Can you protect animals if you eat them?

This is a huge question within the animal protection community. It's so tempting to say, "No way!" but then we risk losing a whole lot of voters who support things like puppy mill legislation, factory farming regulations (to make life better for the animals being raised for food), and those whose main concern is wildlife. For example, we currently have hunters in our membership, people who want to see that puppy mills and wildlife management using lethal means are stopped. We also have people who do dog rescue and run animal shelters, but they pack a ham sandwich for lunch, and feel no guilt about it. Nobody in the LOHV -- in PA or any other state -- wants to lose those voters, even if we can't all agree on the menu.

That said, we certainly encourage vegetarian and vegan eating habits. That's right, I called them "eating habits." I refuse to call these things "lifestyles," because to me, a lifestyle is taking vacations every year or spending money on pedicures or having a maid. Someone who spends the winter where it's warm and has pristine pink toenails peeking through the sand and knows her house will be clean when she gets home has a lifestyle. Me? I'm just a vegan, someone who chooses not to eat any animal products. I was a vegetarian for more than 20 years, and recently did away with all milk and eggs, too. I had pretty much phased them out in recent years, but in the last few months, I've been being as much of a purist as I can be.

I say "as much as I can be" because sometimes you don't know for sure what's in something you get in a restaurant or that's served at someone's home, and you can only grill (so to speak) the waitress or your host so much. Unlike some of my colleagues, I won't send back a plate of pasta if someone sprinked about 50 grains of parmesan cheese on top. Even when I asked that it be omitted when I placed the order. Why? Because I just don't have it in me to make someone who's working for tips cart my plate back to the kitchen. The cow's not coming back to life, and I can make my point when I place my order, letting the staff know that more animal-free choices would be appreciated. I can write to the owner, and I can let the manager know before I leave. There are plenty of ways to nudge more restaurants toward a more inclusive menu without being a pain in the @ss.

Of course, I could also only eat in vegan restaurants, but given that this is Lancaster, the pickens are slim.

Now, make no mistake -- the League of Humane Voters is largely staffed by vegans, but we're purposedly inclusive because animal protection legislation is something every human should support -- whether you care about animals or not. Every single serial killer has a background of animal abuse. Kids who beat their dogs or hang kittens by their tails grow up to beat their wives and abuse their kids -- this is proven by study after study. Someone who can aim for an animal and run it down with their car as it scurries across the street will sooner or later take that sick anger out on another human. The more intervention that occurs when people are charged with and convicted of animal cruelty, the better. By intervention we mean not just incarceration and fines, but psychological help. People who purposely abuse animals are sick. That's that, and only good laws will assure us that animal abusers are dealt with properly and that they don't take the next step -- harming fellow humans.

So it benefits us all to have everyone at the table, regardless of what's served on the plate in front of him or her. The more members we have, the more of an impact we can have and the better animal protection laws will be. We welcome animal advocates of all stripes, from people who only care about their pets to committed activists who worry about all animals unfortunate enough to be caught up in providing food, clothing, labor, or entertainment for people. There are thousands of people who fall in between these two ends of the advocacy spectrum, and we enjoy having them all as voters who make their choices on election day based on a candidate's record on animal protection. It's that simple.

We hope you'll join us, and help give voice to the voiceless -- the animals who can't tell us they're scared and suffering, but who suffer just the same. We can ALL work together to make a difference, and I look forward to welcoming you to our next LOHV meeting (stay tuned to this blog for the date, when we've got one set up) and to adding you to our membership so you can be kept informed about legislation and elections that will have an impact on animals and the environment.

Welcome!

For more information about us, please visit http://www.lohvpa.org/.