Laurie Turunen: ‘What kind of loving person would choose to eat a tortured animal’?

End Animal Slaughter contributor Laurie Turunen describes some unpalatable facts that take place in places of ‘agony, horror and extreme violence.’

Recently someone posted a graphic video of a spent dairy cow on Facebook. She hung upside-down, her throat slashed open, head almost severed, while her legs were being cut off, one by one. Her whole body was still twitching. I’ve seen many slaughterhouse videos over the years that have absolutely horrified me. I have witnessed fully aware and alert cattle having their throats violently slashed as they bellowed in agony. Some animals will try to stand once their throat is slashed. They will slip and slide in their own pooling blood. I’ve seen screaming pigs, with neck gashes, immersed in scalding water, frantically trying to find their way out. There are far too many horrors I care to repeat.

Slaughterhouses are places of agony, horror and extreme violence. What in God’s name are we to do, as a species, about such behaviour? Continue to condone it!? Humans who support or condone the brutal killing of sentient beings have a long way to go in learning what true empathy and compassion are. What kind of loving person would choose to eat a tortured animal, when they could eat a heaped mound of tasty, healing plant foods? There are so many advantages to being vegan. For example, vegans on average live longer healthier lives than non vegans and that is a fact.

Most spiritual seekers are non vegan. They speak about kindness, compassion, love and light, yet to me so much of it is self righteous BS. How much delusion can a person have to say they love and respect others when they support the torture of animals and then salivate at the dismembered body parts that cover their plates? True, they act kind some of the time, but when it comes to other animals they put up a mental curtain and act just the opposite, willingly supporting the sadistic torture of other beings! Even if you are somehow unaware of the horrors that take place in a slaughterhouse, if you buy these “foods” you are still responsible for their continued existence. You may not like to hear that, but it’s the truth.  It’s also the truth that most animals you choose to ingest live a nightmarish life before they meet their end on their way to your plate.

Are we still savages? It is no wonder there are so many flesh-eating zombie movies and vampire movies. So many humans love to eat dead bodies, soaked in blood, salivating when they think about it.   This is how incredibly programmed humans are! You will only begin to understand just how insane this all is when you adopt a cruelty-free diet. Those who say ‘But plants have feelings too’ are blatantly disingenuous. An animal should never be compared to an apple or a potato. To compare cutting up a potato with cutting up a screaming, terrified pig is nonsensical. Animals are amazing sentient beings, deserving to live their lives without us savagely harming them. They are more similar to us than we realize. It’s a good thing most humans have not been programmed to eat other humans because that would likely be the norm today, too. It’s all so insane, when you really think about it. When I see a person eating a chicken, cow, pig…the feelings that well up in me could be compared to a meat eater witnessing someone roasting a friendly and faithful golden retriever. We have an enormous amount of healing, delicious plants to eat and there is no longer any need to feel that eating plant-based is somehow a sacrifice. Eating a proper plant-based diet is what has helped me the most with improving serious health issues. This is what everyone’s body is designed to eat, yours included. To believe otherwise is a lie.

We thrive on plants, which are carbohydrate rich, generally lower in fat, nutrient rich and fibre rich. There are more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in plants than in flesh, and a plant-based diet furnishes more than adequate protein to sustain us. Where do the strongest animals – the elephants, the rhinos, the gorillas – get their protein from? All protein originates from plants. All B12 originates from a bacteria in the soil. All DHA originates from algae. There is nothing that the body needs that cannot be gotten from the plant kingdom. You are not a lion, you are not a bear, you are not a cat. You are human, and humans are supposed to eat plants. Any other belief is simply more programmed misinformation.