I went to an animal rights conference over the weekend, here in Virginia, and the things I'd taken for granted prior to this, I've no longer the moral ignorance to do so. That is beyond my moral compass to put on blinders, and go about my business.
There was a woman there who was passionate about child slavery in the chocolate trade, where children lose their lives so we can have a treat. She pointed out that the loss of ones' reproductive rights, as it has been in animals, is also happening in women, in this day and age. She pointed out the dichotomy of being vegan, when the biggest animal of all also suffers in the fields our food is grown in, that the lifespan is only on average 49 years for a strawberry picker in California.
Where does one draw the line? Is that something I must choose? Which animal suffers so that I might eat? So that my conscience is clear, and they don't die because of me? So that their blood is not on my feet, or on my table? It is not easy, but it doesn't have to be an either or.
At this conference, there are animals from every aspect of life who suffer at the hands of humans. Our pets, who are bred, and hoarded, and fought, and discarded; our cattle who are bred, and their babies are ripped away, and their milk is poured into great vats, while their babies are fattened for veal, or made into steers for beef. Then they are bred again, so that the process is repeated over and over, until they cannot be milked again, cannot be bred again, and are slaughtered.
Our pigs, whose plight has been in the national media for a time, who are bred and put into "gestation crates" that are not big enough for them to turn around, to move, to even see the babies that are born from them, and their babies are taken from them. The cycle repeated, until the sow, so intelligent, becomes crazed with this repeated brutality, tries to kill herself. Not unlike a human put into the same position would undoubtedly do.
Chickens, whose nature is so ignored, their ability to act as birds so downplayed, that the crates and cages they are forced into in such great numbers that they are likewise unable to move, beaks cut so they do not peck, will often starve to death, it is unthinkable to put a human in the same conditions as we will over and over again, subject the animals to.
It is so well known that the cost of raising a pound of beef is a lopsided, ridiculous number ..."March 1, 2001 -- To date, probably the most reliable and widely-accepted water estimate to produce a pound of beef is the figure of 2,500 gallons/pound. Newsweek once put it another way: "the water that goes into a 1,000 pound steer would float a destroyer." (http://www.vegsource.com/articles/pimentel_water.htm) And yet the Beef Industry claims it is only 441 gal. per pound. They distort, so you can keep being ignorant. At the rate the earth is heating/cooling, water will be the next thing fought for.
When a person looks at where their food comes from, how it is raised, and most importantly, how it is killed, I believe that most people would become vegan.
It is not true and a total falsehood to assume that because the face of the animal does not show emotion as we do, does not express anxiety, fear, trauma, like a human, that there is none of the same emotions we feel, that is speciesism. They do in fact feel the same emotions, will suffer the loss of another, and become petulant, loving, angry, and forgiving. Animals feel pain.
There is no doubt that if the killing that is effected in the poultry industry, say, were to be effected on the human race, there would be hell to pay. The difference is, that those same people who claim to love animals and then go eat a bucket of chicken, a fish taco, or horse, or a hamburger, are not understanding what their stance really means. The blood that is spilled, the horror that is felt, the pain and agony that the chicken, fish, pig, cow, or horse, endures before they finally succumb to death, it is unspeakable, and unimaginable.
I went to this animal rights conference knowing these things, in the back of my mind. I am grateful that the videos were optional. The undercover work that these brave people do so that we can know where our food comes from, I didn't have to see. But I listened. I came to know that if people cut down on their consumption of meat of any color only twice weekly, many lives are saved. If they determine to buy at organic, family farms and visit the meat, the chickens, the cows, the pigs; if they recognized that fish are suffocated along with sea turtles so endangered, for their tuna sandwich; dolphins, with whom so many people can relate, are drowning in the nets of fishermen; if they understand that the backyard breeder of horses is feeding the European demand for horse meat; if they went without anything that lives, and fights to survive, we could change the world.
I have to be honest and say that this is the first of your posts in this series that even hints at the option of finding a common ground for us meat eaters. I love your passion for this, but I actually considered that maybe I wouldn't be able to keep reading because, as a carnivore, I felt attacked. That my choice to eat meat was wrong. I understand it is to you. I do get that.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph of this post has a "meet in the middle" flair and I like it very much. I am working towards a humane consumption, finding the organic farms and being more conscious of who raises the food for my table. I think that is a very doable goal for my family. I want to defend us and say we aren't horrible, or we hardly eat red meat anymore, but it sounds like a platitude.
I like collaboration. Share a recipe, one meatless day. Certainly people can do that.
I am not attacking you, Darcy. The point is to have everyone knowledgable about where their meat comes from. If you know factory farming is the supplier of your food, if your conscience, after knowing what goes into your meals, dictates that you should find another farmer, another true humane resource, then you are fine.
ReplyDeleteIt is those people who ignore that the meat they consume is from horrific places, then jump to say they too love animals. You may love animals, but their pain should be a source of concern, if what you say is to have impact. There is too much truth out there to be ignored any longer.
If indeed, you don't care (and by you, I mean the general population) about where your food comes from, if indeed you don't care that dolphins die in tuna nets, and if indeed you don't care that cows love their calves just as much as a human loves her baby, as a tiger loves her cub, as a horse loves her foal, then don't look at labels. Don't bother pretending anymore that you care about the welfare of animals, because when it takes effort, it is obvious to everyone else, it is too hard for you.
As you are my only subscriber, I suppose I must be careful of what I write. You know I mean you no disrespect. I appreciate that you are doing what you wrote, and do find the alternative to the easy to acquire, fast food option most grocery stores offer. (Tacoma Boys, maybe?) That if everyone went just one day without meat, how much better the world would be.
It is not "just me", I think. Yes, I realize that you meant, "oh, that is just Debra, the activist kid who grew up into the activist adult and old person". But this is a growing movement, to stop factory farming cruelty. If everyone were to ask the local farmer to raise a cow for meat, and he gave that cow the life it was meant to have, that it didn't die in abject fear, then great. It would also stop Monsanto from buying, forcing, or suing out small farmers. There is a lot of good that comes out of a movement to help animals. This is not singly a movement to protect animals, as I see it. People are intrinsically animals that need protection too. It is because I love, both animals and people, that I take up the banner of this cause.
I love you, Sis; with all my heart, you are my dearest person. I would not attack you, carnivore that I know you to be. It is my hope, for everyone, that conscious effort is put into finding food that does not on an obscene level, torture animals to death. We need more humane alternatives, and I see the local family farm as just that, which gives them income, which gives them the ability to stay afloat. That is all.
ADDENDUM TO PREVIOUS COMMENT: By Monsanto, I also mean Cargill, Bouvry (Alberta, CA) and any and all mega-farming/ranching, slaughterhouse operations that squeeze out small farmers.
ReplyDelete