OK Here's my thing! When I talk to people about why I am a vegan, I try to be honest and not judgmental, but inevitably it is clear that most people do not really see (or care to see) how the animal products they are eating or drinking get from the animal to the store. The animal product industry does not want you to see this either. It is kind of an unspoken agreement between ag business and consumers. If you want to eat that burger (or chicken or pork or bacon), you have to ignore and find ways to not think about the atrocities that occur.
I think many people don't want to face the animal suffering in these situations and they feel that the animals are here on this planet to be our food and if they suffer pain, eat low quality food or are not treated humanely, that is just how it is.
Large agribusiness sees their animals as a commodity and try to find ways to not spend lots of money to keep the animals happy and healthy. Their attitude is that since their 'products' are just going to slaughter, what is the point of caring about their quality of life before and during.
In the chicken egg industry, the male chicks would be more mouths to feed so they are killed at birth by throwing them from a conveyor belt in the trash or grinding them up. We go to the state fairs and see the 4H baby chicks. We all smile and marvel at their 'cuteness' not thinking that they have been born into a world that may exploit them for our own use.
The treatment of cows and pigs is no better. And it isn't just the meat industry that participates in this, but also the dairy industry. Yearly each dairy cow is inseminated by shoving a fist up inside the cow. Once she becomes pregnant and gives birth, her baby calf is taken away from her immediately so that every drop of her newly hormoned milk that was supposed to be fed to her baby and help her grow is now being processed for human consumption. When the removal of the calf takes place, the mother cow will wail and struggle to get to her baby as it is taken away and put in little enclosures, the baby male calves just waiting to be sent to slaughter and made into veal and females kept to replace the cows as they get older. If you have ever seen or heard the mother cow's cries (I have many times in videos) it is horrific.
So please check out this Vegan commercial from Israel that reflects what I have been talking about. I applaud Israel for doing so much to encourage us to eat a plant-based diet.
So, having said the above, I will get to my original question. Would you like to clean up animal waste in those cramped quarters?; would you like to work in the staughterhouse with the animals stunned?, turned upside down on the line so the blood can run out?, then killing them, cutting them apart?, then onto the assembly line to cut further to get ready for packaging?. Then there's the cleanup crew to take care of the blood, organs, and animal waste. Sound good? I suspect and, in fact, know that most people want to eat the animals but do not want to participate in the taking care of, killing of and cleaning up so much animal waste.
So this is where we discover that these agribusinesses employ disenfranchised workers like immigrants, the poor - people who are desperate to take care of their families and can't find work elsewhere. The wage is low, the benefits are slim - many do not offer health care and if they get hurt or sick they may be fired, many deal with blood, feces, internal organs, knives etc on a daily basis. It is like working on an assembly line but one that is there for killing animals. In addition, the employers may force workers to live at very unpleasant places with many people to 1 room. The employees have no rights and no way to fight back. If they were paid a living wage and provided employee benefits, would you be willing to pay more for your meat? Probably not!!!!
What inspired me to do this post was a T-shirt I saw at a local small Apple Orchard. This place is my favorite because you can pick your own apples and they have a dog greeting guests and pumpkins and all the usual autumn fare. When I was there last week, I noticed that they had a T-shirt for sale with PETA on it. At first I was quite excited, but on closer examination, I saw that they were using the abbreviation PETA for "People For Eating Tasty Animals". This upset me quite a bit that they would carry such a shirt that makes fun of an organization that is trying to address the inhumane treatment of the animals destined for our dinner plate.
So, back to the original question? If you had to take care of these animals, kill them and clean up, would you be able to do it? If not, do you feel comfortable letting others do this for you, knowing that you can get all the nutrition you need (including protein) from plants? You can personally affect the animal and human conditions by refusing to contribute and participate in the atrocities and GO VEGAN. You will feel so much better!!!
If not, you may get some insights from some movies that can inspire the journey from eating many animals to being an ethical vegan. There are many, but here are a few that I have watched and was inspired by myself.
