One of the leaders is Patty Mark, who has protested against slaughterhouses for decades. Read about Patty in this article.
‘A new effort has emerged to end the slaughterhouses of the Western world by 2025: The website states: “There is an enormous amount of evidence that killing animals for food is a root cause of not only of enormous animal suffering but also global warming, biodiversity loss, human disease, and poverty in the developing countries.”
When one opens the website, a kill counter starts the count of animals being killed since opening the page. An estimated 3 billion land animals and wild and farmed fish are killed daily.
That count does not include hunting and trapping our natural predators and wildlife, the by-catch, and poaching of the last of our wild creatures to facilitate slaughter of the enslaved.’
We have an animal holocaust going on worldwide. Why do you deny it? I’m so sick or hearing your excuses!
I’m getting to know you all too well. I talk to you every day, those of you who farm and process animals and their products, and also those of you who consume them. I’m so tired hearing about your animal welfare standards. They mean nothing to the suffering of the animals subjected to this ‘humane’ care. From in-utero to death, from marketing to consumption, you are contributing to animal misery and anguish. We’re talking about billions of executions after a life of torture with no crime committed. Where precisely is your link in this chain of animal cruelty?
You know who you are. You are the veterinarians who work at the farms; small, factory and in-between. Your job is to keep the animals alive and walking in step only so they can be killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan. You keep compassionate, intelligent, emotional beings physically well enough until it is time to kill them to earn money for the farmers. You are just facilitating the terrible crime that keeps them in their prisons. Here’s one example: you help farmers keep their sows in gestation and farrowing crates by tending to the sores where their soft bodies rub against iron bars. How can you call yourself veteranians? You took a oath to protect animals and relieve their suffering, not perpetuate it.
You know who you are. You are the consumer of animal products. I hear you say so often ‘I love animals.’ ‘I can’t bear animal cruelty’, and yet you pay someone to kill animals so you can eat or wear them. Stop turning away from an inconvenient truth! Research the facts! Make no mistake, the blood is on your hands of those who give their lives for your cheese, milk, roast dinner, omelette. Farm animal brutality would not even exist without your ignorant or heartless use of your dollars. Stop sticking your head in the humane washing machine! It’s time you informed yourself. The power to do this resides with you and no-one else.
Jo Frederiks Art
You know who you are. You are the super-rich and powerful owners of companies that produce, process and sell animal products. You make millions from farm animal exploitation. They have none of the instruments of power you possess, and can’t speak for themselves. Even humans can’t fight you, they are also under your money-thumb. As long as your pockets are full what does it matter that billions of animals are killed every year? As long as your investors are happy, who cares about the rest?
What does it matter that dairy calves are taken away from their mothers just hours after birth? Who cares if dairy cows go to slaughter completely spent at 5 years old when their natural lifespan is close to 20 years? As long as you’re making money from them, what does it matter?
If a fetal calf is taken from his slaughtered mother and has all its blood drained out while still alive, then so be it. The huge Biotech community will reap the profits. If a piglet has its testicles cut out without pain relief so its meat tastes better, then so be it. The pork associations don’t care. If bouncing little male chicks in egg-laying hatcheries are ground up or suffocated within moments of hatching, then so be it. Who cares if they have never known the shelter of a maternal wing? If female chicks have their beak trimmed and some toes cut off to fit them for a life in a battery cage, then so be it. Who cares if they have the cognition of a toddler human? What does it matter to the Big Egg producers and the laying farms? They only care about the mighty dollar.
Let’s pause a moment to consider the often forgotten in animal farming – fish. In the ag-business of fish farming sentient, playful, social fish lead miserable lives, overcrowded in vats of filthy water laced with chemicals to keep them alive. They endure this horror only to be conscious while being killed. Their gills are cut and they are left to bleed to death in agony. Large fish are at times hit on the head with a bat and are often alive when cut open. But what does it matter? They are just fish.
They are just chickens.
They are just pigs.
They are just cows.
They are just animals.
Jo Frederiks Art
Shame on you if you own and run animal farms! Please don’t tell me you care for your animals. What you care for is efficiency, with an eye on the most dollars you can get from your products, alive and dead. You don’t sentence those you love to a life of misery and removal to a horrible death do you? Even those of you who allow your animals to live a comparatively decent life still send them away from their home and family, and some of you even put a bullet in their brain yourselves. You become their friends and care takers, then betray their affection when they can no longer earn their keep. Research! Think! When you do you will discover that consumers are leaving off the baby cow milk and cadaver meat in droves, and the future of farming is plant-based.
The penultimate link in the chain of production in the lives of farmed animals is transportation and slaughter. Hundreds of millions are transported in the US every year for breeding, fattening and slaughter. The industry calls it a “stage of production” referring to live beings as if they were tyres in an auto factory. Before being transported they have to endure herding and catching. Chicken catching is particularly stressful. Chicken catchers pursue and grab the birds, hold them upside down six to a fist, then slam them into transport crates. How would you like a electrical prod up the rectum and be moved into a totally unfamiliar place where you will have your throats slit? That’s what six month old piglets endure. They are supposed to live over 15 years. At a moment’s notice they must leave their homes and family to be placed in a crowded truck where they are transported in conditions that could be sweltering or freezing, deprived of food water and bedding for hours on end. Some animals experience such extreme stress that they die en route. Because of these horrible impacts on animals the issue of transportation has been addressed by federal, state and international bodies. The laws are clear but as is the case with so many rules in this industry, they are not enforced.
And now we come to the last link in the chain; slaughter, and the various euphemisms used to describe it. Call it ‘harvesting’, ‘processing’, ‘culling’ all you like, the fact remains that it is taking away the life of a helpless being against its will. Murder, execution, killing, homicide, slaying, massacre, butchery, carnage, bloodbath, annihilation, and destruction are all more truthful words to use. Why don’t you admit it? Call a spade a bloody spade, because that’s what it is.
Most people who read this will be at the consumer end of the production chain, and so my question is primarily for you. Are you ready to let it go yet, and transition to a vegan diet?
If not now, then when? If not you, then who?
Jo Frederiks Art
Sometimes people criticise vegans by accusing them of pretending to be better than others. I believe it is a great mistake for anyone to pretend that they are better than others, and it is a sure way to alienate them. However, my own life is immeasurably better now than it was before I became vegan because I now have the priceless joys of a clear conscience and peace in my heart.
It saddens me to think that a lot of people feel threatened by the word vegan, and I believe this reflects a misunderstanding of what being vegan means. Being vegan is primarily about living a kind and caring life by not harming others. Only by cherishing others, and the environment, can our lives ever hope to bloom. A vegan diet is merely a means to that end, not an end in itself, as some people appear to believe. It is not about losing anything; on the contrary, it is about gaining Life itself.
People everywhere dream of happiness and peace. However, they fail to realise their dreams because of the way they behave. Peace and happiness are the consequences of a peaceful and caring life. They are forever denied to those who inflict monstrous, and totally unnecessary, suffering on innocent creatures.
As a species we have taken the wrong track in life. Not only are we not realising our dreams but we are destroying ourselves in the pursuit of false pleasures. We have no need of animal foods and both our physical and emotional lives are vastly better without them. The greatest tragedy of all is that in our fruitless quest for pleasure we are causing unspeakable, unimaginably horrible suffering to multitudes of our fellow creatures. As we brutalise them we ourselves become brutes. The peaceful heart and the bloody hand do not inhabit the same body.
Last, but not least, we are not only destroying our humanity by our callous behaviour but the very environment on which we all depend. We must therefore make drastic changes while there is still time.
Parents who profess to care about their children are effectively stealing their future by the choices they make today. Their lifestyle is truly their children’s deathstyle. They are bequeathing them a wilderness. We must mend our ways without delay, or there will be no future for anyone. Adopting a vegan lifestyle would do much to turn this dire situation around.
If we truly care about our children we must begin caring about the environment and its inhabitants, upon which we all depend. The funny thing is that when we do begin to care we see through new eyes. We begin to appreciate this wonderful world for the first time. We realise how enormously privileged we are to have been born in the first place. When we begin to cherish our fellow companions, and treat them kindly and with respect, our heart softens and swells, and overflows with joy. We begin to see the world through their eyes, and our spirit tingles as never before. As our minds and hearts expand, sunlight floods into our lives and far horizons extend before us endlessly. In a very real sense, becoming vegan is ‘one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind’.
Paul with two of his porcine companions, Tommy and Jimmy.
—
If you raise your head to the sky you might still be able to catch a glimpse of me, floating amongst the white clouds. I’m finding it very hard to land back down after spending almost two weeks in Hawaii, mainly on Maui.
Holidays can be relaxing just as much as stressful, but this holiday was simply perfect in every way. Perfect timing, perfect location, perfect mind-set. It all clicked.
There is only one word to describe Maui: Magical. In many ways it reminded me of New Zealand, but still, it differs. So much smaller than New Zealand, on Maui amazing scenery is always at your doorstep, and encounters with breath-taking nature are an easy reach. Amidst towering coconut trees and sandy beaches, beautiful wild roosters roam free everywhere you go, large and small sea turtles sunbathe fearlessly, and humpback whales with their steaming blow holes dot the water as far as the eye can see. It’s hard not to gasp with excitement at the site of a fully-grown humpback jumping out of the water for a spectacular breach, or spinner dolphins entertaining you with their playful turns. Snorkelling the pristine waters of Lanaii, schools of Humuhumunukunukuapua’a fish greet you, as well as other spectacular fish and sea turtles. I saw the most incredible sunsets on Maui, the sun tinted shades of orange, drawing bright stripes of gold on the darkening blue canvas and leaving a long sparkly veil on the gushing surface of the sea. Only Maui’s sunrise can rival its sunset, and nowhere is the sunrise more breathtakingly beautiful than the one observed from the top of Haleakala, Maui’s dormant volcano, which peaks at over 10,000 meters.
The vegan revolution has certainly reached Maui, and finding delicious vegan food is easy almost everywhere on the island. The chain ‘Down To Earth’ blew our minds. It is everything ‘Commonsense Organics’ should have been, and more. It is organic and completely vegan-vegetarian, and includes everything from toiletries and personal care to supplements, cooking products, and cleaning detergents. A large variety of fresh fruits and veggies of all kinds welcomes you inside, followed by wall upon wall packed with an astonishing selection of vegan cheeses and dressings, pizzas, fake meats, vegan ice creams and snacks. I had the most delicious vegan “Buffalo Wings” there, complete with a fake sugar-cane wishbone. Yum! ‘Down to Earth’ also has a huge salad bar, offering a wide selection of fresh salads, hot meals and soups that you can buy on scale, and there is a bakery with an incredible selection of vegan doughnuts, muffins, cookies and more. This place is a vegan magnet, and we found ourselves drifting towards it even when it was not included in our daily plan, going back like addicts to get our vegan fix, again and again and again.
And yet, with all its beauty and visible magic, behind the scenes and away from tourists’ and residents’ gaze, animals are brutally killed on Maui too. Wild pigs, deer and goats are hunted, and farmed animals are slaughtered, just like everywhere else. The taste for cooked dead flesh seems to be ripe, and barbequed marinated corpses draw the crowds, even when their well-identifiable bodies are cooked openly on the side of the road, like the baby piglets browning on a huge barbeque I saw on the way to Kihei. People who gasp, ooh and ahhh at the site of fish on the reef have no apparent issue with consuming said fish when offered up dead with a slice of lemon on a fancy plate. Tourist audio guides see no ethical problem pointing out herds of beef cows grazing peacefully on the lower slopes of Haleakala, advising that you can eat these innocent animals, fashioned into hamburgers, if you visit such and such a restaurant. Even in such an idyllic setting, there are still many compassionate education opportunities to be held.
I didn’t encounter any Animal Rights activism while on Maui, which doesn’t mean activism doesn’t exist there, only that I missed it. What I did see, though, was a magical place called Leilani Farm Sanctuary, a refuge for rescued farmed animals and a real beacon of light and hope. Leilani is not only a heart-warming place of compassion, it is also aesthetic and well kept. Its gardens are meticulous and rich, carefully manicured and inviting. The founder’s little house on top of the hill, complete with over 40 snuggly cats, looks like it came out of a fairy tale. The lush green pasture is dotted with animals that are visibly relaxed and happy: donkeys, goats, sheep, deer, pigs and a cow, and even a couple of tortoises. The founder, Laurelee Blanchard, is a lovely lady with a big smile, who has turned this place into a slice of heaven. The message “go vegan” is displayed here and there on beautifully decorated signs and brightly coloured pebbles. When she guided us through the sanctuary we had the opportunity to hold some of the residents, and interact with others by feeding them, brushing them, and walking alongside them to pasture. It was the first time for me to hold a rooster and a goose close to my heart. I discovered that roosters and hens are naturally very clean. Cuddly Charlie the rooster smelled so good, and loved being held. Patrick the goose was very soft and gentle, and had a charming personality.
Laurelee encouraged this sort of interaction, making our visit with the animals so much more personal and memorable. Each animal’s story was shared with us as we met them, each a lucky survivor of a dire fate. Some animals were brought in by farmers who couldn’t bear the thought of the animal they grew attached to being slaughtered. Some were brought as babies by remorseful hunters. Some were live-rescued from animal hellholes. And there is also Berney the gentle wild pig, who was fortunate enough to just stroll in one day! We laid in the grass with Jenny, the beautiful donkey, deeply appreciating what this place offers its gentle residents. A visit to Leilani Farm Sanctuary of Maui is truly a boost to one’s morale. It suggests that even here – where animal exploitation still happens out of sight – there are enclaves of happy animals, spreading hope for a better tomorrow.
http://www.upc-online.org/thinking/lifeofhen.htm
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We should not be slaughtering animals at all. Period. But so long as we are, those who eat animals and their products should know how the meat got onto their plate.
We are told that animals do not suffer during slaughter, as they are stunned prior to the throat being slit. However, this facile statement does not bear careful scrutiny. For one thing, it does not take into account the emotional suffering the animal feels on the way to slaughter, packed inside a slaughter truck, or waiting for their turn to be killed. Animals are our evolutionary kin, not aliens, not machines, and they are similar to us in many ways. Like us, their evolutionary instincts have equipped them to feel when they could be in danger. When they see their friends disappearing (and possibly seeing the slaughter happening in front of them); when they ‘smell blood in the air’; they will certainly feel fear and possibly panic. Neither is stunning always instant, and a significant number of times the stun mechanism fails. Stunning can also be prolonged, as is the case in a common method of rendering pigs unconscious before slaughter. Video footage of asphyxiating pigs screaming and desperately trying to escape C02 chambers are available on the Internet for all to see.
Many slaughterhouses in New Zealand, and the rest of the Western world, are certified for so-called ‘religious’ killing. For a number of years the debate has swirled around halal and kosher killing methods, the slaughter methods that render meat ‘permissible’ for strict Muslims and Jews to eat. Proponents of these methods state that the skill of the trained slaughtermen means that the severing of the carotid artery is so deftly done that it causes a ‘pressure drop’ and analgesia is almost immediate. They therefore maintain that the animal feels no more pain than if they were stunned.
A study led by Professor Craig Johnson of Massey University in Palmerston North New Zealand has clearly shown that an animal slaughtered without prior stunning feels prolonged pain. Johnson’s work builds on the analysis of specific patterns of brain electrical activity recorded in experiments using human volunteers, and reproduced in a number of other mammal species known to be experiencing pain.
In the experiment the team cut calves’ necks using the Jewish and Muslim slaughter methods. The pain signals thus produced lasted up to 2 minutes after the incision. As a comparison, they stunned animals five seconds after the incision. In this case, the pain signals were clear for the first 5 seconds only, disappearing the instant the animal was stunned.
It should be added that the Massey research team found a way of lightly anaesthetising the animals so they would not have felt pain, but the pain signals still appeared on the electrocephalagram.
In many places in the western world, a modified halal slaughter is done that includes prior stunning. But we who advocate for the rights of other animals will never condone animal slaughter. There is no humane slaughter of a being who does not want to die. However, there are methods that produce less pain and distress in the animal than others. So-called religious slaughter, traditionally carried out, has now been proven by Science to produce prolonged pain in the animal being slaughtered.
Not one truck arrived at our vigil outside Land Meats today and we saw no staff or cattle in the holding pens. A couple of motorists yelled out aggressive comments at Kirsty and I, and a few raised their middle fingers, but there were also a lot of toots and thumbs up. We were chatting about Kirsty’s recent trip to Australia when a young man riding a bike drew up in front of us.
“I want it to stop” he said, referring to my sign ‘STOP KILLING ANIMALS’, ‘but humans are so f*cked up, I can’t see how it will happen. Man, I despair sometimes.’
The young man was tanned, wore his hair in dreadlocks, and was very good looking. He spoke a torrent of words, but it was hard to follow his argument as it jumped around from the environment, to third world exploitation, to karma and the yin and the yang – and back again! But he seemed sincere, and he said some interesting things.
He was a bee keeper. I should mention at this point that one of the hardest things for me when I became vegan was to give up honey. Honey had been a staple food of mine for decades, I would easily eat a kg a week. Even now, if I am feeling distraught over anything my first impulse is to rush to buy some honey, which I never keep in the house. I usually overcome the impulse, but I do know some people who are otherwise vegan who still eat honey.
There is an argument that ‘natural beekeeping’ is actually helping bee populations, who are dying out in the wild. Commercial beekeeping though is definitely hard on bees. Large hives are used, and the poor bees feel they have to work overtime to fill the space with honey in order to survive the winter. They can literally work themselves to death to fill the ‘supers’ that are piled upon one another. As the supers get filled with honey the commercial beekeepers take them all out and replace the bees’ natural food with sugar dissolved in water to feed them over winter. This is not nearly so healthy for the bees as the product they have made for millennia – honey – is filled with antioxidants vitamins and minerals and is the perfect food for them.
Commercial beekeepers also clip the wings of Queens so the hive cannot swarm, and they further stress bees by transporting them over long distances to relocate. Another practice beekeepers use is smoking, which they do to distract or make the bees sluggish when they are interfering with their hive or trying to take out the honey. Smoking is also controversial, but some natural beekeepers do it as they say it lulls the bees, and stops them from panicking. If even one bee got spooked it would quickly spread through the hive and many bees could die in the chaos.
Our young man told us he didn’t smoke his bees, but tried to be in tune with them. ‘I know that if I go near them when I am all keyed up, bam bam! But if I am in the right headspace then they stay calm. We understand each other. They are very aware.’
I invited him to come and do a vigil with us sometime, and wanted to take his photo, but he declined. I think like many other residents of Whanganui who pass us and toot their support, he understood at a deeper level what we are trying to do. ‘Love you guys’ he said as he and his dog left.
Although a warm day, there was a strong wind in the Gonville/Castlecliff area. Driving home I could distinctly smell the nauseating (for me) odour of cooking lamb or mutton that I still remember from my childhood. Land Meats slaughterhouse staff may well have been on holiday today, but the smell in the air told me that there was plenty of activity going on at the AFFCO plant.
