[2] Prior to writing "The Meat Fetish," Crosby asked artists in Venice, Italy about the agonizing sights, terrifying sounds, and foul smells of the slaughterhouse, compelling imagery which he used to open his essay.

Reclus travelled during his early adulthood, which led to him writing the multiple volumes of The Earth and its Inhabitants later on in life, while in exile after serving in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War.

His vegetarianism, manners, and "intense human sympathy" were noted by The Japan Daily Mail, over any "reasoned-out political creed," as the reasons which led him to live in an anarchist camp.

The pamphlet also includes two poems; "The Calf" by Eleanor Baldwin, and "Sadists" by Linn A. E. Gale, which The Occult Press Review calls "rather strong, though it is neither verse nor prose.

[14] Four editions of The Meat Fetish: Two Essays on Vegetarianism are held at public and university libraries in Canada, the United States, Scotland, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The beginning of the essay by Crosby, "The Meat Fetish" describes three slaughter-houses which he encountered throughout his life, in New Hampshire, near Cleopatra's palace in the Mediterranean, and at Venice, in graphic detail.

"[17] Crosby then notes that recent medical investigations have attributed leprosy and scurvy to the eating of animal food, and suggests that it may not be long before cancer is traced to the same origin.

[19][20] Looking forward, Crosby predicts that when man ceases killing animals, the world may become crowded with them, which, for him, conjures up pictures of cities packed with sheep or deer, and countrysides overflowing with cows.

Using the atrocities in China at the turn of the 20th century, Reclus asks the reader, "How can it be that men having had the happiness of being caressed by their mother, and taught in school the words "justice" and "kindess" [take] pleasure in tying Chinese together by their garments and their pigtails before throwing them into a river?

"[24] In the closing paragraphs of his essay, Reclus writes that "we wish to preserve [animals] as respected fellow-workers, or simply as companions in the joy of life and friendship," adding that "it is not for us to found a new religion, and to hamper ourselves with a fectarian dogma; it is a question of making our existence as beautiful as possible, and in harmony.

[2] Soundview said that the Meat Fetish is "one of the most powerful arguments in favor of a vegetarian diet we have yet seen," and London's The Humanitarian writes that "his plea for abstinence from flesh-food is among the best with which we are acquainted".

[14] The University Digest noted that his objection to the custom of the meat diet, is that it "involves cruelty, breeds disease, and withal an entirely unwholesome food for man".