The Animals

1215: 

What is happening to them?  Well, obviously nothing is happening for them.  There is zero quality or meaning to their lives.  They are simply the tools of their owners.

To their minders, the farmers, their health and welfare isn’t a concern unless it affects their economic viability.  For example, down on the dairy farm, as soon as Daisy isn’t earning her board and lodging she’s off to the abattoir.  And it’s fate of all owned  and farmed animals.

And if that’s the basis for the relationship between the farmer and the animal then it’s exactly the same between the consumer and the animal; it’s a calculated and violent relationship between slave master and slave.  Indeed, it amounts to practically no relationship at all, least ways not a pleasant one for the animal.

An animal’s slavery is even more pernicious than human slavery because, unlike the human counterpart, animals have no way of dealing with their situation.  They can’t plan any sort of escape.  They can’t protest their conditions, and must perceive their minders as crueller and more indifferent to the quality of their lives than ever before.  Today, faced with such fierce competition, the farmer is ever more desperate to extract all they can from their animals, to keep themselves in business.

The difficulty of turning a profit is compounded by the vast numbers of consumers demanding low priced foods, which in turn forces down what a farmer can spend on animals’ accommodation.  If the customer wants low prices, the retailer will comply by buying imported goods, if they’re cheaper than those produced at home.

Where does the finger of blame point?  Everyone who spends money on animal food and clothing are responsible for the situation, but low prices of food flow onto wider implications, where ethics might start to interfere with supply – caged eggs are beginning to be thought of as unethical.  And once one system is questioned on an ethical basis there’s a danger of many other systems being questioned, as can be seen with the ‘stall-free’ pig products.

So, by remaining uninformed about ‘methods of modern animal husbandry’ the ordinary consumer is freer to buy without reference to ethical-treatment of animals.  The customer doesn’t want to be challenged any more than the shareholder of an arms manufacturer (who doesn’t want to know what the weapons they invest in will be used for?)

No one really wants to know about the provenance of the goods and services they buy, especially if they implicate the customer in any sort of immoral business.  They don’t want to share the responsibility for what goes on behind the scenes, which makes it in the interest of the Animal Industry to do whatever they can to keep the truth from the public, especially concerning the way animals are kept and killed.