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.

***

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)

Hello Dylan. Please research vitamin B12. Vegans must supplement their diet with the vitamin or face nutritional deficiency and physiological consequences. B12 is rare outside of animal sources.

Kimberly

They will also burrow under your porch and ruin your plantings. We co-exist with them though, and would never harm them. However, Two of them got into the garage and our cat killed them. She’s well-fed so she didn’t eat them, but that’s what predatory animals do on the wild. Since you live in MO, and so do I, c’mon over and get a few chipmunks from our neighborhood.

Sharon

Nicole. In a vegan world animals would be killed and maimed and displaced and actively punished for invading your vegan crops just as they are to this day. You cannot grow ANY type of food without killing animals. You just can’t pretend that because you don’t eat animals you are better than people who do eat animals. Just remember if you’re eating something, an animal was killed or displaced from its habitat in order for you to eat.

Cathy

DOONESBURY too is on the Opinion page. here. You might need to stop feeling so very persecuted and breathe. Folks have different opinions. You are not always right. I’m not always right. But, we all do our best to make the world a better place, right?

Nigel

The “thousands of herds of livestock” will not be a problem, as they will simply cease to exist. The demand for meat will gradually decrease, and as it does so will the numbers of these animals being bred.

Your last claim is just absurd. There are plenty of animals that humans are preserving even though we get no tangible benefit. Simply admiring them is enough. Not to mention that the ecosystem as we know it would collapse without other animals.

You’ll need a better excuse not to be vegan.

Dylan

There are no essential nutrients we cannot obtain from non-animal sources. B12 is produced by bacteria, and it is actually synthesized inside our bodies – it just happens too far down the digestive tract for us to absorb.

Regarding pets, in the future I’m guessing we will use ethical lab-grown meat for this. Until then, short of just not having pets I suppose there’s not much we can do except make it as humane as possible. They would be eating other animals one way or another. Dogs can absolutely be vegan, cats not so much.

Dylan

Those animals are bred by humans. If we stopped breeding them (mostly in factory farms), this wouldnt be an issue. You’re assuming it would all happen at once, which is not how reality usually works.

In a vegan world, animals would be respected and left in the wild where they belong. Not kept in tiny cages, or stolen from their homes, or raped, or killed for their fur/feathers/skin. Climate change, deforestation, trophy hunting, etc. are already killing some of the world’s most vulnerable species. It’s not vegans contributing to those things. Just another excuse to continue torture of sentient beings.

nicole

If you are tired of them, send them my way! I live in MO. I’ll make sure the little guys are well fed and protected.

Jacob

No, Nigel, I don’t read MALLARD FILLMORE, it isn’t carried in my daily (leftist) paper. Interesting that the “so far RIGHT” comic is relegated to your paper’s Opinion page while all others (including MUTTS, I take it) appear together on the “funnies” page because, after all, they are all centrist-mainstream, correct? In my newspaper DOONESBURY is treated as if it were PEANUTS. Hypocrisy anyone?

As for Buddhists, their philosophy (which includes not eating meat) is far more recent than is the development of the homo sapien species—which, as I previously noted, was only possible because of meat consumption. I say let non-meat eaters only breed with one another and watch their ilk de-evolve over time.

Michael A. Chmieloski

Yesh, Hexe! The entire universe is or was once alive.

Sharon