Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows

Patti Breitman | 11/18/09

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New book by Melanie Joy, Ph.D.

The vast majority of Americans view eating meat as natural, normal and necessary while recognizing that vegetarianism is an ideology, or belief system. Thanks to Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, Ph.D. (published November, 2009 by Conari Press), the way we eat animals now has a name and is exposed to be every bit as much an ideology as vegetarianism. "Carnism" is the belief system that says it's okay to eat certain animals and not others. Like feminism, racism, ageism and speciesism, carnism has been inflicting harm for centuries. And because it was invisible and unnamed, it was challenging, if not impossible, to confront it and and to argue against it.. Now that carnism has been identified, explored, and brilliantly analyzed, it will become a powerful tool in changing the ubiquitous and dangerous misconceptions about eating meat.

The opening chapter of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows is startling and effective. We are asked to imagine a dinner party at which the guests are enjoying a delicious stew. But when one guest asks for the recipe, the host explains that it starts with a golden retriever.  The disgust and revulsion that follows this announcement is examined in detail later in the book, and Dr. Joy is both succinct and smart in showing us the overlapping circles of identification, empathy and disgust that color our relationships with animals.

The publisher created a terrific promotional video with a reenactment of this scene: 


If you can get your non vegetarian friends to read and discuss just this chapter, or to watch this short video, the book will have had a tremendous impact.

But it's the heart of the book provides the real conversation changers.  Dr. Joy writes about the myth of free will when it comes to our food choices and the pernicious effect of a lifetime of living with carnism. "Violent ideologies require willing participants, and most Americans would not willingly harm animals. Thus, people must be coerced into supporting the system. However coercion is effective only as long as it remains undetected. We must believe we are acting entirely of our own volition when we purchase and consume the bodies of animals; we must believe in the Myth of Free Will."

Interspersed with statistics and studies about animal agriculture Joy calls attention to the living, breathing animals whose lives and deaths too often go unnoticed by people who enjoy eating their ribs, wings, legs, and other body parts.  Like Jonathan Safran Foer's excellent Eating Animals,  Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows  includes accurate descriptions of what happens to animals who are bred, confined and killed for food. And it  makes a strong argument for ending these and other systems that allow carnism to flourish. But what sets this book apart is the concept of carnism itself and how, through the lens of carnism, virtually every argument for eating meat loses its legitimacy.

Carnism is original, brilliant, important, and fascinating, like the book itself..

Full disclosure: When I was working as a literary agent, I helped Melanie Joy find a publisher for this book, so I have a financial interest in its success. I will be sending most of my income from the book's sales to support vegan causes that oppose animal exploitation.

Review by Patti Breitman - Patti Breitman is the director of the Marin Vegetarian Education Group and co-author with Carol J. Adams of How to Eat Like a Vegetarian, Even If You Never Want To Be One




3 Comments | Leave a comment


Kudos, Melanie Joy, for writing such a wonderful book and to Patti Breitman for this great review. At a time when animal-based diets are contributing to an epidemic of diseases that are resulting in skyrocketing medical expenditures and huge budget deficits at all governmental levels and animal-based agriculture is contributing significantly to climate change and many environmental problems that threaten humanity, it is important that this book be widely read and its message widely heeded.

Go Veg! Be Green! Save the Planet!


Having grown up in the country, this book (based upon the review) is from a city viewpoint.

Living in the country - we raised it and ate it - ducks and other fowl and all manner of animals. When we ate it - I mean we ate or used it all - feathers made pillows and blankets and I've eaten brain, tongue ... and other "traditional" foods.

Some children have a desire to not eat the animals that they name and see raised from the egg (not that that helps make them veg!)

To me eating a horse would be no different than pig or dog - they're all high functioning with strong personalities; but they exist because they're raised to be food or breeding stock.

As in many things, I believe that our isolation from nature, where our food comes from and how, enables us to take the viewpoints that we have.

When one lives with the animals that one kills - and one sees how they are raised - and one really really sees the hanging corpse (which will become meals) I believe that many have a strong desire to eat a more healthy omnivore diet.

Thru our isolation from our food, and "stuff", we allow our lust and greed to run crazy - to pollute, kill and promote enslavement and the destruction of not just people but whole cultures and countries.

When we have to live local - when we see the result of our greed destroying our land, air and water - and we can't escape it - only then will our actions be put into check.

I don't believe that this applies to all people - some are able to really detach themselves. But the vast majority would really change their world if the result of their lifestyles were forced to happen all around them - if it was neighbours women and children sold into slavery....

Yes I am now veg - vegan actually.
But the issue is not just with our food.


Honestly, I will admit knowing I will get haters right away, that I have never really cared for dogs, but could repsect people who do. I have always eaten meat growing up and I never understood that if one were to eat meat why they would own a pet?
I also wore leather most of my life and never understood how people would walk their dogs and wear leather. I never subscribed to loviing a pet and so, my disconnect was clear, but for someone to wear it and own it made no sence to me.
I am happy to report that I am a vegan now and no longer want to consume meat. I didn't get here due to compassion originally, but now knowing so much more and in my new found awareness, it is clear to me that I have compassion now that I never thoguht possible after seeing a healthier lifestyle. I am so glad that people like you and I are on the same pages now. I am happier that I am aware and I am happier to spread the word of the cruelty that goes on with animals. It is appauling and I am sorry I was not aware sooner.

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