Everyone now knows that smoking will kill you. Most people also understand that a lifetime spent eating meat isn't much healthier. Few Americans, however, seem to realize that every year meat-related diseases kill twice as many people as tobacco. And perhaps that's why I've never seen a public service announcement encouraging people to quit meat, or a congressman suggest a meat tax, or a state bring a public health lawsuit against Big Beef. Then again, this apathy towards eat might be explained by a very simple misunderstanding. Perhaps Americans believe that unlike tobacco, meat is not addictive. If so, I'm here to tell you otherwise. My name is Tyler Cole, and I'm a recovering meat addict.

I should first admit, though, that calling meat addictive is ridiculous. Obviously I have no medical proof. My doctor laughed at the idea, and the afternoon I spent on the internet also revealed nothing on the subject.
I've never had much luck arguing that eating animals is immoral. People either feel compassion for cows, pigs, and chickens or they don't. So instead of adding further noise to the already confusing din of animal rights tub beating, I'd rather argue that the morality of eating meat has little to do with animals at all. The moral issue is not a question of treating animals more like people. Rather, it's the absolute necessity that we begin treating people less like animals.

One thing that's certain about the nine billion farm animals raised in the United States each year is that very few go hungry. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for over one sixth of the world's population. While US livestock grow bellies that touch the ground, a billion people worldwide suffer malnutrition. While foie gras farmers use funnels to force feed ducks, sixty million people will die from starvation and related diseases this year alone.


All content and graphics on meatjunkie.com were written and produced by Tyler Cole unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to reuse all material as you see fit for animal rights purposes.

One of the pleasures of running a website is tracking search engine queries. Web surfers have reached meatjunkie.com from the following search engine queries. On Monday, June 17, 2002, meatjunkie.com was named "Cruel Site of the Day" by cruel.com. As a result the site received an unxpected number of both hits and hate mail.

If you are looking for a webhosting service, I suggest Dreamhost.

If you have ideas for a website supporting a progressive cause or would like me to link to your own vegan or animal rights website, please email me at: tyler@meatjunkie.com or visit my portfolio site atWhiskey and Aspirin   More detail...