August 24, 2006, - 1:21 pm
Animal Rights Ad Absurdum: On Food, Animals & Lawsuits
By
Two interesting stories in the news have one nexus–the absurdity of animal rights activists (unfortunately, some of them are elected officials in Chicago):
* We’re not normally fans of the litigation explosion. But that doesn’t mean we don’t support lawsuits if the grievance is legitimate. This is one of those cases where it is, indeed.
In April, the Chicago City Council approved a ban on duck and goose liver foie gras–because all problems in Chicago, all crime, all poverty has been solved, and the animal thing was all that was left to address. For the record, I’ve never eaten foie gras (not even sure if one can find kosher foie gras). But, the ban–which went into effect Tuesday–is absurd.
It’s a case of animal rights activists legislating their opinion of what our diet should consist of. First, Chicago, and, next, your neck of the woods. Therefore, we cheer the Illinois Restaurant Association for suing on behalf of diet freedom in America. Let consumers–not busybody animal rights activists–decide for themselves what they eat.
We like the smart way some chefs are getting around the ban. The Chicago City Council chapter of PETA-brains that wrote the law were not smart enough to make it airtight. They simply made it illegal to charge for foie gras. Some chefs are now giving it away for free.
* Again, we’re no fans of animal rights activists. But we can’t help the schadenfreude we’re experiencing over the Humane Society’s attack on Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. As , Ben & Jerry remain large stockholders in Lever, which bought B&J from them–and they are still advisors/consultants to B&J. And they use their profits . We recall that Ben & Jerry were always bragging how PC and humane they are. Yet, when they were at the helm, they polluted rivers with ice cream pollution.
Now, they are under attack from Humane Society for allegedly buying eggs from a company that “mistreats chickens“–Michael Foods. (But not for long. Today, the company fired the egg producer.)
Since we’re not sure which we dislike less, we can’t figure out for whom to root–the animal rights people or Ben & Jerry’s. We pick the chickens. They have more sense.
Tags: advisors, America, B&J, Chicago, Chicago City Council, Cindy Sheehan, Debbie Schlussel Two, egg producer, Humane Society, Illinois Restaurant Association, Jerry's Homemade Inc.
The foie gras fiasco is similar to the New Jersey ban on raw and undercooked eggs. In 1992, the New Jersey Health Department banned restaurants from serving raw and undercooked eggs. No more; soft-boiled eggs, poached eggs, eggs over-easy, eggs sunny-side-up, raw eggs, hollandaise sauce, steak tartare, etc. Eventually sanity took over and the ban was repealed in 1993.
This shows you just how stoopid legislators can be. They feel that they can legislate, not only morality, but diets, as well.
Thee_Bruno on August 24, 2006 at 2:05 pm