Did I post something like this before? If I did, please excuse the drama of repitition. But as I become increasingly fascinated by my daughter’s illustrated books, I’m struck by how nearly every book revolves around animals placed in some sort of character. There’s the old standbys like Mickey and Donald, but then there’s Maisy, and there are eight million others out there. It’s strange that we can read our kids books that highlight the beauty of a cow, with its nice black spots, it’s cute tail and fine featured face – and then serve it all up on a plate for din-din that night. What happened? Where did the disconnect occur between what we should our children and what we feed them?
Of course I’m speaking as a vegetarian. But, historically, I’m really trying to parse out how we ingratiate ourselves to our children with animal-this and animal-that (e.g. books, pajamas, wall paper, toys, stuffed animals, posters, movies, video games) and then allow mass slaughters to happen to those same animals (e.g. the cute pigs, cows, roosters, hens, chicks, mice). How did we get this far?