(Yet Another) Letter to NPR

Sigh. My response to this unnerving article: 


To the Editors of The Salt:

I was shocked and saddened at the graphic nature and lack of balanced reporting in your recent article “How One Former Vegan Learned To Embrace Butchering”. NPR is part of my daily routine because of its excellent and endearing journalism and accuracy in reporting, but I saw none of this in the above mentioned article. You not only romanticizing the killing of animals as a way for man to “connect with his food”, but failed to mention any of the benefits that an animal-free diet provides.

Would NPR have been so cavalier about depicting butchering if Andrew Plotsky had been holding a rifle to the head of his family dog and describing how to slit its throat afterwards? I doubt it. The fact that pigs have been designated as food instead of companion animals is simply bad luck for them. However, I would mention to Mr. Plotsky that taking “years to rationalize” something, as he is still trying to do with butchering, is generally our conscience nudging us in a different direction.

If you are going to write an article about vegans, then I would encourage NPR to actually include something about veganism in its reporting.
 
Ensley Gilchrist. 
www.thepreppyvegan.com