Cold kill

703:

The death at any abattoir, of any sentient creature, is a long way from predator-killing-prey in the world of Nature. In the slaughter house, the animal is immobilised and made completely helpless. How it feels we’ll never know but the ugliness of the whole process should make us feel ashamed. This dear, sweet-natured animal has been imprisoned all its life, kept in slum conditions, transported under frightening conditions, arrives at a death-smelling building, encounters a lot of rough handling and is finally put to death ... and none of this need be so;  neither the cruelty nor the killing nor the captivity. However, it is so, in every country of the world. The killing continues at the astonishing rate of 150,000 animal executions a minute, every day, all across the planet. Nowhere is there any regard for the feelings of the animals themselves.

            Since most people benefit from animals being killed for food, no empathy is felt towards these animals, and whilst people are normally hungry for new knowledge, they prefer to know as little as possible when it comes to learning about the way animals are put to death. Conveniently for everyone concerned, the killing is done behind closed doors, most often by men or women who can’t find any other employment and who have to work quickly and harshly because they dare not fail to keep up their killing quota, for fear of losing their jobs. They have to adopt a conveyor-belt mentality. Each animal passes along the line, to be killed, to make way for the next, and the next, with no one to care how either the animal or the animal-killer feels.

            And yet many people these days do care. They go out of their way to show how much they care for these millions of animals, enough to work hard to establish rights to protect them.

            Whatever we say about animals that are used for food, it comes down to one question - Does pragmatism outweigh tender hearted feelings? Once upon a time the question was about how humanely animals were being killed. Now, because we know it’s unnecessary to eat animal products, the question is about whether we should kill animals at all?

            There are many reasons why we shouldn’t kill or even use animals. Certainly health reasons present a powerful case, and the environmental implications of animal farming do too, but the ugliness of animal treatment on farms and in abattoirs is in a league of its own.