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New England Farmers: The Cycle of Violence, Creating Hardened Killers out of Animal Lovers, and the Buried Hope for A Day No Pigs Would Die

Have you guys ever read Charlotte’s Web or better yet, The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White. Or what about Stuart Little.

Some of the best children’s books of all time.

Let’s face it, the guy was clearly an animal lover.

Interestingly, I found a letter by E.B White about Charlotte’s Web on one of my favorite blogs, Letters of Note.

In it, he writes about how he had always loved animals, but it seems he felt ashamed of that and saw it as a weakness in himself, and I guess it never occurred to him to take a stand and become a vegetarian instead of killing the pigs he raised, even though it clearly deeply bothered him.

Instead he wrote books about what could have been.

E.B White and wife

Interesting.

It seems that was the attitude back in the day for farmers. It guess it was taboo to show any sign of “weakness” and affection for animals. Then again, they couldn’t. The job was to raise and then kill. That was their profession and their father’s and father’s fathers.

Sadly, they had to be killers.

It reminds me of another children’s book I skimmed (until the end) that at first I was horrified by, but now appreciate: A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck.

It is also about a farmer…and a farmer’s son in this case (daughter in Charlotte’s Web) who grows attached to a pig he manages to save, a runt of the litter just like in Charlotte’s Web.

But unlike in Charlotte’s Web where Wilbur is safe in the end, in A Day No Pigs Would Die the father kills the pig anyway in the end in order to show his son that life is cruel and he needs to grow up and face the bitterness of life.

It seems this was almost like a twisted right of passage in the day–forcing the kids to see a slaughter. It’s like the farmers were almost bitter that they had once had their childlike love of animals crushed by their fathers, being forced to become killers, and so they perpetuated the cycle of violence on their own kids.

Every kid had to be initiated. They had to know that their job was to murder. The kids had to learn that you couldn’t love animals.

These kids who grew up among animals had to “come of age” and kill their own innocence, their spirit, their tender childlike kindness and goodness, their natural love and understanding of animals… to follow in the family tradition.

Pig farmers.

another animal lover: Robert Newton Peck

It seems many farmers were deeply hurt as children in this way and were true animal lovers at heart.

Deep down, even as adults, they still carried the glimmer of  hope for a Day No Pigs Would Die deep inside them.

Their parents told them the world was a cold and bitter place and that’s the way life is.

But sometimes the people in charge are wrong.

Here is E.B White’s great letter:

I have been asked to tell how I came to write “Charlotte’s Web.” Well, I like animals, and it would be odd if I failed to write about them. Animals are a weakness with me, and when I got a place in the country I was quite sure animals would appear, and they did.

 

A farm is a peculiar problem for a man who likes animals, because the fate of most livestock is that they are murdered by their benefactors. The creatures may live serenely but they end violently, and the odor of doom hangs about them always. I have kept several pigs, starting them in spring as weanlings and carrying trays to them all through summer and fall. The relationship bothered me. Day by day I became better acquainted with my pig, and he with me, and the fact that the whole adventure pointed toward an eventual piece of double-dealing on my part lent an eerie quality to the thing. I do not like to betray a person or a creature, and I tend to agree with E.M. Forster that in these times the duty of a man, above all else, is to be reliable. It used to be clear to me, slopping a pig, that as far as the pig was concerned I could not be counted on, and this, as I say, troubled me. Anyway, the theme of “Charlotte’s Web” is that a pig shall be saved, and I have an idea that somewhere deep inside me there was a wish to that effect.

 

As for Charlotte herself, I had never paid much attention to spiders until a few years ago. Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else—the word is really loaded with them. I do not find them repulsive or revolting, any more than I find anything in nature repulsive or revolting, and I think it is too bad that children are often corrupted by their elders in this hate campaign. Spiders are skilful, amusing and useful. and only in rare instances has anybody ever come to grief because of a spider.

 

One cold October evening I was lucky enough to see Aranea Cavatica spin her egg sac and deposit her eggs. (I did not know her name at the time, but I admired her, and later Mr. Willis J. Gertsch of the American Museum of Natural History told me her name.) When I saw that she was fixing to become a mother, I got a stepladder and an extension light and had an excellent view of the whole business. A few days later, when it was time to return to New York, not wishing to part with my spider, I took a razor blade, cut the sac adrift from the underside of the shed roof, put spider and sac in a candy box, and carried them to town. I tossed the box on my dresser. Some weeks later I was surprised and pleased to find that Charlotte’s daughters were emerging from the air holes in the cover of the box. They strung tiny lines from my comb to my brush, from my brush to my mirror, and from my mirror to my nail scissors. They were very busy and almost invisible, they were so small. We all lived together happily for a couple of weeks, and then somebody whose duty it was to dust my dresser balked, and I broke up the show.

 

At the present time, three of Charlotte’s granddaughters are trapping at the foot of the stairs in my barn cellar, where the morning light, coming through the east window, illuminates their embroidery and makes it seem even more wonderful than it is.

 

I haven’t told why I wrote the book, but I haven’t told you why I sneeze, either. A book is a sneeze.

From Letters of Note

 

A Letter to Modcloth from a Vegan in a Huff

modcloth founders (they look like they could be vegans)

Hi guys,

I have added some new shoes to my “cool vegan shoes” pinterest page. (which btw you can also see from a page on this site. How cool)

Thanks to two of my  awesome pinterest followers who alerted me that two shoes I put up from modcloth had leather linings. I immediately deleted them, and it was a good wake up call, as I was not being vigilant that night. I promise to be vigilant in the future.

It went down like this: Modcloth now has tags on their site. I was looking at a non leather shoe on their site and I saw the “faux leather” tag. I clicked on the tag, and a list of what I thought was “faux leather” shoes came up.

Wrong. These shoes are not “faux leather” but merely contain faux leather….many of them have leather too.

Modcloth has always disappointed me by being so unaware of vegans and vegan shoes. I assumed they had gotten with the times, and created this tag for vegans so they could search for vegan shoes…but no…they were just pointing out, seemingly, that these shoes were made of lesser quality materials so shoppers could avoid it. Asos does something similar where “real leather” shoes have a special tag proclaiming them REAL LEATHER, like this is a good thing…anyway.

I decided to do a little activism and write to modcloth giving them a piece of my mind. This was the exchange.

modcloth CEO

Dear modcloth,

As a vegan I am upset with the way certain shoes are labeled “faux leather” or “vegan friendly” yet have leather linings. For example, your (http://www.modcloth.com/shop/shoes-heels/fashionable-focus-heel-in-mist shoe) fashionable focus shoe has a “faux leather” tag yet contains a leather lining.

This is very misleading for vegans who don’t think of leather or the skins of murdered animals to be a desirable thing to wear on their feet. I really wish you had a vegan shoe tab on your site instead of simply calling things the vague “vegan friendly” which somehow rubs me the wrong way, as well as took care to make sure shoes are really faux leather that you label as such.

Modcloth is a great company, but they are really lacking in compassion and knowledge about their vegan fanbase, and are really turning them off by mislabeling and misleading them. I wanted to let you guys know! Love you though, -Tor

I received the following response. I don’t mean to hurt this customer service rep’s feelings, but I don’t think this is an ideal customer service response. She seemed to try to point out where I was wrong (though in a cheery way), rather than understand and acknowledge the truth to what I am saying. Though what she says is correct and I am at fault for not having doublechecked, vegans are still being misled by modcloth by their “faux leather” tag.

The fact remains, modcloth does not and has never really understand the needs of their vegan customers, which I am sure are many.

the founders. they are dog lovers for sure

Her response:

Thanks for taking the time to write in to us! I’m terribly sorry that you felt mislead by the Fashionable Focus Heel! We try to be as transparent to our customers as possible when it comes to the composition of all of our products. I’ve checked on this specific piece to ensure that it was not mis-marked but I do see that we noted that the product was made of “faux leather, soft leather lining” in the story and then again in the details noted that the product had a “man-made upper and sole [with a] leather lining”.

I greatly apologize that this description didn’t sit quite well- but please know that we do have a plethora of vegan/synthetic products on the site! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns! Thank you again for your feedback Tor, I’ll be sure to make your voice heard!

I somewhat obnoxiously sent a follow up response because I did not feel she had understood my issue:

Thanks for your response. I know that you wrote that in the description, yet you have a tag for faux leather, and if someone were to click on that tag all the allegedly faux leather items would appear. This is what I did assuming it was a tag for vegans who were interested in faux leather shoes. Unfortunately the items that appear when you click on the tag are not “faux leather”, but only contain faux leather. Do you see why this is misleading for vegans? I’d love modcloth to become more vegan friendly and this is very misleading for vegans.

Yes, I know that was an annoying thing to say to try to hammer my point home, but I feel sad that modcloth has such a huge opportunity to support vegan shoes since they carry so many faux leather shoes. Yet they don’t have a separate tab on their site for vegan shoes, or even a “vegan” tag. The one tag they do have that could be helpful to vegans is instead extremely misleading and could cause vegans to buy shoes with leather linings or worse.

I know many young people are vegan these days and they seem like just the alternative-enough crowd who would shop at and enjoy modcloth. But modcloth remains blissfully unaware of them.

Modcloth does usually write in their long winded product descriptions that a shoe is “vegan friendly” if it is made with non leathers, but that term has never sat well with me. I’m not totally sure why. First, what does that even mean? Are they saying it is a vegan shoe? Or merely somehow friendly to vegans… it just doesn’t make sense. Again, they aren’t taking the needs of vegan customers seriously. Yet modcloth is one of the best places to find vegan shoes since they sell so many cheap and interesting styles of shoes.

I much prefer the term “suitable for vegetarians” over the undefinable “vegan friendly”

This is one of the reasons why it is so much nicer to support vegan shoe companies, like Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather, Cri de Coeur, and Beyond Skin (check out their kickstarter…only 6 days to go.) .

Is it just me of does “vegan friendly” rub you the wrong way? Do you think I was overly obnoxious to mod cloth? Or do you believe the customer is always right, (ha)?