Author: Sandra Kyle

SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, LAND MEATS WHANGANUI, NEW ZEALAND

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

End Animal Slaughter’s SANDRA KYLE does twice-weekly vigils near her home in Whanganui, New Zealand.  These photographs are from her latest vigil.

 

The beautiful beings in my photos were among 150 or so cows waiting at a slaughterhouse to be killed.   I photographed them at one of my twice weekly vigils in Whanganui, New Zealand.

The animals stood on concrete in their own urine and feces, their flesh pressed against iron bars.  While some cows were tightly packed, there was room in other pens for the animals to take a few steps forward and back. As they jostled around nervously, some of them slipped in the muck.   When the innocent and vulnerable find themselves in dire straits it just kills me.

Every face shows their sadness, their fear.   They also reveal their innocence.  Animals, unlike people, are free from defilements.

They had been hours without eating, with hours more of hunger to endure before they would be delivered of the misery visited on them by us.    Slaughterhouses do not feed animals, even when they have many hours to wait.  It’s a ‘waste of money’ and also ‘it makes too much of a mess when they’re being processed.’ The last thing they want is intestinal contents and feces everywhere, adding to the risk of contamination. So the girls and boys go hungry.

As usual, I spoke to the gentle earthlings, and sang to them.  I hoped that, momentarily at least, their spirits might be lifted.   But of course, I couldn’t save them.

I hoped the night would not be too long for them, and that they could get some sleep. I hoped that tomorrow when the men with the electric prods and stun guns and knives began their wicked work that society has normalised, that the slaying would be carried out with the minimum of pain and fear.

Please look at their beautiful faces, and bear witness to their lives.  If you want to learn more about Animal Save movement  go to thesavemovement.org

Dog and Pig: Speciesism explained

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

Why do we love one and eat another?   In this short article End Animal Slaughter’s SANDRA KYLE outlines the meaning of the word ‘speciesism’.

 

Human relationships with non-human animals are not straightforward.  They are contradictory, and differ according to cultures. We assign different moral values to individuals based solely on their species membership, and this is analogous to prejudice regarding race (racism) or gender (sexism).   This type of behaviour is therefore called speciesism. 

Speciesism manifests itself in the near-universal belief that humans are intrinsically more valuable than individuals of other species.  Some common assumptions are (1) Animals are less cognitively able than humans so are therefore superior; (2) Animals, unlike humans, cannot have moral intention; and  (3)  Animals are less sentient, and don’t feel and experience suffering the same way we do.  

In the past several decades scientific evidence has challenged these long-held assumptions, sometimes overwhelmingly.   For example, the question whether animals can be moral agents is amassing a growing field of literature, and altruism has been documented in many species.  In one example, from New Zealand in 2008, a bottle-nosed dolphin came to the rescue of a disoriented mother whale and her calf,  and led them into safe waters.   Without the dolphin’s guidance, the whales would most likely have died.  

 

 

On the question of cognitive ability, there have been countless studies on vertebrates that have been going on for decades now, that show they can solve puzzles, and communicate with humans in remarkably sophisticated ways. 

Washoe the female Chimp successfully learned more than 350 words using American Sign Language  

Example:   Dog and Pig

An example of speciesism in western societies is the comparative positions of the family dog, and the pig who is raised for consumption.   The former is treasured while the latter is commonly kept in conditions of physical and psychological torture before being slaughtered so we (and our pets) can eat them.  In western society dogs have a much higher status than pigs, despite the fact that both species have similar mental and emotional capabilities (Mendl, Held, & Byrne, 2010).   What’s more, both have shown similar results on the ‘mirror test’, revealing a level of self awareness.  We see, even within one culture, that attitudes towards animals are consistent.   A dog and a pig may are cognitively comparable, and both are sentient, but we love one, and torture and eat the other. 

Cultural differences

Cultural differences play a big part in how we perceive other animals.  For example, we are incensed at Koreans eating dog, but tuck into our bacon sandwich without a morsel of regret.  Whether an animal is ‘man’s best friend’ or ‘dirty beast’, is largely determined by the culture we live in.

 

 Mechanisms by which we justify speciesism

To carry out such extreme and contradictory behaviours,  we need to employ mechanisms to justify our position.   These mechanisms may include moral justification, euphemistic language, displacement of responsibility, dehumanization, moral disengagement and cognitive dissonance.

Opposing speciesism

Opposing speciesism doesn’t mean treating all species the same in all situations.   It merely means that we should not use an individual’s species as the basis for harming or protecting them.   If you think it is wrong to kill a dog for food, then it is also wrong to kill a pig – or a sheep, a chicken, or any other animal. 

Quite apart from their differing cognitive levels, or level of moral agency, both common sense and countless scientific studies tell us that all animals, including those who live in the sea,  are alike in their capacity to suffer, and their desire to avoid fear and death. 

Therefore, animal sentience – the ability to feel physical and emotional pain –  should be the key factor guiding the way we treat other animals.   

 

Pigs in Peril: Slaughterhouse deregulation in the US

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

Gail A. Eisnitz, author of ‘Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry’, and 2004 winner of the Albert Schweitzer Medal, is the author of our featured article.

In December this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will implement its ‘modernization’ plan for the slaughter of pigs (hogs).    Under the new rules, meat processing companies will be given the green light to operate without a ceiling cap, effectively a licence to kill as many pigs as they can, as fast as they can. The new laws also make key inspection duties within plants self-regulating, an inherent conflict of interest that will end up badly not only for workers, but potentially for public health and, of course, for the principal victims, the pig themselves.

As Eisnitz documented in her ground-breaking book,  pigs in high-pressure, chaotic slaughterhouse environments were still conscious after being stunned, shackled, hoisted and stuck (throats slit).  Others regained consciousness and ending up being thrown in the scalding tank, still alive, spending their last moments in unimaginable, excruciating agony.   Employees at these high speed plants routinely resorted to brutality against the animals, to vent their frustrations as they attempted to cope with the physically and emotionally heavy demands on them.

If the legislation comes into effect  this dire situation will only get worse.  Unless there is grassroots action to urge lawmakers to stop the implementation of these ill-conceived and inhumane changes, the Trump government will be responsible for jeopardizing the physical and mental health of slaughterhouse staff; consumers will be more likely to contract disease; and even more intelligent, sentient beings will die in conditions of extreme terror and agony.

Read the article here

‘Every horse can’t be a winner. What can they do with these horses?’ Interview with a kill buyer.

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s expose this week on the abbatoir fate of ex racehorses has shocked the world.  This article that first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald shows that despite pleading ignorance about how many ex racehorses end up as horse meat, it is mainly trainers who sell their gallopers directly to kill buyers.   

Read the article here

 

 

‘Violent, gory and agonising’ – the tragic fate of ex-racehorses

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

This week the Australian Broadcasting Corporation aired a programme about the fate of ex champion racehorses who, instead of being retired to live out their lives in peace and safety,  ended up in abattoirs and knackeries.  Shocking undercover footage taken in Australian saleyards and slaughterhouses shows them being cursed at, beaten and injured by workers before they were killed.   

This is the fate of far too many racehorses all over the world.  A recent film,  Platinum Ticket’s Final Ride,  looks at the process that led to US champion gelding Platinum Ticket’s tragic end in an abattoirAKL.   

Read also the article shared from All-Creatures.org 

Quote from the article:

  “As with other species, slaughter occurs by the cutting of both carotid (neck) arteries which results in their bleeding to death. In some cases horses are hanged by the neck from chains until they suffocate; just one method of subduing the power of a large creature whose utter terror – even in a wounded and depleted state – makes their desperate fight for life dangerous to their killers and a financial risk to their plant and equipment. It is violent, gory and agonising. Like all our victims, their fear is simply off the scale.”

 

 

 

 

 

‘We All Need To Stop And Ask For Change’

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

Just days after animal justice group Animal Rebellion was banned from protesting in London this week, they stormed Newman’s Abattoir in Farnborough and u-locked and chained themselves to a slaughter truck.  Eighteen arrests were made, and three activists have been charged as a result of the action.

Excerpts:

“It was our duty to come here and make these demands – that we must transition to a sustainable food system, and stop exploiting the millions of cows, pigs, sheep, and goats who pass through this slaughterhouse every year. Our activists arrested this morning are heroes and will be remembered for this courage in the face of harsh police tactics.”

“Animal Rebellion accepts the need to support meat industry workers to transition to the production of alternative products, and calls on the government to immediately implement policies to support this change towards a plant-based food system, and work, for example, with the Vegan Society’s Grow Green Campaign, that helps farmers transition from meat and dairy to veg production”.

Read the Sentient Media article here

 

 

‘What Pom Pom Taught Me….’

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

When End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle looked after a one month old lamb she found out some endearing things about sheep.   

It is estimated we slaughter more than half a billion animals every single year for food, and also for religious sacrifice.

See Sandra’s blog below, and read PETA’s article about un-ewe-sual facts about this much-underestimated species. 

 

WHAT POM POM TAUGHT ME

When one of my music student’s family went away, they asked me if I would look after their pet Romney lamb. Pom Pom entered my home for the first time wearing two nappies, and proceeded to bound around excitedly. When you are just three weeks into this world, everything is new, everything is an adventure – there are so many sights, sounds and smells you are experiencing for the first time!   His human mother showed how to prepare his formula and bottle feed him, an experience I won’t quickly forget! It was like holding onto a suction pipe, and I wondered if my arm would disappear down his throat as he pulled on the teat in strong, intense gulps, his long tail wagging in enjoyment, just like a dog’s.

I kept Pom Pom outside in my back yard for most of the day, with frequent visits for a feed or cuddle, and at night he slept inside in a cage lined with hay. Once or twice I would get up to check on him and when he saw me he would shake off sleep and get to his feet, pressing his forehead against the cage for me to stroke his head and ears. I could tell he enjoyed, and got comfort from, this simple act of affection, and a bond soon got established between us.

If I were out in the unfenced area of my yard Pom Pom would be with me, supervised so he wasn’t tempted to jump over the low fence that borders the front of my property. He would go from area to area, bush to bush, curious and enthusiastic, sampling some of the food Nature provides his kind.  At first he didn’t seem to know how to eat properly and I frequently saw him with a blade of grass hanging out of his mouth while he made contorted mouth and head movements trying to get it inside! Pom Pom didn’t have a sheep Mum or flock to show him what to do, and some things he had to trial and error for himself.

When I needed to put him in the secure area at the back of my property, which he didn’t like so much because there was no company, he would jump up and bunt the fence as I closed the gate, to show me how angry he was. When Pom Pom wanted food or company, he would maaaa loudly, a sound that reminded me of a baby crying.

One of the cutest things about Pom Pom was when his spirits were high he would run around the house, from time to time springing in the air and kicking his back legs together sideways, like Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain.   Sometimes at the end of such a display he would finish off by landing on all four feet at the same time – thump thump thump thump thump, and then come to a complete halt as if to say ‘Well, that was fun! What now?’

Looking after Pom Pom for ten days confirmed what I already knew. That sheep are sentient beings. They feel pain and sorrow. They have intelligence, desires, drives, perceptions, fears and joys. They respond to love. Nature has equipped them with inner knowledge, but they still have to learn how to do the most basic things, just like human children do.

When his family came to pick him up they all noticed how Pom Pom had grown. He was already big and strong, his coat had grown thick and he was much heavier. They noticed how he didn’t want to leave my side. I knew that he would miss me for all of five minutes, and then he would adjust again to his human family, and his life with them. Pom Pom has his own secure paddock next to their house, and plenty of interaction with his human family. Soon the family will be adopting two more sheep, so he will also have the company of his own kind.

I feel angry and sad when I think of the impassive, noble faces of sheep I have seen on slaughter trucks, mud-caked and packed together, commodities for farmers and meat eaters alike. I feel angry and sad when I think of all the newborn lambs like Pom Pom who, come Christmas, will arrive at slaughterhouse gates, maaaaing with fear and confusion. My heart hurts and I shake my head with disbelief in the knowledge that staff will push them around, and listen to them crying like babies before they shatter their brains and slit their throats.

I am beside myself with sorrow when I think of the half billion animals, many of them sheep, brutally sacrificed every year for Eid and other religious festivals.

This is no way for civilised human beings to be living their lives. Eating baby animals, eating any animals, requires an act of violence and injustice. It is barbaric to be slaughtering intelligent, sensitive, sentient – and possibly sapient – beings for our taste buds, when we don’t need to be doing it.

If you like to eat roast lamb, has reading this account made any difference to you at all?   Maybe not, but if not, why not?

Only you can answer that question.

Animal cruelty is largely ignored, when it comes to fishes

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

This week a global salmon farm operation headquartered in Canada, is under investigation for animal cruelty as a result of a campaign conducted by Compassion Over Killing (COK).   Undercover footage shows salmon being scooped out of cramped tanks and tossed into plastic containers where they are left to slowly suffocate.  

Read the Guardian article here. 

Fishes are without doubt the most abused vertebrates on the planet, and the last for the public to recognize their sentience.    Despite many scientific investigations showing they feel pain and emotions, are smart, and form attachments just like other groups of animals, it is still widely believed by the general public that fishes do not possess these characteristics.  Joker Star Joaquin Phoenix describes a fishing experience that he had at the age of 3: “The animal went from a living, vibrant creature fighting for life to a violent death. I recognized it, as did my brothers and sisters.” 

It is not OK to torture sentient beings by painfully ripping open their flesh, and suffocating them.  It is a bad idea to teach a child to fish, and it’s time to throw the fishing rod on the recycle truck.    Commercial fishing and fish farming is extremely cruel to fishes, and should be banned.  

So what does a fish feel and know?   Read the Q&A with scientist and author Jonathan Balcome, author of What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of our Underwater Cousins 

Read the Huffpost article here: 

 

 

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SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGILS, Whanganui and Christchurch (NZ), 13 October, 2019

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

END ANIMAL SLAUGHTER’S SANDRA KYLE, (70), DOES TWICE WEEKLY VIGILS, OFTEN ALONE, OUTSIDE ONE OF TWO SLAUGHTERHOUSES IN HER HOME TOWN OF WHANGANUI, NEW ZEALAND.   SHE IS PART OF THE WORLDWIDE  ANIMAL SAVE MOVEMENT, THAT HAS NEARLY 900 GROUPS ON FIVE CONTINENTS. NEW ZEALAND HAS FIVE ANIMAL SAVE GROUPS WHOSE REGULAR ACTIONS OUTSIDE SLAUGHTERHOUSES ARE GROWING IN STRENGTH AS MORE VEGANS BECOME ACTIVE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE INNOCENT AND THE DEFENSELESS.  

JOY ANN SATCHELL, (73),  OF THE CHRISTCHURCH (NZ) ANIMAL SAVE GROUP ALSO DID A SOLITARY VIGIL THIS WEEKEND.   AN EXCERPT FROM HER REPORT:

‘It was a new experience standing alone at the slaughter house gates. I spent more time talking to the animals, over and over, I told them how sorry I am. I told them, I see you and this is goodbye.  Seeing the trucks arrive carrying their precious cargo, I felt deeply sad…. The sadness only strengthens my resolve to fight harder.
There they stand these beautiful, gentle cows, waiting in holding pens until tomorrow. In the morning they will be herded through the slaughter house doors, and they will be murdered with a knife across their throat. Bodies to be chopped up, wrapped up and put on display in a supermarket. This is the sole purpose they they were born, to fill the appetite of people who crave dead flesh.  They have as much blood on their hands as the slaughter house worker. They support this horrific industry’.

AN EXCERPT FROM SANDRA’S REPORT

SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, Whanganui, 13 October 2019

With Monika still away in Australia I was by myself again today.

As the sheep and bobbycalf slaughterhouse wasn’t receiving cattle today, I went to the nearby cow and pig slaughterhouse and stood on the roadside with my signs. I have never noticed a gender bias for drivers’ positive toots, although more males yell out expletives and give the finger and other gestures of disapproval than females do. I had quite a few of those today, plus a man who pulled up beside me and angrily told me off for trespassing.

I walked around the side where the pens are and looked over.   A group of Black Angus were directly below me. I have noticed that Black Angus tend to be more agitated than the other breeds of cows I see, who I would describe as looking more scared and depressed. Can anyone who knows more about cattle than I do tell me why this would be? Why would Black Angus be visibly more agitated than other cows? Are they known for being more highly strung?

I stood in the part of the forecourt that is designated as pedestrian and took photos of animals who arrived in two truckloads. The sun was shining and there was little wind, and although I was more than thirty feet away, the animals could clearly hear me talking to them: ‘Hello my darlings, Hey babies! How are my boys?’ How are my girls? You’re so beautiful. I love you so much. You’re so beautiful, aren’t you babies?’. I also sang to them, ‘Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram’ – over and over again, until every cow was unloaded from both trucks.

I know many dedicated animal activists who won’t do slaughterhouse vigils, because it is so confronting and so depressing. I understand that; I still get depressed, every single time. Yet even though the sights, the smells, and the sounds – metal doors clanging, chaotic hooves on wooden ramps, rough shouts from the workers – play on my mind, I still want to do this work. Seeing the poor animals makes me all the more determined to do everything I can to stop the terrible injustice.

 

Eating animals is barbaric, but it’s easy to adopt a vegan diet

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

End Animal Slaughter contributor LAURIE TURUNEN is an artist, and is currently writing a vegan cookbook.   In this short article she asks us to consider our assumptions about why it’s OK to eat meat, and urges us to adopt a healthier, more compassionate vegan diet.

 

Humans who believe they are nice people, yet support the kind of injustice and savagery to animals required to produce the meat they eat, really need to ask why their “niceness” is selective.

If I said I would get hold of a dog, forcibly inseminate her, take her baby away if it’s a boy and kill it, take her milk, repeat the whole cycle again until she can’t take it any more and then kill and eat her, would you think this was OK.   Why then is this OK for a dairy cow?

Do you willingly support the worst inhumane atrocities to others who experience pain just like us?  If you were being tortured and mutilated, kept in a tiny smelly cage, soaking in your own excrement, waiting to be violently slaughtered, would you want everyone to just mind their own business?

If you eat meat, would you be able to kill the beautiful lamb in this photo? No??? Then how natural is it for humans to be eating animals? Humans are not lions, tigers or bears so we should stop pretending we have the same instincts.

It is time for you to stop and think about what you have been so programmed to believe is necessary or ethically okay.   Killing and chopping up animals to eat them is neither.

Going vegan is the awakened, compassionate thing to do. I don’t care how addicted you are to eating dead body parts or how much you believe you need them. You don’t need them and your habits are easy enough to change.

Eating low fat vegan, mainly fruits, vegetables and herbs, does the body a lot of good. For example, there are studies that show that eating heme iron from meat increases the likelihood of heart disease, cancer and diabetes significantly! It’s the non heme iron from plants, like leafy greens, vegetables, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes and some grains, that is the healthiest type of iron for the human body.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine among other medical bodies support a plant based diet, and state that plant-based food is superior to meat.  All plants contain protein and vital nutrients to keep you healthier.   Protein is NOT the most important nutrient in our food! Even if you believed it was, there is more than enough of it in plants.

Our food should not be barbaric. Eating animals is nothing but that.    If we eat meat and dairy, then it is time for you to go deep and question your heavy programming, misinformation and lies that have been drilled into you since birth.

Adopting a vegan diet is the healthiest, most sustainable and compassionate thing to do.   What’s more, with so many choices now, it is easy.  

Have mercy on animals and improve your own health by going vegan.

Mooove Over Animal Agriculture: Plant Proteins Are Mushrooming

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

Emerging technologies spell the end of animal agriculture within a couple of decades, according to a new report from international Think Tank RethinkX. While we agree, at End Animal Slaughter we believe that the report’s authors timeline is too conservative – by 2025 most animal-derived protein will have come to an end in the western world. 

Farmers should be reading the signs now, and begin the work of transitioning.

Read a summary of the report here