A Note From Patrick: June 2020

“Cruelty cannot stand the spotlight.” That was the tagline for The Ark Trust, an organization which awarded the media for reporting on animal issues. I have been thinking about those words a lot lately. I am buoyed by recent events bringing so much injustice to light — while deeply saddened that these injustices exist. I feel optimistic that a powerful awakening is coming.

MUTTS readers have an abundance of empathy and a deep sense of justice. We are all in this together to make a stronger, more peaceful world for all.

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MUTTS NEWS SPOILER ALERT: If you’d rather be surprised with a new twist in the world of MUTTS, please don’t read the following two paragraphs until after June 16.

Friends, I’ve made two longstanding promises with my MUTTS strip. The first: someday Guard Dog will be freed. (Yes, this will happen before too long.) The second: Butchie and his Fatty Snax Deli would go veggie. With a two-week storyline starting Sunday, Butchie will finally see the light.

As a vegetarian for over 30 years and a vegan since 2012, I’ve always felt a little strange drawing the cheeses and salamis that hang over Butchie’s head. I’m feeling better because they will now be plant-based and cruelty-free.

With the pandemic, and understanding the cruelties of raising and processing “meat,” it’s more important than ever to rethink how we treat the animals — and people — on this planet. Going plant-based is a win-win. It’s good for your own health, the health of the planet, and obviously the billions of suffering, factory farmed animals.

Going veggie gets easier and easier. (Millions have already discovered new, delicious meat substitutes.) I ask everyone to do what you can. Even observing Meatless Mondays can save a billion animals each year in the United States alone. If Butchie can do it, so can you.

***

Last month we posted two comic strips that I drew for the MUTTS blog, which were pandemic-themed and written by my friend, author Glen David Gold. Glen suggested that we auction off one of the strips for charity, and I am happy that we can, and will, make this happen. I’ve watercolored the original artwork for this purpose and Heritage Auctions has agreed to host the auction. We’ll keep you updated as this process unfolds.

Stay safe. Stay well. Stay kind.

— Patrick

— Patrick McDonnell
Tagged: News & Events, People

Comments (208)

SO not true! What god would want you to kill his children? Read Genesis 1:29 for what you really should be eating and for some excellent scripture interpretation-allcreatures.org.

Dawn

Claudia, “humane” is a marketing word to ease consumer guilt. “Humane slaughter”… does that mean they read the animals a bedtime story before stabbing them in the throat? Who is inspecting the facilities to ensure animal welfare standards are met? How about the slaughterhouses being a hotbed for PTSD and COVID-19? Does anyone care about the safety and wellbeing of the people who are getting sick and dying at these places?

When you are ready to seek the truth, there are ample documentaries that expose the atrocities commitment on farms and in slaughterhouses. “Dominion”, “Earthlings”, “Cowspiracy”, and “What the Health” are good starting points.

Stacy

The good news is- there ARE so many meat alternatives that do not contain soy! Please have an open mind and look- the product choices are growing every day . The animals need
us to try – it will benefit your health and the environment, too!

Lisa

No meat-shaming here. I am a meat eater and make no apologies for it. I love all animals anD believe in humane treatment of them. Thanks for posting.

Jude

Where does god say we need to eat meat? Does that mean you’d be fine eating a dog? The only difference is that culturally we keep dogs as pets.

Processed food is processed food. Factory farmed meat is not good for you, the animals being abused or the planet. The amount of crap in things like hot dogs, deli meats, etc is scary. Yes of course there are more processed plant-based foods that aren’t super healthy… the difference is no living, feeling animals had to suffer for it. Even oreos are vegan!

The earth would not be run over by animals (humans breed them in large numbers to keep up with demand) and we’d actually be able to feed every person on the planet with the land that is currently used to grow corn/soy/etc to feed animals. You can also get all the nutrition you need from plants alone. Science proves this if you want to do some actual research about the things I just mentioned.

I’m really not trying to be confrontational with you. It is just sad to see someone using god as an excuse to be so misinformed about basic nutrition and seemingly have no idea how animal agriculture works. I’ve been plant-based for 20 years. My recent blood work was great, I run 20 miles a week and exercise regularly. People always comment about how much younger I look than I am, as well.

Nicole

What foods do vegans feed to carnivorous pet cats and dogs? Honestly trying to understand the logic here. For cats and dogs, consuming other animals to survive and thrive is a biological matter of fact, not opinion.

Kimberly

Excellent posting, Kimberly. The answer to your question is that Patrick the Vegan will ignore reality, the same way such people ignore the scientific fact that only through the intake of animal protein which our ancestors realized by consuming meat were our brains able to develop and permit our species to evolve into homo sapiens. Such achievement would NEVER have been possible by eating plants alone. As for comic strips merely serving as a momentary relief from life’s daily trials and tribulations, such is no longer sufficient—more and more of today’s artists find it necessary to use their forums to push foward a politically-correct, leftist agenda.

Michael A. Chmieloski

And though dogs can digest some carbohydrates a bit better than wolves, they too are still carnivores and thus need meat. Thank you for your post

Jeff

Yesh! It was really powerful! Thank you. <3

Heather

While the Mediterranean diet isn’t vegan or fully vegetarian, it is centred on plants (yes, including grapes for wine and olive trees for their oil, as well as the fruit of the coffee plant and many herbals). That is pretty much how I eat: I don’t eat mammals but I do eat fish and some poultry, but my plate is mostly vegetables. I find many processed soya foods hard to digest, but tempeh, a fermented soya food of Indonesian origin, is much easier to consume.

I think of this strip’s outlook as more ethical than political in a partisan sense – and hope nobody here thinks being opposed to racism or bigotry is “political”. It could be as much Franciscan or Buddhist as anything else.

Happy June Solstice to all, both north and south of the equator.

Lagatta de Montréal