Halal on T.V.

It’s early Tuesday morning here in Sydney. Last night millions of Australians were urged, on the nightly news, to watch Four Corners (Australia’s most respected current affairs programme) - a shocking coverage of live-exported cattle being killed without stunning (halal), in Indonesia. I thought I’d seen everything but nothing this bad. Lyn White and other brave activists filmed what we saw at many abattoirs there, showing unimaginable cruelty, terror and the slow death of so many beautiful animals. It won’t be on tonight’s T.V. but it will be happening all the same.
A 95 year old friend phoned me before the programme went to air to say she’d try to watch it - brave woman, one of the few meat-eaters I know who still wrestles with her conscience over her meat-eating. Most will have forgotten what they saw by around dinner time tonight, thinking, “We slaughter animals humanely, with pre-stunning, here in Australia. We aren’t as barbaric as those wicked Indonesians”. Oh yes?
So it goes on. The self-deception of the meat-eater: the anger and frustration of the animal activist. All of us know there has to be a convenient disconnect to continue a life of eating these poor defenceless creatures, as if their bodies were somehow necessary for nutritional reasons. The law allows it. What can I do about it? I can’t sleep for thinking about what I saw, yet I’m very conscious of the pointlessness of writing about it at five in the morning, to ‘blog’ it before going to work this morning. I could roll over and try go to sleep, and wait for the sun to rise.
But before the sun comes up I know there is a little time, a small chance someone may think twice, and that makes this worth doing. I imagine thousands of outraged Australians will be tapping out words as I’m doing, about that programme last night, just to get something off their chest but realising that soon enough the T.V. images will have faded and we’ll all be back to normal - omnivores eating animals, vegans trying not to be too wordy.
I know I’ve got to try to say something profound, something worth reading. Do I mention the ultimate terror, which came towards the end of last night’s programme, where we saw animals being forced to watch their mates thrashing about, being struck down and skinned and butchered, visibly shaking with fear at what was about to happen to them? I was watching this and at the same time wondering how many viewers had already switched across to another channel, unable to stomach any more of it.
If you still eat animals or use foods made with animal products of course you are supporting the death machines, perhaps not quite as bad as the Indonesian abattoirs but not very different either. How can any person handle that psychologically and not have to answer for it at some time in their life? It’s easy for people like me to rebuke since I, like other vegans, have stopped taking part in this ugly business. But it’s hard to admit our powerlessness to stop it happening. Lyn White had to actually watch the torture, live, and go on and on filming it. Most of us wouldn’t have the courage to do that. We all have to sit on our hands while the killing, the imprisoning of animals still goes on. All I can do is tap out a few words and post them on this blog, knowing that if any meat-eater reads what I’ve written it will be shunted off somewhere in their minds and I’ll be thought of as a self righteous freak.
But I, like my colleagues, have no choice but keep trying to find new ways of getting people to listen, to read, to watch, whatever it takes to end this terrible habit of animal eating ... whilst at the same time not seeming to want to antagonise. All we can do is advocate for the animals, since they’ve no other voice than ours to help them.
I hope you’re reading this and will think carefully before that next fork-full of fried chicken goes into your mouth. And if you’re in Bandar Lampung in Sumatra and thinking of picking up some beef for tonight’s dinner or you live down the road here in Sydney buying your McDonalds chicken meal, please imagine for a moment the animal terror that is part of your meal. I can’t say anything more. There’s rent to pay, work to go to, the sun’s about to rise, and I’ve already gone way over my self-imposed word limit for this blog. You might have tuned out way back ... but if you’ve read any of this at all ...