A couple of days ago as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed somewhat absentmindedly, one story managed to capture my attention. It was a beautiful story with a substantial ‘feel-good’ element to it. A story of two sheep.
Somewhere in the United States of America there is a sheep farm. There is nothing particularly interesting about this farm. It is owned by a couple I know nothing about, and their children participate in the American 4-H programme, in which farming children are encouraged to raise ‘their own’ animals, invest in them emotionally, then once ready – sell them off to slaughter. I’ll get to that bit a little later.
In this said farm, there live two sheep. Of course, there were more sheep, but only these two are of interest to this story. To refrain from referring to them as ‘Sheep One’ and ‘Sheep Two’ I shall hereby name them Agnetha and Anni-Frid.
Like all sheep in farms around the world, Agnetha and Anni-Frid were bred to serve a purpose. This purpose is monetary. Their female reproductive systems are exploited for man’s financial benefit. Like their sisters, Agnetha and Anni-Frid are routinely forcefully impregnated, so that a new generation of lambs can then be ‘harvested’ to feed people who enjoy feasting on decomposing young flesh.
Agnetha and Anni-Frid were pregnant together. In silence they carried their babies to full term. I don’t know about you the reader, but as a mother who experienced this miraculous phenomenon first hand, I know the magical feeling of having a baby inside your uterus. Sensing it grow, the first tingling bubbles, the movements and the kicks, the hormonal storm, the growing heaviness of the breasts as their feeding role nears. As fellow mammals, I have no reason to doubt that Agnetha and Anni-Frid experienced such emotions as well, to some degree.
It was Agnetha who felt the pain of child birth first. It was early, her lamb was not yet due. In sadness she gave birth to her son. He was dead. In the morning, the farmer took away the lifeless little body.
I have another secret to share with you. I have experienced a silent birth. My son Gilead was born and died at twenty-week gestation. I know the emotional blow this tragic event causes. The deep sense of loss, the sorrow, the longing. One might think only human mothers can be riddled with the severe pain of a baby’s loss, but that is a very selfish and cynical human-centric view. All mammalian mothers are similar. Sheep are no different.
I have another secret to share with you. I have experienced a silent birth. My son Gilead was born and died at twenty-week gestation. I know the emotional blow this tragic event causes. The deep sense of loss, the sorrow, the longing. One might think only human mothers can be riddled with the severe pain of a baby’s loss, but that is a very selfish and cynical human-centric view. All mammalian mothers are similar. Sheep are no different.
Agnetha was devastated. Her grief was palpable. She didn’t stop crying. For days she kept calling for her baby, but he never came back.
A couple of weeks later, it was Anni-Frid’s turn to give birth. In pain she delivered two healthy lambs. Twins. Indeed, a happy occasion for the farmer; the birth went smoothly, without any losses to bear. Mazel Tov.
It was a few days later that an astounding discovery was made. On the sun-kissed field there stood Agnetha and Anni-Frid. But low and behold – BOTH were gently licking and tending to a precious little lamb! It was not down to a miracle, but rather a very poignant display of deep care and selfless love. Moved by the immense grief of her distraught friend, Anni-Frid has gifted one of her new-born lambs to Agnetha!
Agnetha (l) with the newborn lamb given to her by Anni-Frid (r) after her own was still-born. They are Suffolk sheep, one of the most popular of English breeds.
From the update I have read, the little lamb and Agnetha have deeply bonded. She mothers him gently, and he in turn follows here everywhere. She is his mother, and he is her baby. Forever.
Hold on a minute. Forever?
Well, no. In an ideal world the ending should have been “and they lived happily ever after…” but this is the real world, and this is a sheep farm, and there are no happy endings to these sheep.
One day soon-ish, as the lambs grow and fatten enough, they will be taken away from Anni-Frid and Agnetha. Imagine the horror and the desperation Agnetha will experience all over again. How many nights will she call him? I don’t know. A broken heart of a sheep must feel the same as that of a human. It was her miracle child. The epitome of the most beautiful friendship. But there is no mercy in the industry of flesh harvesting. How many more lambs will Agnetha be forced to deliver before her time is up and she and Anni-Frid are loaded on the truck that takes them to their horrific death? I couldn’t tell you. But the ending is a given. They will not escape it.
Now, I could have finished the story here, and allow you the reader to make the connections yourself, to draw the conclusion about the cruelty of flesh eating. To realise the insanity in sentencing such incredible beings to death simply because that’s what we’re used to. But there is another point I still wish to make.
As mentioned, the particular farm where Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s tale took place, promotes the 4-H programme. This programme, like the AAF and probably others, encourages children to raise animal friends all the way to slaughter. Children are assigned a young animal, be it a calf, a lamb, a kid etc., and they raise it with the devotion only a child can show when they want to prove themselves to adults. As can be expected, with time a bond is formed between the two children, the human and the non-human. The animal child learns to trust their human friend, and the human child cannot help but deeply connect with ‘their’ animal. But the time comes when the animal is ready to be sold for slaughter and it is the child’s duty to prove maturity as they are forced to say goodbye to their animal friend and leave them behind. Social media is full of soul-destroying images of distraught children crying, while their disconnected parents are full of praise for their children who managed to handle the devastating situation so well.
When I first came across this travesty, I couldn’t believe it at first, but I’ve been on social media for long enough to have come across this insanity time and time again. What does it really teach children, this practice of allowing them to connect with animals, knowing that this bond is doomed, and their trusting friend is scheduled to die sooner or later? What does it tell them about values such as compassion? Empathy? Loyalty? Trust?
What it does is desensitise these children to violence in the most abhorrent way possible. It makes them betray their friends whom they love in such an unforgivable manner, while the adults around them cheer on. These children’s natural sense of compassion is being actively lobotomised out of them, replaced with cold apathy and detachment from the cruelty they are directly responsible for. It is hard to comprehend how it’s not legally considered as parental child abuse.
And so, while Agnetha and Anni-Frid have shown us the kindest, deepest form of selfless love between two beings, what farming clearly shows us is that it’s time for it to end.
Maya Cohen-Ronen is an animal rights activist, and author of two dystopian suspense novels.
I am so grateful to live in New Zealand. Strong and compassionate leadership that values science and puts people lives first feels likes a rare thing in this world, and has been a hallmark of this time. As a nation, New Zealanders have been willing to listen to the science, and we have stayed the course, even though the financial implications of the Covid-19 lockdown will be huge. We have remained inside our flats, our houses, our boarding houses, our caravans. Sometimes with people who perhaps we would rather not share such close quarters with, in busy, stressed households, juggling children, study, work, tight budgets and difficult relationships.
Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, told us to ‘stay in our bubbles’ to save lives, so we have. The results are promising. To date, the number of confirmed cases in New Zealand is 1,112, with sixteen deaths. The vast majority of those who contracted the virus have now recovered.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has won respect all over the world for her wise, firm and compassionate leadership
Our experience in lockdown, as with people all over the world, has been a roller coaster of emotions. For many, the first week in particular was filled with dread, fear of the unknown, and stress as we tried to figure out what was happening. We wondered how it would impact on us, and how long it would be for. But ultimately the decision was made for us. We had a virus to contend with, and so we stayed home to protect each other. Can we not now use this unprecedented experience to extend our compassion and empathy circle a little wider?
Learning empathy is learning to see and experience the world through another’s eyes, learning to appreciate that another’s experience can be different from our own. It is what we try to teach our children when we ask them to share, and not hurt one another. The skill is valuable for humans as it allows us to function as a cohesive, caring society.
I would like to suggest we take a moment to strengthen our empathy muscle. Let’s imagine the experience of a mother pig in a factory farm, something we can relate to a little more now we are experiencing confinement ourselves.
In New Zealand, as with a number of other countries, we have banned sow crates, tiny enclosures, barely larger than the sow’s body, used to confine the sow during most of her pregnancy.
However we do still allow the use of farrowing crates. A farrowing crate is a small cage a mother pig is placed in during the last week of her pregnancy, and four weeks post pregnancy. She can only stand up and sit down. She cannot move around, and has little or no bedding. Here she is kept, feeding her piglets until they are removed for fattening to become the bacon and ham on our plates. Once she finally gets to leave, she will be impregnated again. She will do this repeatedly during her brutalised life, until it ends when her body is exhausted, and she is on the slaughterhouse floor.
If we can empathise with the life a mother pig lives in factory farms all over the world, then we can understand the extent of the horror we subject her to. She has a level of intelligence greater than our pooches we live with, and is very much aware of her suffering. Sure, we have had to stay inside for a few weeks, and it hasn’t always been easy. But it is nothing compared to the lifetime of suffering we inflict on mother pigs.
Is the taste of bacon really worth subjecting billions of pigs to suffer in factory farms?
Please can we take a moment to reflect on this suffering, and also address the question: ‘Isn’t it time to remove pork from our plate?’ Just as we listened to the science about how to control the spread of Covid-19, can we not also respect the science that tells us that pigs are sentient? That, like us, pigs experiences fear, trauma and suffering? Recognising this, how can we continue to force them into a life of unadulterated misery, merely because we like the taste of bacon.
One last word for the pig farmer. Many years ago I had a long conversation with a pig farmer when I was running an information stall protesting sow crates. He came to chat to me and was animated and upset. However, he ended the conversation admitting he did not like to do this to animals, but he needed to make a living. So, let’s lend our pig farmers a lifeline as they transition out of factory farming into something better suited to our modern world. Is it finally time that our wise and compassionate leadership acknowledged that by forgiving debt, and providing transition finance into new food growing, we can create a better New Zealand, and in so doing inspire the rest of the world?
Is it finally time that our wise and compassionate leadership acknowledged that by forgiving debt, and providing transition finance into new food growing, we can create a better New Zealand, and inspire the rest of the world?
Innovation and compassion are our hallmarks, and we are a fortunate people. So, how about we extend our compassion bubbles to include not only other humans, but also pigs and all other sentient beings.
Sarah writes, teaches and mentors in the development of veganic garden systems. She is a vegan and has a strong interest in the rights of non human animals.
This is the day we remember these wonderful mammals, and also the particular ways we continue to harm them.
Here are a few facts about dolphins:
Wild dolphins travel in extended family groupings called pods.
A pod of wild dolphins can travel up to 100 kilometers a day in the open ocean.
Each member of the pod has their own role, that focuses on the well being of the group.
Families frequently remain together for life.
The elder pod members protect the young and teach them crucial survival skills.
Dolphins have advanced communication and are thought by scientists to have names (unique whistles) for each other.
Many divers etc have documented their intelligent and playful behaviour when dealing with humans.
Dolphins’ prey is tracked by the projection of high-frequency sound waves (echolocation) that they are masters at interpreting, after 50 million years of adapting to their ocean homes.
In 2020, dolphins in the wild are threatened by humans in many ways. These include massacres (for example, Taiji), overfishing and by-kill in commercial fishing, and also by an increasingly ‘noisy’ ocean that harms their sensitive hearing and threatens their well being in the wild.
Dolphins (and other cetaceans) living in Seaworld and similar aquariums suffer endlessly, in multiple ways. They are placed in unfamiliar groupings with dolphins that have come from different families, making communication between them difficult. The confined, bare and sterile conditions causes them extreme aggression and frustration. Often they bear scars of clashing with tankmates, and also of self harm. Cetaceans in captivity have been observed regularly bashing their heads against the sides of their tank, and their teeth and mouth can bleed and swell from gnawing at the bars of their gates. At the other extreme of stress, some become very listless, and float around the tank all day, a phenomenon known as ‘logging.’
Dolphins in captivity have to be regularly treated with ulcer medication or antidepressant medication to alleviate the suffering they are forced to endure.
Food deprivation is one of the ways the entertainment industry uses to train them for the tricks dolphins have to perform. This is known as operant conditioning.
Because the tanks they are kept in are shallow, dolphins can experience sunburn, and zinc cream has to be applied to their skin. Heavily chlorinated tanks can burn and irritate their eyes. If the water is not properly cleaned and filtered, it can cause bacterial infections and open sores in the mammals.
Please, today and every day, let us think about these wonderful, intelligent and playful mammals who we are harming in so many grievous ways.
Please don’t support SeaWorld or any other aquariums, anywhere in the world.
For indepth information about Cetaceans, see this article:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12052-009-0135-2
Sandra Kyle
Sandra Kyle is the admin/editor of End Animal Slaughter, and a full-time Animal Rights activist.
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.
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.
“This is the kind of awareness, the kind of awakening that we need, and the future of the planet depends on whether we’re able to cultivate this insight or not. The Earth and all species on Earth are in real danger. Yet if we can develop a deep relationship with the Earth, we’ll have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change our way of life”.
We and the Earth are one
The Earth is our mother, nourishing and protecting us in every moment–giving us air to breathe, fresh water to drink, food to eat and healing herbs to cure us when we are sick. Every breath we inhale contains our planet’s nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and trace elements. When we breathe with mindfulness, we can experience our interbeing with the Earth’s delicate atmosphere, with all the plants, and even with the sun, whose light makes possible the miracle of photosynthesis. With every breath we can experience communion. With every breath we can savor the wonders of life.
We need to change our way of thinking and seeing things. We need to realise that the Earth is not just our environment. The Earth is not something outside of us. Breathing with mindfulness and contemplating your body, you realise that you are the Earth. You realise that your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth. Look around you–what you see is not your environment, it is you.
Great Mother Earth
Whatever nationality or culture we belong to, whatever religion we follow, whether we’re Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, or atheists, we can all see that the Earth is not inert matter. She is a great being, who has herself given birth to many other great beings–including buddhas and bodhisattvas, prophets and saints, sons and daughters of God and humankind. The Earth is a loving mother, nurturing and protecting all peoples and all species without discrimination.
When you realize the Earth is so much more than simply your environment, you’ll be moved to protect her in the same way as you would yourself. This is the kind of awareness, the kind of awakening that we need, and the future of the planet depends on whether we’re able to cultivate this insight or not. The Earth and all species on Earth are in real danger. Yet if we can develop a deep relationship with the Earth, we’ll have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change our way of life.
Falling in love
We can all experience a feeling of deep admiration and love when we see the great harmony, elegance and beauty of the Earth. A simple branch of cherry blossom, the shell of a snail or the wing of a bat – all bear witness to the Earth’s masterful creativity. Every advance in our scientific understanding deepens our admiration and love for this wondrous planet. When we can truly see and understand the Earth, love is born in our hearts. We feel connected. That is the meaning of love: to be at one.
Only when we’ve truly fallen back in love with the Earth will our actions spring from reverence and the insight of our interconnectedness. Yet many of us have become alienated from the Earth. We are lost, isolated and lonely. We work too hard, our lives are too busy, and we are restless and distracted, losing ourselves in consumption. But the Earth is always there for us, offering us everything we need for our nourishment and healing: the miraculous grain of corn, the refreshing stream, the fragrant forest, the majestic snow-capped mountain peak, and the joyful birdsong at dawn.
True Happiness is made of love
Many of us think we need more money, more power or more status before we can be happy. We’re so busy spending our lives chasing after money, power and status that we ignore all the conditions for happiness already available. At the same time, we lose ourselves in buying and consuming things we don’t need, putting a heavy strain on both our bodies and the planet. Yet much of what we drink, eat, watch, read or listen to, is toxic, polluting our bodies and minds with violence, anger, fear and despair.
As well as the carbon dioxide pollution of our physical environment, we can speak of the spiritual pollution of our human environment: the toxic and destructive atmosphere we’re creating with our way of consuming. We need to consume in such a way that truly sustains our peace and happiness. Only when we’re sustainable as humans will our civilization become sustainable. It is possible to be happy in the here and the now.
We don’t need to consume a lot to be happy; in fact we can live very simply. With mindfulness, any moment can become a happy moment. Savoring one simple breath, taking a moment to stop and contemplate the bright blue sky, or to fully enjoy the presence of a loved one, can be more than enough to make us happy. Each one of us needs to come back to reconnect with ourselves, with our loved ones and with the Earth. It’s not money, power or consuming that can make us happy, but having love and understanding in our heart.
The bread in your hand is the body of the cosmos
We need to consume in such a way that keeps our compassion alive. And yet many of us consume in a way that is very violent. Forests are cut down to raise cattle for beef, or to grow grain for liquor, while millions in the world are dying of starvation. Reducing the amount of meat we eat and alcohol we consume by 50% is a true act of love for ourselves, for the Earth and for one another. Eating with compassion can already help transform the situation our planet is facing, and restore balance to ourselves and the Earth.
Nothing is more important than brotherhood and sisterhood
There’s a revolution that needs to happen and it starts from inside each one of us. We need to wake up and fall in love with Earth. We’ve been homo sapiens for a long time. Now it’s time to become homo conscius. Our love and admiration for the Earth has the power to unite us and remove all boundaries, separation and discrimination. Centuries of individualism and competition have brought about tremendous destruction and alienation. We need to re-establish true communication–true communion–with ourselves, with the Earth, and with one another as children of the same mother. We need more than new technology to protect the planet. We need real community and co-operation.
All civilisations are impermanent and must come to an end one day. But if we continue on our current course, there’s no doubt that our civilisation will be destroyed sooner than we think.
But if we continue on our current course, there’s no doubt that our civilisation will be destroyed sooner than we think.
The Earth may need millions of years to heal, to retrieve her balance and restore her beauty. She will be able to recover, but we humans and many other species will disappear, until the Earth can generate conditions to bring us forth again in new forms. Once we can accept the impermanence of our civilization with peace, we will be liberated from our fear. Only then will we have the strength, awakening and love we need to bring us together. Cherishing our precious Earth–falling in love with the Earth–is not an obligation. It is a matter of personal and collective happiness and survival.
We have to stop killing pigs for food.
