Animal Rights & Compassion
12 essays
Columns extending the logic of nonviolence to our treatment of animals. McCarthy argues that compassion cannot be selective — that a society which tolerates cruelty to animals will tolerate cruelty to people. These pieces cover factory farming, vegetarianism as a moral position, the ethics of zoos and pandas in captivity, dog-walking as a form of community, and the disconnect between Americans who love their pets while consuming the products of industrial animal suffering.
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Animals and War -- The Military’s Hidden Violence
When McCarthy asks students to list the ways humans prey on animals, no one ever mentions the military — but the connection runs deeper than anyone expects.864 words · 3 min read
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Canada’s Annual Seal Slaughter
Cruelty season on the ice floes east of Newfoundland: 350,000 seals clubbed or shot, their pelts shipped to fashion houses.613 words · 2 min read
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Forget the Warm Tinglies for Washington’s Pandas
Not everyone is euphoric about the pandas at the National Zoo — born as captives, they’ll die as captives, and no amount of bamboo makes a cage less a cage.892 words · 3 min read
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Humane Society
McCarthy's first day on the Washington Post editorial board, he was told he'd be writing about big and great things — sure enough, it was whales.1,102 words · 4 min read
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Hunting and the Language of Killing
An eight-year-old girl kills a black bear on the first day of hunting season, and the media hails her marksmanship — McCarthy examines the language that makes this heroic.599 words · 2 min read
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Mad Cow and the Real Risks of Meat
Anxious days for meat heads: with each bite of beef comes the question of mad cow disease — but the deeper health risks of flesh foods go far beyond BSE.675 words · 2 min read
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Meat, Morality, and the Silence of the Clergy
Only two categories of food exist: cruelty-based or cruelty-free — and the clergy, who preach compassion from every pulpit, have nothing to say about the slaughterhouse.746 words · 2 min read
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Preface to At Rest With the Animals
The origin story of McCarthy's animal writing: an editorial page editor who said whales were big and great, and a conscience that kept expanding from there.1,102 words · 4 min read
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Steve Irwin and the Myth of Animal Conservation
Steve Irwin's fans mourn their hero, but the myth that wrestling crocodiles into submission qualifies as conservation deserves a harder look.551 words · 2 min read
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When Monks Cage Chickens
It's not pleasant seeing valued friends squabble, but when Trappist monks cage 38,000 chickens on their egg farm, PETA has a point.692 words · 2 min read
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Whole Foods
In a season of corporate fraud convictions, John Mackey of Whole Foods stands out — a college dropout who built an ethical business on the radical idea that food shouldn't require cruelty.800 words · 3 min read
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Whole Foods and the Ethics of Animal Compassion
John Mackey's Whole Foods as proof that corporate ethics and animal compassion are not mutually exclusive — even in an era of boardroom-to-courtroom pipelines.800 words · 3 min read