I got a link to some interesting information from a good friend of mine, regarding animals in transport. I, of course, went and read the information and looked at the pictures. I can’t help but look at their eyes. The pigs, crammed together, literally standing their front hoofs on the back of others as their space is so limited, are transported by truck for thirty hours with no break, no water. I cannot tell you what it does to me to see these animals being treated like this. It is the most gut wrenching feeling to know that as I speak a chicken is being de-beaked and de-toed, cows are being castrated, pigs are being castrated and having their teeth pulled all without any kind of pain relief. I see the revolting and deplorable conditions that these animals must endure. What I find truly crushing is the little human contact these animals have goes beyond what we would consider barbaric. Most of the larger animals are lame due to their crappy diet, their confinement and lack of exercise. Especially pigs. Yet over and over again you see men walking on the backs of these animals in order to beat them down. I witnessed a worker beating and electrocuting a pig that had two broken legs, that had been fed for maximum pork production that was slipping and sliding on a concrete floor desperately trying to get away from his tormentor. It went on for an hour. I have seen men sodomizing pigs with electric rods, laughing hysterically as these animals contained in 2 x 2 enclosures of steel and concrete scream uncontrollably. I have seen cows being kicked and beaten mercilessly, chickens being thrown around and stomped and live baby chicks fed into a meat grinder.
I know that I am extraordinarily sensitive when it comes to animals. It is something that I refuse to be embarrassed about, as I believe it is the best part of me. My brother, Paul, once said that I was his hero because of it. That was one of the most monumental statements that anyone had ever said about me. I can’t seem to grasp the why. Why people do this to animals. I know that men in the military are often trained to dehumanize the enemy in order to do the things that they believe must be done to win wars, etc. I know that experiments have been done that demonstrate how much a person changes when given power over other individuals. I know that it is part of criminal profiling that a serial killer always has the torture of animals hidden somewhere in his childhood. It seems that there is plenty of evidence as to why and how but the move is not made to end it. We are decent, we say repeatedly, hard working, compassionate people. Yet we torture, maim and cruelly destroy billions of dependent beings every year.
Billions.
Why?
Why have we allowed it to get this bad?
Why have we ignored that this is going on?
So many people still believe that independent farms carry the percentage of this and that is so not the case. I understand that a certain amount of marketing has lead many people to believe the un-truths. The loosening of the legislative and regulatory belts has certainly aided in the wanton and rampant infiltration of the absolute worst, for as we all know when gluttony is allowed to fester, unchecked, the worst possible of that particular world soon follows. We would never have mad cow disease if we didn’t feed cows other cows. We would never have the fear of bird flu if these animals weren’t kept in repugnant conditions. People just continue to shove this crap into their mouths while their health spirals dangerously out of control.
It’s cheaper.
Oh.
Yeah.
I see.
Eating that 1.99 big mac is cheaper than an avocado, no beef roast, tofutti American cheese, lettuce, soy mayonnaise and wheat bread, you are so right.
But the cost to your health?
The cost to your waistline?
The cost to your children’s health?
It’s going to get you in the end. The sorriest part of all this is looking at the inner city. Like a rubber stamp, every impoverished area is the same. Concrete. Liquor store. Steel. Small grocer that sells predominantly processed food, beer and cigarettes. Glass. Bar/Club. Trash and pollution. Fast food place. No grocery stores. I saw a special some time ago that really brought the dilemma into crystal clear view. Most of the impoverished neighborhoods house people that do not have cars. They are limited to what is in their immediate area, at home or at work. Many people have to take the bus through several transfers to get to a full service grocery store. They have to consider that everything needs to make it back in one piece after an hour of transportation. Consider your current situation. You get a cart. You fill it up. You pay for it. You push the cart to your car and unload. If you are polite, you return the cart to the store. You then drive home and unload your groceries from the car to the house. The actual time it takes for you to get home and unload is what? 15 minutes? Imagine having to carry everything. You would only be able to carry two maybe four bags. Then imagine standing there waiting for a bus. Then a transfer. Then another transfer. Then the walk home.
What’s the likelihood that you will buy anything fresh that will cause you to have to go back through that entire ordeal within the week. You buy things that last – canned, boxed or frozen. Unlikely frozen because of the thawing. So, really canned, bottled or boxed. Most of this stuff is not the best stuff for you. The number one place to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in these places is the fast food restaurant. It’s cheap. It’s local. You can buy it and get it home. It’s do-able. There seems to be an effort by co-ops to bring real, nutritious, healthy and whole food to inner city areas, but there is a mind set. So many people do not believe that a meal without meat is a real meal. They also don’t know about all the incredible changes that have made being vegan so much easier. I remember becoming a vegetarian about twenty years ago. OMG! There was nothing. Tofu? Gag. I didn’t know how to prepare it and I might as well have gotten two pieces of bread and shoved a toilet roll between. Add a little mayo and it would have been tastier.
Now there are so many alternatives. I made chicken enchiladas for my extended family on Memorial Day with fake chicken – Meal Starters from Morningstar. The number one comment was that the consistency was so similar to chicken, and they disappeared. The kids ate them! And no arsenic – like in real chicken – so there’s a bigger bonus! There are ground beef substitutes, there are egg replacers, beef strips, roast, Cajun chicken, ham or wham, boloney, turkey, tofurkey. All at regular grocery stores. Kroger. Randalls. HEB. Target. Walmart (I hear – I refuse to go there). The vegetarians and vegans are infiltrating the mainstream! They are doing renovations at my local Kroger and I was a bit concerned because they have a great “Nature’s Market” section that I always feel I am the only one patronizing. Geez! Were they going to get rid of it?
They expanded it!
They are offering about a third to a half more than before. Fabulous.
I often get asked, if the animals were treated humanely, would I eat meat or cheese or milk or eggs? I used to say, yes, I would. But I don’t believe I would now. I do miss some things. Chocolate for instance. And cheese. But the cost simply isn’t worth it right now. And I have come to realize that I feel better not just bodily but spiritually. I have to exercise everyday, but I don’t have the constant battle meat-eaters have. I don’t have to worry so much about my cholesterol or my heart. I feel incredibly well. And I have such a fondness for animals that I could never eat one again. No matter how nice someone was to it. I’m nice to my dogs, does that mean I would be ok with eating one of them? Would you?
The other question I get is – what would we do with all those animals? Just let them go? Well, first, we have created quite the dilemma for ourselves. The animals used for human consumption are not well, or rather healthy, beings. Removed from incarceration and from the continuous onslaught of drugs, hormones, poisons, and other additives these animals would do well upon release. But I find it such an odd question. I can’t help but equate the warehousing of animals now to the concentration camps of the Holocaust. Not that Jews in any way shape or form are equitable to animals, I am specifically talking about the way these people were stacked on top of each other, crammed in like so many units of inorganic matter. Forced to work endlessly, beaten, starved, experimented on – these people were subjected to an attitude of dehumanization. I can’t help but wonder if that ever crossed anyone’s mind. Well, if we shut down these concentration camps, what will we do with all those people? Golly, I don’t know, maybe, shucks, give them back some dignity? Maybe a meal or two? A bath. Some clean clothes. And a sliver of comfort and compassion. That’s not so hard. Seems like such a heartless thought, really. Better to keep them trapped in their own feces, on concrete floors, in darkness, crammed together in ammonia choked warehouses than to release them. Doesn’t it? Look at some of these hoarders – the people that “collect” animals. Some of these people have hundreds of animals running rampant in the house, and never allowed out. Is the answer to keep them there? Not take care of the situation? There are plenty of organizations and groups and individuals that would happily take in factory farm survivors. The thing is, these animals are being forced into unnatural breeding cycles. They are artificially impregnated. Once we allow nature to do what nature does best the numbers will diminish. These animals will eventually return to the calm, lawn mowing herbivores that they are.
So, try, won’t you? Try to replace one meal a week with some new meat replacement. If you hate it, try something else. Then try to do it more often. A vegetarian saves like 96 animals a year.
96!
That’s a lot of animals. You can do it. And you’ll feel better. And one day, one day, I’ll be able to close my eyes as I drift off to sleep with the knowledge that the nightmare has ended for billions of animals.
We’ll all sleep better then.
I know that I am extraordinarily sensitive when it comes to animals. It is something that I refuse to be embarrassed about, as I believe it is the best part of me. My brother, Paul, once said that I was his hero because of it. That was one of the most monumental statements that anyone had ever said about me. I can’t seem to grasp the why. Why people do this to animals. I know that men in the military are often trained to dehumanize the enemy in order to do the things that they believe must be done to win wars, etc. I know that experiments have been done that demonstrate how much a person changes when given power over other individuals. I know that it is part of criminal profiling that a serial killer always has the torture of animals hidden somewhere in his childhood. It seems that there is plenty of evidence as to why and how but the move is not made to end it. We are decent, we say repeatedly, hard working, compassionate people. Yet we torture, maim and cruelly destroy billions of dependent beings every year.
Billions.
Why?
Why have we allowed it to get this bad?
Why have we ignored that this is going on?
So many people still believe that independent farms carry the percentage of this and that is so not the case. I understand that a certain amount of marketing has lead many people to believe the un-truths. The loosening of the legislative and regulatory belts has certainly aided in the wanton and rampant infiltration of the absolute worst, for as we all know when gluttony is allowed to fester, unchecked, the worst possible of that particular world soon follows. We would never have mad cow disease if we didn’t feed cows other cows. We would never have the fear of bird flu if these animals weren’t kept in repugnant conditions. People just continue to shove this crap into their mouths while their health spirals dangerously out of control.
It’s cheaper.
Oh.
Yeah.
I see.
Eating that 1.99 big mac is cheaper than an avocado, no beef roast, tofutti American cheese, lettuce, soy mayonnaise and wheat bread, you are so right.
But the cost to your health?
The cost to your waistline?
The cost to your children’s health?
It’s going to get you in the end. The sorriest part of all this is looking at the inner city. Like a rubber stamp, every impoverished area is the same. Concrete. Liquor store. Steel. Small grocer that sells predominantly processed food, beer and cigarettes. Glass. Bar/Club. Trash and pollution. Fast food place. No grocery stores. I saw a special some time ago that really brought the dilemma into crystal clear view. Most of the impoverished neighborhoods house people that do not have cars. They are limited to what is in their immediate area, at home or at work. Many people have to take the bus through several transfers to get to a full service grocery store. They have to consider that everything needs to make it back in one piece after an hour of transportation. Consider your current situation. You get a cart. You fill it up. You pay for it. You push the cart to your car and unload. If you are polite, you return the cart to the store. You then drive home and unload your groceries from the car to the house. The actual time it takes for you to get home and unload is what? 15 minutes? Imagine having to carry everything. You would only be able to carry two maybe four bags. Then imagine standing there waiting for a bus. Then a transfer. Then another transfer. Then the walk home.
What’s the likelihood that you will buy anything fresh that will cause you to have to go back through that entire ordeal within the week. You buy things that last – canned, boxed or frozen. Unlikely frozen because of the thawing. So, really canned, bottled or boxed. Most of this stuff is not the best stuff for you. The number one place to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in these places is the fast food restaurant. It’s cheap. It’s local. You can buy it and get it home. It’s do-able. There seems to be an effort by co-ops to bring real, nutritious, healthy and whole food to inner city areas, but there is a mind set. So many people do not believe that a meal without meat is a real meal. They also don’t know about all the incredible changes that have made being vegan so much easier. I remember becoming a vegetarian about twenty years ago. OMG! There was nothing. Tofu? Gag. I didn’t know how to prepare it and I might as well have gotten two pieces of bread and shoved a toilet roll between. Add a little mayo and it would have been tastier.
Now there are so many alternatives. I made chicken enchiladas for my extended family on Memorial Day with fake chicken – Meal Starters from Morningstar. The number one comment was that the consistency was so similar to chicken, and they disappeared. The kids ate them! And no arsenic – like in real chicken – so there’s a bigger bonus! There are ground beef substitutes, there are egg replacers, beef strips, roast, Cajun chicken, ham or wham, boloney, turkey, tofurkey. All at regular grocery stores. Kroger. Randalls. HEB. Target. Walmart (I hear – I refuse to go there). The vegetarians and vegans are infiltrating the mainstream! They are doing renovations at my local Kroger and I was a bit concerned because they have a great “Nature’s Market” section that I always feel I am the only one patronizing. Geez! Were they going to get rid of it?
They expanded it!
They are offering about a third to a half more than before. Fabulous.
I often get asked, if the animals were treated humanely, would I eat meat or cheese or milk or eggs? I used to say, yes, I would. But I don’t believe I would now. I do miss some things. Chocolate for instance. And cheese. But the cost simply isn’t worth it right now. And I have come to realize that I feel better not just bodily but spiritually. I have to exercise everyday, but I don’t have the constant battle meat-eaters have. I don’t have to worry so much about my cholesterol or my heart. I feel incredibly well. And I have such a fondness for animals that I could never eat one again. No matter how nice someone was to it. I’m nice to my dogs, does that mean I would be ok with eating one of them? Would you?
The other question I get is – what would we do with all those animals? Just let them go? Well, first, we have created quite the dilemma for ourselves. The animals used for human consumption are not well, or rather healthy, beings. Removed from incarceration and from the continuous onslaught of drugs, hormones, poisons, and other additives these animals would do well upon release. But I find it such an odd question. I can’t help but equate the warehousing of animals now to the concentration camps of the Holocaust. Not that Jews in any way shape or form are equitable to animals, I am specifically talking about the way these people were stacked on top of each other, crammed in like so many units of inorganic matter. Forced to work endlessly, beaten, starved, experimented on – these people were subjected to an attitude of dehumanization. I can’t help but wonder if that ever crossed anyone’s mind. Well, if we shut down these concentration camps, what will we do with all those people? Golly, I don’t know, maybe, shucks, give them back some dignity? Maybe a meal or two? A bath. Some clean clothes. And a sliver of comfort and compassion. That’s not so hard. Seems like such a heartless thought, really. Better to keep them trapped in their own feces, on concrete floors, in darkness, crammed together in ammonia choked warehouses than to release them. Doesn’t it? Look at some of these hoarders – the people that “collect” animals. Some of these people have hundreds of animals running rampant in the house, and never allowed out. Is the answer to keep them there? Not take care of the situation? There are plenty of organizations and groups and individuals that would happily take in factory farm survivors. The thing is, these animals are being forced into unnatural breeding cycles. They are artificially impregnated. Once we allow nature to do what nature does best the numbers will diminish. These animals will eventually return to the calm, lawn mowing herbivores that they are.
So, try, won’t you? Try to replace one meal a week with some new meat replacement. If you hate it, try something else. Then try to do it more often. A vegetarian saves like 96 animals a year.
96!
That’s a lot of animals. You can do it. And you’ll feel better. And one day, one day, I’ll be able to close my eyes as I drift off to sleep with the knowledge that the nightmare has ended for billions of animals.
We’ll all sleep better then.
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