The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has released a book titled Design and Violence, which includes a thought-provoking contribution by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. Her essay, “Serpentine Ramp (Temple Grandin),” explores how slaughterhouse design can either intensify or alleviate animal suffering.
That’s right: A book published by a popular and prestigious art museum includes a discussion about the ways that cows—sentient animals who form friendships and get excited about intellectual challenges—are marched to their deaths in slaughterhouses.
By including animals in a conversation about design and violence, MoMA is acknowledging that we need to reflect on the violence inflicted on animals in our society.
Animal rights issues are in the public eye, and a growing movement aims to reform practices that harm animals. Topics that haven’t been discussed before now routinely crop up in the mainstream media. Take the “monkey selfie” story, for example. Because of PETA’s lawsuit, the matter has been debated by top media outlets and garnered widespread public attention.
And thanks to Design and Violence, PETA will be able to reach a diverse audience, including people who haven’t given much thought to slaughterhouses before now.
In the book, Ingrid states that the only true way to reject slaughterhouse violence is to walk past the meat counter and choose vegan foods. But she also explains why PETA doesn’t condemn the less upsetting slaughterhouse chute designs by Dr. Temple Grandin, one of the nation’s foremost experts on the welfare of farmed animals. The right design, Ingrid points out, can mean that cows don’t panic and turn back, which only prolongs the bloody, terrifying process.
It’s no secret that PETA advocates a vegan lifestyle, but as Ingrid points out, slaughterhouses are part of our current reality. “Ask me, ” she writes, “which I would prefer: my mother frogmarched by guards into a concentration camp gas oven, or having her led gently in without allowing her to realize fully what lies ahead, and the answer is simple. If wishes were horses, my mother and the cow would both be out in a flower-filled meadow―one grazing happily, the other gathering mushrooms for soup.”
I think that’s the choice we would all make.
If you want a copy of this insightful book, which also includes various other essays about design and violence, please order one from PETA. The proceeds will be used to oppose slaughterhouse violence and help end animal abuse and exploitation, and each book will be autographed by Ingrid.
