1221:
As animals on this planet, whether
we are predated or we are the predator, we are all free-spirited creatures. We
are self-feeding, social beings, whether we’re humans or non-humans. None of us
are keen on concrete cells or being imprisoned in steel structures. Nor are any
creatures interested in helping other creatures to lead a more comfortable life
- our survival instinct puts each of us at the forefront of our own interests.
But no animal other than humans, are wantonly cruel or take more from others
beyond what they need for their own survival.
Humans, being at the top of
the power structure, have chosen to ignore the interests of non-humans. And
we’ve taken that to the point where cruelty and even sadism has become
acceptable, and where our routine cruelty and casual killing is taken for
granted - for many of us, a free animal is regarded as a lost opportunity. An
animal not-made-use-of is an animal wasted, and that’s tantamount to a waste of
money.
For those who earn their
living from farming animals, it means nothing to keep them incarcerated and
largely immobilised - domesticated animals are not given what we might call a
‘natural life’. They’re considered to be
just a resource. They’re no different to
machines-for-the-use-of, for human benefit. And every customer of every animal
product, helps to support that way of seeing animals.
Some humans do love animals,
they show their loving and affectionate natures by the way they treat their
dogs and cats at home. Although one needs to add that those same people also
deny these animals freedom to live a ‘natural life’. But whether we love or don’t
love our companion animals, when it comes to other animals most humans connive
at hurting them - they support a system which takes away their freedom by
putting them in pens and cages. As well, they support the killing of them, not
out of mercy but out of a need to benefit from their deaths.
In a way, what we do to
animals we do to ourselves. We sell our souls to keep ourselves fed, or more
particularly over-fed. Animal-based foods are often rich foods, high in
fat, high in protein, high in flavour and high in harmful chemical additives. And all this rich food is killing us.
Since most of us have been
brought up on meat and dairy, and since there are a huge variety of products
based upon meat, fish, dairy and eggs, we’ve developed a strong liking them. Our
liking over the years has turned into a dependency and even an addiction. Our demand for this type of food
stimulates competition within the Industry, and brings prices low enough that
almost everyone can afford to eat these foods. In response to customer demand,
if the farmer wants to stay in business, he cuts every corner he can - he brings
animal accommodation costs as low as possible. And if that means his animals must
suffer for the sake of business efficiency, so be it. If it means inflicting
pain on the animal, that’s what is done, and always without the use of
expensive pain killers - cutting off animals’ tails, horns, beaks and testicles
for easier management of them, is done because economically, that’s what has
to be done. And when it comes to confinement being a more cost effective way of
handling animals, then they will be enclosed behind fences, put behind bars, caged,
tethered, immobilised and generally treated as if their feelings were of no
concern.
It’s strange how we like to
romanticise our relationship with animals. The farm animal is part of the rural
idyll, we see them ‘contentedly’ grazing the pastures and choose to imagine
that all animals are happy within their landscape. We never get to see the darker
side, in sheds, under cover, behind locked doors, where they are subjected to all
manner of tortures. We never see the equipment used for mutilating them, for
cutting bits off their bodies. We never hear the sizzle of skin under red-hot branding
irons or smell burning tissue when hens are debeaked. We might see in passing the
double tiered trucks on the highway, filled with animals being transported to
the abattoir, but we’re no more aware of their fate than the animals are
themselves. Unless it’s an instinct, which warns us and the animals themselves,
that this transport is no fun run.
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