We all love animals. When we see animals in distress or in danger, we quickly try our very best to help. We adopt them, we rescue them, we share friend’s requests for adoption on Facebook, we contact animal shelters and we even volunteer in some of these centers.
We also write letters and petitions on newspapers, social media and denounce animal abuse and the current lack of proper animal welfare legislation in T&T. No one is comfortable seeing animals suffering.
WE ALL HAVE BEEN BORN VEGAN
Think about it, when you were a young child if you saw a little piglet running around your yard it is most likely that you would have tried to play with the piglet rather than run for the first knife you find in the kitchen, stab the piglet to death and then cook it, right?
It’s more, I dare to say that if we are in a traffic jam and we see a mommy hen trying to cross the road with her super-cute little chicks, it is very unlikely that the reaction of people will be: “who has a knife or a gun so we kill this chicken right now and we make some tasty curry chicken?”.
No, it is most likely that people will be taking pictures of the mommy hen and her babies and then post it on Instagram with the hashtag #cutenessoverload.
I dare to say that if I choose to leave my car with a cutlass and chase that chicken with the sole intent of killing it for consumption; more than one person will come out of their car to cuss me and try to stop me. Some might even engage me into a fight; others might even call the police.
All of them will see me as crazy, nuts, cruel, out of my mind…and yet…as they talk to a friend about the whole experience in the drive tru of a fast food outlet, they are ordering a KFC dinner special…
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
But what’s the difference between the chicken we just saw on the road, the one you loved and the one on your dinner plate? Physiologically, there isn’t any difference. Both of them are indeed chickens.
Certainly, it is what we call a cognitive dissonance. The same cognitive dissonance that makes us upset when hear that in some parts of China people eat dogs. It is barbaric and cruel. We create petitions to end this practice immediately; we share Facebook’s posts that highlight this heartless practice. And yet we eat cows, chickens, pigs, ducks…and so forth.
What is really the difference between a dog, a cat or a chicken? Think about it, they are all animals. The only difference is our attitude towards them. The value we place on their lives, our own perception. The invisible line we draw between animals we love having around and the animals we love… eating.
If dogs feel pain, don’t cows and chickens feel pain too? If dogs are in need of love and care just like each one us… Don’t cows and chickens have the same needs and desires?
HUMANE KILLING
Due to the meat, egg and dairy industry (and their delusive advertisements) we have a distorted reality of what really happens inside slaughterhouses or dairy farms. We want to believe animals are just given a soft blow to the head leading to a painless and peaceful death. It makes us feel a little better. After all, it is a “humane” way of killing.
But is there such a thing as humane killing? Or is it an oxymoron? Is there such a thing as humane beating? What about humane rape? Humane torture? There isn’t. Killing is killing and regardless of how we kill, these animals (just like us) want to LIVE. Do you really think animals go willingly to their deaths? No, they fight…they fight with all their might because they know exactly what is going to happen to them. They are very aware.
THE SHOCKING TRUTH
More than 150 billion innocent animals are slaughtered every year in the world. We seem to think of animals as inanimate objects with no feelings or desires. The truth is that animals are sentient beings just like us; they have their own needs, wants, desires and interests.
Some researchers say pigs’ cognitive abilities are superior to 3-year-old children, as well as to dogs and cats. An article in Scientific American describes chickens as “cunning” and compares their communication skills with those of some primates and the fact that they use sophisticated signals to convey their intentions.
When chickens have to make decisions, they take into account prior experience and knowledge surrounding the situation. They can even solve complex problems and empathize with individuals that are in danger.
WHAT ABOUT THE DAIRY INDUSTRY?
Cows are continuously impregnated artificially every year in order to produce milk and then killed when they cannot longer produce it. They are not happy cows roaming free in green pastures as the dairy industry tries to promote in milk cartons. Their reality is very different.
After calves are born, they are torn away from their mothers within hours of birth, which of course causes great distress to both. You can hear the cows calling for their babies for days. Male calves end up in cramped veal crates so their meat is “tender” and females are sentenced to the same horrific fate as their mothers. What have they done to us, humans, to deserve our wrath?
A cow’s natural lifespan is around 20 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are typically killed after five years because their bodies are so worn out from constantly being pregnant or lactating. It is modern day slavery.
Have you ever seen the trucks that have chickens packed as sardines? Chickens are one of the most abused animals. Chickens are hung upside down and have their throats slit, and they’re often scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
Do not let the meat and dairy industry manipulate you with labels such as “free-range” and “organic”. Most hens are living in cramped and filthy conditions. Every year, millions of beautiful male chicks are killed in high-speed grinders because they’re worthless to the egg industry. And don’t get me started with pigs….piglets have their back teeth clipped off with metal pliers and the ends of their tails removed with scissors.
ARE YOU BOTHERED BY WHAT YOU ARE READING?
If you are, it is because you do not want to see animals suffering. It is because you and I know that if you witness any of these animals being abused in front of you, you WILL do something to try to stop the abuse.
The only reason people generally don’t do that, it is because the murder, the pain, the blood, the suffering and enslavement of these animals is happening far away from them. But they are paying someone else to do the killing for them. They are disconnected from the animals and all is needed is for that connection to be restored just like when we were children.
Using euphemisms seem to make things more palatable and acceptable for us. The pig’s flesh become “bacon” and the cow’s skin become “leather”. The pig becomes “pork” and the cow becomes “beef”. Things rather than beings.
We are afraid to show children what really goes on inside slaughterhouses, then perhaps we should come to accept that what is being done to animals in there is plain unjust, wrong and abusive. That’s why we don’t want to show it to children. But instead of trying to stop the pictures and videos..we should try our best to stop the abuse.
If you truly believe it’s wrong to hurt ALL animals, you already believe in going Vegan.You can make a difference in the lives of these sentient beings, just make the connection.
I would love hearing from you, so please feel free to leave a comment, question or simply share your experience.
Thank you for this article, very helpful. I have been trying to make the connection for a couple of months now and I think I’m ready pls wish me luck!
I am sure you will do great Rox. 🙂
Eye-opening!
Indeed Nigel!