1176:
Edited by
CJ Tointon
Taking what isn't ours is a nasty trait.
We humans love what’s free and we love a bargain. 'Domesticated animals' seem to be a perfect
'bargain'. They’re easy to handle and cheap to keep. They’re
'looked after' by their humans. Their humans are allowed to
treat them like machines. Anything goes if it make the humans happy (as
in, makes them some money). The animals' humans believe they need animals
for food and clothing. The customer is
always there, standing at the abattoir door and ready to buy.
Unlike our cats and dogs at home, the
farmer feels nothing for the animals living on the farm, nothing for them as
individuals. They’re not cuddly or cute. They’re unattractive and
cannot be related to as individuals. They're 'beasts', living in filthy
conditions and exposed to the elements. Beasts don’t care and they have
no personalities. You don’t need 'personality' when you’re confined!
When the animal is either exhausted or
fat enough to sell to the food producers, it’s 'move-on' time. "Goodbye farm" say the
animals. But there's no friendly wave
from Mr. Farmer, no love lost when the animal is sold-on. When the time
comes for animals to be 'transferred', they’re shifted like so many shares in a
Company’s accounts, a value shifting to a new owner.
The animal might have been in someone’s
care since birth, almost like a child in the family, but at the appointed time
it is simply 'let go'. Sold to the highest bidder, to a new owner. They’re sold-on without a second thought,
transferred to another prison, another person, until they arrive at the World’s
End.
On arriving at the Meat Works, the
first encounter is the electrified prod, designed to encourage forward
movement. The second introduction is the World’s End itself. Here
is her resting place, for D59. That’s
how we knew her. She ended her days in a
place specifically designed to destroy animals. She was exchanged for
money. A deal was done. Any care ever
shown her is now forgotten. This animal is abandoned. Doomed.
To the farmer, it makes more sense NOT
to show any tenderness towards 'the animals', promising the children that
animals can’t miss what they’ve never had! The farmer’s children are not
encouraged to pet them. They aren’t toys. They’re property. They’re
valuable inmates to be regarded as serious income. These animals are our
bread and butter! They’re important machines to be looked after like a
valuable car. You care for a car to keep
it running smoothly. Same with animals?
Well not quite!
Things are different for animals these
days. It’s much, much worse for
them. They are no longer such valuable assets, relatively speaking.
Relative to the money markets. The animal-rearing market is much fiercer
today. The noose is tightening, for unless you are a Big Herd or Big
Flock TransNationalist, you won’t survive. Everything is now mass
produced. Animals are mass confined. They’re fattened in massive
feedlots. Their egg or milk production has been ruthlessly
maximised. Animals are simply food producing machines or clothing
producing machines.
They are the robots of our age.
Their sole purpose is to produce body tissue or secretions for us. They lay
eggs, give milk, make honey, fatten-up 'for market' until they can't produce
anymore. As soon as an animal is no longer economically viable, it can’t
justify its keep. It gets the chop! Isn’t it charming how
the same loving care lavished on animals at birth, is turned off like a tap
when they grow older. And bigger. And productive. You’d think
it’d be the other way around!!
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