SLAUGHTERHOUSE VIGIL, WHANGANUI, 24 FEBRUARY 2019

At our vigil outside Land Meats today I told Kirsty that I had managed to make some enemies here in Whanganui. “It’s not surprising though’, I said, ‘when you raise your head above the parapet you will get shot down.” Kirsty agreed and mentioned something about Tall Poppies. Mean-spiritedness is an unpleasant human trait. We often do not rejoice in other people’s success (or recognition) and would like to see them ‘taken down a peg or two’. At its extreme end it is ‘schadenfreude’ or feeling pleasure at another’s misfortune. If only we realised that we cannot harm others, even in thought, without harming ourselves.

Pure-faced sheep crowded into large trucks, await to be unloaded and killed.

We’re a callous, selfish, jealous, vindictive lot we humans, but fortunately that’s not all we are. We are also compassionate, caring, open, just, and selfless. My ability to read people has improved over the years and I tend to avoid contact with people who are overly negative, backbiting, selfish or otherwise ‘toxic’ to me, but some of the situations I get myself in mean I cannot avoid it.

I stuck my head above the parapet again at the vigil today, this time above the fence where the cows are herded before they are slaughtered. The groundsman who is always rude and aggressive and childish in his interactions with us can be seen at the back of the photo, taking a photo of me. I am not sure if I broke the law or not, and if I did I can expect to hear from someone in authority, I suppose. I don’t care. I just feel sick at the barbaric traffic in animal souls that goes on day in and day out in this city, in this country, all over the planet. Can this be the twenty first century, or are we still in the stone age? Why in the name of all that is good and true can we not see that this practice is abhorrant and unnecessary, and needs to stop now!

Can this be the twenty first century, or are we still in the stone age? Why in the name of all that is good and true can we not see that this practice is abhorrant and unnecessary?   It needs to stop now!

We saw two trucks unloaded today. One was packed with pure-faced sheep going to the sheep slaughterhouse down the road, stopping at the cattle slaughterhouse briefly to unload a couple of cows, and the second truck was filled with mature cows. Standing way back, my singing sounded more like shouting, and I cannot see how it would have comforted them; however I noticed that when the cows were on the ramp a number of them looked over at me before descending. I was consciously sending them love and comfort, and at one point called out to them ‘I’m sorry, I love you, We’ll stop this, It’s alright.’ Of course it wasn’t all right. As I write this scores of sentient beings are huddled together in bleak pens, without food, their instincts telling them that a terrible thing is awaiting them. That terrible thing will happen to them first thing tomorrow morning when they will be shot in the head and have their neck sliced; every last one of these beautiful, gentle souls will die for your palate.

The groundsman started targeting me again as I took my photos, but Kirsty, she of the stentorian voice, came to my aid and frightened him off. 😊 When you have to stick your head above the parapet you cannot expect everyone to like you, but it’s better to have a few loyal friends than many who secretly wish you harm.

Some cows being unloaded stopped to look over to where I was standing.   The hardest thing about doing vigils is knowing I can do nothing to save the animals.

Sandra Kyle