Animal-Related Patent Trends
By Eric Goldman
Wired runs an article on Patently Silly, one of the blogs tracking goofy patents. The article notes the implicit contradiction in the trends for patenting pet pampering products and patenting new and more effective ways of producing meat. Basically, inventors are working hard both to make pets lives more cush and make it more profitable to chop up livestock for food. As the article quotes:
“If you’re a dog, you get umbrellas and all kinds of good things,” notes Wright. “But if you’re a cow, you get stuck in an MRI that’ll tell you how good your meat is going to taste….”
For more rants about our inconsistent attitudes towards animals and about vegetarianism generally, see my vegetarian category page on my other blog.