Help Stop Cruelty to Animals
Maybe it's because I'm worn out by the political bickering and the worrisome news about the market being in a tailspin, but I just clicked on a link to a breaking story about pigs being tormented, raped, and beaten in an Iowa slaughterhouse. I normally protect myself from seeing such things, thinking that I don't need to watch graphic videos of animal abuse since I'm already vegetarian and the videos are too upsetting.
This video brought me to tears, but I'm glad I watched it. It reminded me that I should keep prodding myself to stay awake and aware of abuse and injustice. The truth hurts, but it can also heal -- if we take it personally and take steps to make a difference.
Workers at the Iowa plant -- which supplies pigs to Hormel and other companies -- hit pigs with metal rods, kicked them, and ripped across their backs with clothespins. They sprayed paint up pigs' nostrils and in their eyes and slammed piglets onto the concrete floor. The undercover investigator saw a supervisor ram a cane into a pig's vagina and shove a metal rod up pigs' anuses. Workers bragged about hurting animals and urged the investigator to abuse pigs. One worker told the investigator, "You gotta beat on the bitch. Make her cry." The investigator was instructed to pretend that a pig scared off a willing, voluptuous 17- or 18-year-old girl, and to beat the pig for it.
No one wants to see and hear such vile things, but we can't ignore them either. This kind of cruelty is a reflection on our country, our sense of pride for being decent people. If you think the video is too disturbing to watch, you'll know why we must not support such abuse. Who are we as a country if we aren't acting -- and eating -- based on our most basic principles of decency? Who are we if we passively choose to eat bacon or pork chops rather than push ourselves just a little to try new, more humane, foods instead?
Businesses will not do the right thing on their own -- they just won't. Profit will trump animal welfare in most every case. It is up to caring people to push for change, and to be the change we want to see in the world.
We can all bring about positive changes by not buying products that harm animals, by eating a more plant based diet. We can reject cruelty simply by eating veggie dogs rather than hot dogs, or substituting tempeh, or Fakin' Bacon, for bacon. If you live in California, you can vote in favor of Proposition 2, the statewide initiative that would make it illegal for farmers to cram pregnant pigs in small gestation crates and calves into veal crates, and to force six or seven hens to live in tiny cages where they can't do anything that is natural to them.
No matter where you are in the world, you can do something to make a difference for animals.
As Edmund Burke once said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
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I understand there are conservative Christians who fear vegetarianism...which is kind of like being afraid of nonsmoking, nondrinking, or recycling. Ronald J. Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, in his 1977 book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, pointed out that 220 million Americans were eating enough food (largely because of the high consumption of grain fed to livestock) to feed over one billion people in the poorer countries.
A pamphlet put out by Compassion Over Killing says raising animals for food is one of the leading causes of both pollution and resource depletion today. According to a recent United Nations report, "Livestock's Long Shadow," raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and other forms of transportation combined. Researchers from the University of Chicago similarly concluded that a vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, and the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by not eating animal products than by switching to a hybrid car.
A 2007 journal published by the American Dietetic Association found "meat protein production required 26 times more water than vegetable protein on rain-fed lands." The journal further states that dieticians "can encourage eating that is both healthful and conserving of soil, water, and energy by emphasizing plant sources of protein and foods that have been produced with fewer agricultural inputs."
Most of the research I've read concludes that omnivorous animals (like humans) tend to to best on a diet of mixed plant and animal products (for example: http://www.acu-cell.com/veg.html).
Regardless, however, of the medical findings, there are those of us who simply enjoy a good steak/ham/burger/what-have-you.
That said, I am as outraged as anyone by the cruelty that regularly surfaces in the meat industry in this country. I honestly dont understand what it is about some people that allows them to behave in such a manner and then look at themselves in the mirror every morning.
Prior to slaughter, My animals are treated humanely and live their lives on pasture with access to adequate shelter/food/clean water. Their only interaction with humans is as the providers of these things.
Every time I read something like this it makes me more hesitant to eat ANY meat that was commercially raised or harvested.
Hearing of such abuse is painful. I think of the pigs, then I think of what should be done with the abusers, and my first reaction is - an eye for an eye.
It is a shame such abuse will not stop because management does not care or they would have video cameras in place as a deterent; USDA doesn't care because they have no jurisdiction and the Courts do not care because abuse is standard practice.
Witness: "we have concluded that the "routine husbandry practices" and the "knowledgeable individual and in such a way as to minimize pain" safe harbors cannot be sustained as written, but neither of these determinations effects a ban on any of the particular practices...." so says the Supreme Court in New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, et al. v. New Jersey Department of Agriculture, et al. (A-27-07) .
Thank you for writing this and spreading this message.
- a happy vegan
Agreed, Thank you for writing this.
I sincerely hope there is a special room in he.ll for the perpetrators of these acts.
-a happy individual who eats plenty of meat-
raised by me, fed by me, cared for by me and allowed to live as cows, pigs, and sheep....not as lab animals or convenient torture victims.
Yes, thank you for looking squarely at this barbarism and being willing to talk about it. This story disappeared too quickly.
I agree that we should stop abusing and tormenting animals, but not necessarily by only eating plant based food. I eat, according to my family's traditions, a high amount of meat, but we have a very high standard of animal treatment. I try to find meat that is from buffalo and other creatures that are actually free range (as compared to gov. standards of free range which are often not) and that have not been forcibly exposed to any kind of negative treatment (not only limited to hormones and eating grains). Its more expensive but I wouldn't even hesitate at the cost, though I am afraid that some of the organizations lie about their treatment. When I read things like the above (as well as the treatment of milk cows and goats) it makes me feel that people shouldn't even be allowed to keep animals. In my tradition it has always been appropriate that animals should ideally be free to live out their own lives, though we think that eating some of them (without any torture or waste) just shows that we are interlinked living creatures (just like lions or bears or other predators) who all live and die for different reasons and are dependant on each other's health for our own well-being. Treating animals with such cruelty and disrespect makes me angry and sad, I wish there was something additional I could do to make people stop doing this.
I'm going to stop eating pork. Of course now I'll have to increase my consumption of beef, lamb and chicken but it's a small price to pay.
I bet you are front and center in church every Sunday, aren't you, RightWingMarine. Don't they teach "Do unto others" in church anymore? My one, and fervant, wish for you is that you be treated as you treat others - all others.
Please PETA, go to Spain and stop that festival where bulls are running wild with the horns on fire. I'm serious. It's a disgusting practice.
Spain should be condemned vigorously for their cruelty to animals!
I am a practicing vegan and agree that the running of the bulls or bullfighting is a disgusting practice. But unlike factory farming, it has historical and cultural relevance to the people of Spain; it can be traced back some 1300 years. Before we can begin to ask them to consider creating alternatives to this practice, we should concern ourselves with seeking out ways of eradicating the scourge of animal enslavement and torture that is a product of corporate greed. And these aren't isolated events...they happen daily...constantly. Individuals are prosecuted for doing what these people do with governmental oversight. When a living, breathing, sentient creature becomes a commodity, its fate is set -- its needs will never take precedence over the bottom line. The true cost of this will one day be realized and it will not be the burden of the corporations truly responsible. They will not pay to clean our water, cure our children and society of the illnesses brought on by exposure to toxic levels of hormone and antibiotic, treat our obese population, our diabetics, our individuals suffering from coronary heart disease...
I wouldn't like to see this same pain inflicted on them, but I am afraid that it is the only thing that would help them understand what they do. They have no empathy...no souls.
Excellent. I've written so many blogs about this and stinking CAFO's polluting our country, our streams and rivers, and unhealthy animals sick from the tortures they suffer. We have science proclaiming pigs to be intelligent, all types of animals being highly intelligent and then look what we do to them. We have cute little movies like "Charlotte the Pig" for our children to watch when in reality if our children saw what is done to a baby pig from birth to slaughter, our kids would never eat meat again!
We call ourselves Christians? Read Rolling Stone's article: Boss Hog for the biggest eye opener you've ever read, that is if you dare. My husband and I no longer eat pigs or cows, but only free range chicken and turkey as a result of my research into CAFOs and industrialized farms.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters/1.
When you're done with that article rent "Fast Food Nation" on DVD. My favortie meal that I'd eat as a treat because it's fattening was a burger and fries. After this movie, I've never touched ground beef again, and neither will you.
the workers who did this should be prosecuted and placed under mandatory psychiatric care. the suicide rate among slaughterhouse workers and their families is astounding, as is alcoholism, drug addiction, and domestic violence.
we live on this earth *with* the other animals and have the gift within us to choose kindness over cruelty. why would anyone want to torture and kill an innocent soul?
behaving humanely is a winning situation all around. write letters, quit patronizing hormel products and write letters to them telling them exactly why. when you get a chance to support humane legislation, do so as vigorously as you can. give to animal rights groups (the animal legal defense fund is a good one as well as many of the others mentioned here).
choose to be kind, and save two souls. yours and the animal's.
What has been done to correct the situation in this slaughterhouse? And who besides PETA is doing anything about it? To abuse or torture animals that are totally reliant upon us is as sick and cruel as it gets.
This country is more cruelty to people then to animals.
I don't agree with you Joan. this country doesn't eat people, at least not several times a day all week long, every month of every year! That is one of the reasons for our 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women suffering from cancers and other diseases.
We don't to eat animals to thrive or survive unless that's your only source of food in the wilderness, and for most it's NOT. We torture and kill animals by the droves and not all for food It's also for sport and gaming or like in Alaska for bounty!
talk to a factory farmed pig or chicken, then get back to us.
Actually, one of the best things you CAN do about horrifying things like this -- which are unfortunately way more common than we (like to) think -- is write letters to the editor of your local paper, and your representatives in government. Briefly tell about the incident, denounce it, and suggest that if others are also concerned about animal welfare, they stop eating meat (it's really not that hard), or at least seek out meat from animals that were humanely raised and slaughtered.
Personally, I think "humane killing" is an oxymoron. If someone "humanely" killed one of my relatives or friends, I would be pretty upset. But we are looking for progress here, and the step to ethical vegetarianism is a big one for some people. I repeat, however -- it is really not that hard. Especially when you are motivated by something like not wanting to see animals suffer in slaughterhouses, the way those poor pigs did (and do).
Non-human nature is implacable (hurracanes, Tornados, etc) but human nature is perverse, very perverse: To the criminal acts we comit against one another we must addd the many more we comit against the non-human humane.
I watched the video. It's disturbing, but nowhere near as bad as you suggest. I think you're anthropomorphizing just a tad.
Nature is brutal. I guarantee that in the wild, pigs would not treat you nearly as kind as you think we should treat them. In fact, in Hawaii, wild pigs are responsible for more fatalities than sharks.
Tim, you ARE an assIdodeclare.
"nowhere near as bad as you suggest" -you must really be a disturbed sicko yourself if you think you can judge the degree of disturbance of these actions.
Not at all. I thought it would be completely unwatchable.
Instead, it just illustrated some brutal realities of the meat industry.
Things have to die, in order for humans to live. I prefer humans, so I accept that.
Wow Timmy - really?
Hypothesizing on how a pig would treat a human is an idiotic and irrelevant waste of time because that is not what PETA caught on tape.
What WAS caught on tape was the brutalization, torture and rape of helpless (infant and pregnant) animals - so how is that not so bad?
The problem with the world is people like you who think that the earth and it's creatures are here merely a resource for our benefit.
I suggest you learn to have some respect my friend - we are all in this together!!!!
"Hypothesizing on how a pig would treat a human"
It''s not a hypothesis. Feral pigs will kill and eat humans. It happens.
I also didn't see a pig raped. I heard someone talk about it, but it was not shown on the tape. Some guys brag about weird stuff. I have a feeling the other guys at the plant knew the girl with the camera was squeamish about the job, so they were trying to gross her out.
Incidentally, those creatures were put on earth by humans, for the purpose of feeding humans. So they are absolutely there for our benefit. Were it not for the love of bacon, they would never have been born.
I wonder why that is Timmy - do you think it is because they have an honest dislike of humans because ofwhat they do to them! Think about it.
this is beyond belief disgusting.
I am going to save all my money to give to PETA.
I will never knowingly buy factory farm meat again.
My heart cries out for those pigs and any other animals caught up in this very sad, inhumane miserable way of life.
These workers ought to be taken to re education camps.
lizr, I encourage you to one day give up ALL meat. It's so unnessary and your health, your vitality, your conscience, your budget, global warming, our planet and your karma will be all the better for it. It sounds like you're halfway there though so I wish you all the best on your journey.
Namaste
Your money is your business, but I'd recommend you give your money to someone more deserving. PETA is a huge corporation dedicated to making inflammatory, isolationist, sexist and useless remarks that don't properly represent most veg*ns.
One DESERVING charity is the Peaceful Prairie sanctuary. They have a beautiful blog.
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