitter yes in

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