Shrimp

Today I had lunch with my boyfriend and my friend Jane. We went to Chili's and, as I'm stretched for cash Brian and I split something. He really wanted the fajita trio- which has steak, chicken and shrimp in it. When our food came and we began making our fajitas, Jane (who knows that I am vegetarian by the way) noticed that I was putting only the grilled peppers and onions in my tortilla with the salsa and lettuce and cheese and she said

"You  don't eat shrimp?"
"No"
"So you feel bad for the shrimp?"

Now Jane is a sweet person who has cats the she loves and other vegetarian friends who I would assume also don't eat fish, but I guess maybe they do. Well here was my reply

"Yes, I do. I mean especially all those poor gulf shrimp being smothered with oil right now and the shrimp from other areas being killed beyond regular means to freeze and ship to our area."

Personally I don't think the other shrimp should be killed either, but I'm not stupid, I know there's a demand for them and they're going to be killed, but I'm doing my own part to protest it by not buying it/eating it. (And I realize that there's hypocrisy in this since we ordered the fajita trio in the first place, but I didn't pay for it and in life and love there are times when compromises are made- at least I made a difference by telling Jane something new).

Anyway, the point of the story is that we SHOULD care about shrimp. We should care about sea creatures just as we do land animals. We shouldn't value one form of animal life over another. Funny enough when I came home this afternoon, I began reading a new book on vegetarianism, Diet for a New America by John Robbins. In the first chapter, Robbins details different stories of the selfless love of different types of animals, from land and sea helping humans in danger. It didn't matter if they were the pets who intimately knew the human or animals who knew none intimately, they came to the rescue of humans.

When I think about it, I really don't know why they would. We treat most of them with so little respect. We throw them off their land, destroy their homes, kill them, eat them, enslave their children for a destiny of another dinner plate, and yet sometimes, they help us when we're in need. Don't you think we should return the favor?

Here's a story of a brave pet pig from Diet for a New America:

"[A] mother and son had gone swimming in a Houston lake. The boy inadvertently strayed too far from shore, panicked, and began to sink. The boy's pet pig, Priscilla, evidently felt his distress because she rushed into the water and began to swim towards him. While Anthony's anguished mother watched helplessly, the boy managed to stay afloat until the pig reached him. Then he caught hold of her leash. Anthony's mother watched awe-struck as Priscilla the pig proceeded to tow her son safely to shore."

There are so many more in the book- dogs and dolphins, sea turtles and canaries who risked (or gave in one case) their lives to save humans. And I feel that it is so sweet and selfless and kind that they would do that for such violent creatures as us.

And although, yes, shrimp are small and can't tow me to safety or float me to safety, they are living, breathing, pain-feeling animals. And although they aren't in a feedlot contained to a ridiculously small space all of their lives, they are being suffocated to death in masses on a regular basis purely for our palate's pleasure. So yes, I care about shrimp and feel bad for them because of our treatment of them.