Love for the animals. How can we forget about our fellow earthlings?
If you want to know where you would have stood on slavery before the Civil War, don’t look at where you stand on slavery today. Look at where you stand on animal rights. “
–Paul Watson
Cows are slaves
Some questions to consider:
Do you approve of animal cruelty?
If we take our children to a farmer’s market or farm to show them where their food comes from, shouldn’t we also take them to a slaughterhouse?
Did you know 1 BILLION one-day-old chicks are killed every year so people can raise and eat chickens and their eggs?
Are you aware?
Make this make sense: I’m a hero if I save an animal. I’m a psychopath if I kill an animal. I’m an extremist if I refuse to eat, wear or exploit animals.
How can you explain why some sentient animals matter less?
meat eater logic?
Did you know 900,000 cows are slaughtered EVERY. SINGLE. DAY, or that 202 MILLION chickens are killed everyday? That’s 140,000 every single MINUTE!
Do you approve of stealing baby cows from their mothers within 24 hours of their birth, never to drink their milk or know their mother’s love? (So humans can have milk)
Do you think it’s okay to accidentally kill millions of marine animals–including sea turtles, dophins, sting rays, known in the industry as by-catch?
Do you think chaining a baby male cow in a small hut so people can “enjoy” veal, tender baby cow, is okay?
What excuse justifies boiling, electrocuting, stabbing, drowning, crushing, grinding, shooting, starving, and beating other sentient beings to death?
Does this make sense?
How can you claim to be an animal lover if you support the pain, torture and death of thousands of animals every single day?
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”
–Charles Darwin, 1871
You should know that we humans regularly consume BABY animals!
Cows can live 25-30 years but are sent to slaughter at 18-24 months.
Pigs can live 15-20 years but are sent to slaughter when they are around 5 to 6 months old. This is why they are tender! Because they are babies!
Most chickens are slaughtered at just 40 days old even though they can live 5-10 years. In 1957 chickens weighed 905g, in 2005 they weighed 4,202g.
People scoff in my educational programs when I say that squirrels sometimes feed on bird eggs, or baby birds. Some people wrinkle their noses in disgust and say, “Gross!” But if you think so, then why it is okay for humans to regularly consume BABY animals? Why is this acceptable for us? Squirrels eat baby birds and eggs out of necessity–humans eat animal flesh and dairy products for a variety of reasons, but none of those are because we MUST. (Science has proven animal flesh and dairy products including milk and eggs are NOT necessary for good health.)
We never know that we’re consuming baby animals, because of course we never call it that since that would surely turn off some people to meat. We humans are fabulous at using fancy words to disguise what something is so it sounds more appealing— veal, calamari, filet mignon, and probably worst of all, foie gras. Know what foie gras really is and how it comes to be? Multiple times per day ducks and geese are force fed using foot-long tubes that are shoved down their throats so their livers become enlarged. And for this “luxury” people pay big bucks, not caring or knowing the torture required for this “tasty” treat.
Why do we love one, but kill the other? Why is one a pampered and revered member of our families, while the other suffers unconscionable torture and death?
Why do we love dogs, but kill pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys and other animals?
Why do we jail people for organizing dogfighting when every day far worse goes on behind the closed doors of slaughter houses? Animals getting “processed” while they’re still alive. Workers torturing animals for fun because there’s no oversight, no rules governing the behavior of workers. The USDA does not monitor what goes on in these places because when it’s a corporation, it’s okay, totally acceptable. Are you okay with that?
Are you okay with chopping pig or cow tails off, or clipping chicken beaks without anesthesi? Are you okay with chickens being ground up alive? Of course the industry calls it maceration, thinking we’re too stupid to understand what that means. What it means is that living male baby chicks are sent down a conveyer belt until the end when they are chopped into thousands of pieces, or put to death in gas chambers. (Don’t believe me? Here’s a video, which I recommend against watching if you want to continue to go on eating eggs or chickens, or raising chickens in your backyard since this “need” only supports this cruel industry practice.) Every hour, 30,000 freshly hatched male chicks suffer unimaginably cruel deaths due to the lack of protections and regulations around the methods of slaughter for poultry in the United States. Is this okay with you?
Are you okay with caging pigs in gestation crates that don’t even allow them to turn around, separating Mamas from their babies? Are you okay with weak or slow growing piglets being held by their back legs and slammed into the floor or wall to kill them, a practice with an actual name—called ‘thumping?’ Would you allow this to a dog or a cat? Why then is it okay if it’s a pig?
Are you okay stealing baby cows from their mothers, usually within 24 hours of their birth so humans can take their milk? Are you okay that these mama’s cry in anguish for their lost babies? Are you okay that male baby cows are either killed right away, or sent to become veal cows– chained by their necks and/or contained in small huts with no contact from their mothers? Are you okay with artificially inseminating female cows over and over again so they produce milk for humans to steal until they are “spent” and then sent to slaughter? Are you okay drinking milk intended for baby cows knowing those baby cows are robbed of their right to that milk? How is this different than slavery?
Are you aware that by eating these products everyday, you are supporting these horrific practices? Is this what you want to support? Do these actions align with your moral compass?
Jane Goodall says, “Meat symbolizes fear, pain and death, so I stopped eating it.”
Killing 220 MILLION land animals EVERY DAY for food: That’s 430,000 cows and buffalos, 3.1 million sheep and goats, 4 million pigs, 11 million ducks and geese and 207.4 million chickens and turkeys. This doesn’t even count the marine animals!
2.4-6.3 BILLION marine animals are killed every day. Every. Single. Day.
Joaquin Phoenix
It is estimated that the food industry kills at least 1.2 quadrillion animals every year. Look at this number! How is this allowed, and accepted?
1,200,000,000,000,000 animals! Killed so humans can “enjoy” a 15 minute meal!
How do we think this is sustainable, that this insatiable appetite for animals is not going to have negative impacts for our earth, for our oceans, for our fellow Earthlings, for ourselves?
“If we can live well without killing and harming other animals, why wouldn’t we?”—Gene Baur, founder of the first Farm Sanctuary, in Watkins Glen, NY
Quote on t-shirt
“We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature.”
The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell. (This is a fat book! You can read a summary here)
