To the editor:

I’m still waiting for the Stop the Insanity! group to explain how their antics about hanging flashies in the tree and holding teary-eyed memorial services (for livestock) are effecting real change in the face of unapologetic carnivorism, and how this isn’t wildly hypocritical unless they are all vegetarians. 

I made it halfway through their recent, tedious yammer of a letter to Shorelines, where it’s clear they are still struggling to find new angles to smear the various town boards or indict hapless administrators.  What a waste of newsprint on Shorelines’ part, but even if it’s a slow news day … these women keep writing.  You might say they’re beating a dead horse?  Has the internet run out of bean-stuffed plush toys to collect? 

My specific charge to them last year (after—along with the rest of Westport—being sanctimoniously told in their July 2017 missive that “Together we can redeem our town and get out from under the shame the Medeiros tenant farm has burdened us with”) was to positively explain how sensationalist photos of one dirty farm were somehow exceptional or outrageous, and worthy of a crusade.  In particular, how is this at all surprising in a “right to farm” community that has the region’s first slaughterhouse, in a country where the livestock industry is cornerstone to the economy.  My charge to them was to produce a letter that convinces that it’s anything but the exact opposite of “humane” to raise something … and to then kill and eat it. 

I’m still waiting …

The only thing I’ve seen since that time is countless missives bemoaning the town’s leadership, pictures of their absurd protests with dogs in baby strollers, and once — coming out of Lees Supermarket — an angry woman accosting me to sign some petition about a law prohibiting veterinarian technicians’ ability to euthanize animals. I pointed to a BBQ smoker hut she was standing next to and asked “What about the animal in there?” 

It’s unfortunate that animals died in the tenant farm fiasco, but what was the number — 1,400?  Maybe the bigger tragedy is that they went to waste as opposed to making it to the slaughterhouse.  The new Westport slaughterhouse will process 5,000 animals per year when it’s fully up and running.  With that, when would you rather be an animal in Westport — 2016, or 2020?  Will “Insanity” have 4 times as many protests going forward?

The activists — hellbent on this issue — are welcome to wallow in all the “shame” they want.  But speak for yourselves, Insanity ladies.  You’ve all moved here for the river view, but come away from the country club and Westport is as country livin’ as you get — deer gonna get shot, dogs gonna get kicked, cows gonna get slaughtered. 

When I smile at myself in the mirror there’s a set of incisors looking back at me.  These aren’t for mindfully eating tofu chunks out of a Whole Foods container with chopsticks; they’re for tearing meat off of another animal’s bones and eating it.  I’m not ashamed of that.  And I’m not ashamed that some farmer in town let his farm go to hell.  Maybe the farmer should be.  Maybe he shouldn't.  Should the slaughterhouse be ashamed?  I don’t condone that whole mess tenant farm, but I’m not going to have a hissy fit over it on my way to the butcher shop, either.

I do keep looking for you all at the supermarket.  I continue to look for the lady who is pushing around a poodle in a baby stroller as she’s ordering a half pound of ham.  I want to tell her that I really do love animals — they are delicious!

Thomas Collins

Westport