Cruelty free living

[Guest guest]

In order for us to work for the animals, heres some FOOD for thought:

 

CRUELTY FREE LIVING:

We are truly unaware of the support we lend to cruel practices by our

purchases & the selections we make for our food & clothing, if only we

knew……..

 

The fact of the matter is that we can choose to make compassionate selections

when we shop- and often we will end up with products that are healthier,

more economical & more ecological when we shop cruelty free.

 

EGGS:

Lets take the case of eggs. Most of us feel that there is no cruelty in

eating them, even Vegetarians feel quite justified since there is, on the

surface, no loss of life. We think that the hens roam free & we humans take a

few eggs leaving the rest for the propagation of the species. Not true! This

perhaps may have been the case several decades ago.

 

Today's Egg factories would unnerve even the thick skinned ones among us.

There are typically 8 hens to a cage each having about 53 square inches of

space/hen, not enough to even spread their wings. They are on a slanted wire

mesh cage so the eggs roll into a tray that captures them. The feed & water

are in troughs & these cages are stacked one atop of another. The chicken

manure falling through the cage to both cages & hens below and to a steel

pan that has a scraping mechanism to gather & collect it.

 

In such close proximity hens tend to peck at each other, so a de-beaking

procedure is instituted- where hot knives cut through cartilage bone & muscle

of the beak.

 

The egg layers are genetically bred to lay 10 times more eggs than the norm.

Egg laying comes in cycles & is disrupted & restarted if no food & water is

given for up to 18 days.- This is called forced molting. Many hens die during

this process.

 

In Illinois House, a bill was proposed by the Illinois Humane PAC to ban the

practice of forced molting & de-beaking, this was in April 2001. Though

having over 16 cosponsors, It was defeated by the agriculture committee. Is

your legislator on the Agriculture Committee? Let your state legislator know

you want laws that promote animal welfare!

 

All layer hens are slaughtered every year and a half or so. These hens

having lived their entire lives in a wire cage, are often featherless, unable

to walk, sick & have extremely brittle bones. Tired & ill, these birds are

often trucked thousands of miles to Canada, without food or water to be

slaughtered. If they are not trucked, sometimes the birds are buried alive,

in a process the producers call " Composting "

 

Replacements for laying hens are subject to the same cruelties. In addition,

half of the chicks are males who are of no economic value. Often they are

killed by being thrown alive in plastic bags one falling on top of another

until all are dead from suffocation.

 

You may think this is perhaps a small number, Not so. About three hundred

million male chicks experience this inhumane killing every year.

 

In order to speed up the killing process some facilities have set up

decompression chambers & the male chicks explode & are collected as fodder

for the mink farms.

 

So the egg, creamy oval & polished is in fact tainted with blood, the blood

of the bleeding beaks & the millions of male chicks that perish So we humans

can enjoy Eggs Florentine & Eggs benedict & the flaky pastries & omelets.

 

VEAL:

Veal is the white meat of a newly born or young calf.

In order to maximize profits. The newborn is taken away from its wailing

mother within hours & at most 3 days & put in a dark confining stall, where

it cannot even turn around. It stays in a fixed position for several weeks

and is fed gruel with no iron, so that the meat retains its white color. The

animal becomes very anemic & has diarrhea yet its weight increases

sufficiently for it to be profitable for the Businessman to do this.

 

The first time the calf sees daylight is en-route to the slaughter house. In

other words veal is the white tender meat of a sick anemic baby animal.

 

TURKEYS:

Even first generation Americans feel very much at home in our new country of

allegiance to thank the Lord for our blessings at Thanksgiving by

participating heartily in this tradition of enjoying our largesse by eating

turkey.

 

The sad part is that the turkey perhaps is giving thanks that its short

painful existence has come to an end. Turkeys are bred to have huge breasts.

This is what humans like on their plate. So much so that both males & females

have these characteristics & are so lopsided that they cannot mate. The

species is propagated by artificial insemination every few weeks. This

process is harsh & cruel, and aptly called " The rape rack " by the industry.

Birds run in terror as they are kicked, hit & otherwise subdued by those who

forcibly inseminate them.

These animals are confined in pens & are transported without food or water to

the slaughterhouses & many perish en route, sometimes due to inclement

weather.

 

CHICKENS

The Law requires that animals destined for slaughter be stunned & rendered

unconscious, unless they are destined for ritual killing. This Law does not

apply to poultry & therefore does not apply to chickens; they are transported

to the slaughterhouse, then strung upside down on rows of stirrups with

their heads hanging down & on a conveyor belt. A rotating knife severs their

neck to a bleeding tank a de-feathering tank etc, etc. There are about 18 to

20 million chickens slaughtered in the USA every day in this fashion. About

165 million broilers are scalded alive every year in the United States.

 

BEEF:

Despite the fact that federal law requires all cattle not ritually

slaughtered be stunned before being killed, a large " error " rate is

tolerated by the industry so that hundreds of thousands of cattle end up by

having their throats slit while fully conscious each year. Many are still

conscious as their hooves & legs are cut off, and some even after their hides

are ripped off . See Gail Eisnitz' expose in the Washington Post earlier

this year " They die bit by bit " .

 

Those that go through ritual slaughter are strung up on one leg while fully

conscious & their throat slit half way. These thrash about upside down,

screaming in agony, for up to several minutes till the blanket of death

envelops them.

 

Many of the cattle become lame from being on concrete floors, these are

called " downers " . They get moved by being dragged by winches, a most painful

process. See the " Meet your Meat " VHS tape put out by PETA ( People for the

Ethical Treatment of Animals) which shows a cow being dragged in this gory

fashion.

 

SHEEP

A very significant percentage of the world's wool comes from Australia. The

Shearing operation is usually started a few weeks before the weather has

warmed up, primarily for business reasons, upto a million sheep perish due to

this. The shearing operation for those that have witnessed it say it is one

of the cruelest treatment meted out to any animal. The speed with which this

is done with sharp shears takes apart noses, ears & other parts of the animal

and practically all are injured in one way or another. In order to get finer

wool some sheep have the skin removed from their legs!

 

These sheep are transported live to the middle east by ship that may take

several weeks they are herded without any room to move about, many pregnant

ewes give birth & the newborns are trampled on disembarking.

 

Usually these sheep are part of a ritual, the process of dying may take

several hours from start to finish.

 

PIGS

Factory Farming is in vogue. The animals are confined in small pens & kept in

low level lighting to minimize movement and fed antibiotics to stave off

disease. The breeding sow is confined so that she cannot even stand , she

lays on the side so that the piglets have easy access to the teats.

 

At the time of slaughter - the pigs skin is to be softened by boiling water.

The animal is supposed to be stunned, but like the cattle many are missed &

are literally boiled alive.

 

DOGS & CATS: PUPPY MILLS:

When you walk into a Pet store & look at the limpid eyes of a little dog or

cat & tempted to take it home!

 

If you did you would be supporting an industry thriving on cruelty,

inadequate care & complete callousness towards the animals they breed & sell.

 

Many of these puppy mills have animals suffering from all kinds of serious

diseases & rarely if ever get veterinary care. They are in close confinement.

 

The companion animals that we see with doting owners is the case for the

fortunate few, those that are in these puppy mills languish under extreme

cruelty. It is a business to make money & maximize it

 

In Korea there are many facilities where dogs are raised for meat, they are

tenderized by putting them in a sack & beating them to death, cats are

boiled alive for pharmaceutical reasons.

 

FUR:

This is truly a travesty. Man made fibers today outdo fur in every way & fur

as adornment is not necessary, at all.

 

Baby seals bludgeoned to death in front of their crying, wailing mothers! Leg

traps & body traps for wolves & foxes & other unfortunate creatures. Animals

have gnawed of a foot to get free.

 

Even in the farms - minks are raised in abominable conditions & put to death

through electrocution between genitals & the ear; others through injections-

not painless but through use of chemicals that are cheap but take many, many

minutes of suffering in agony!

 

Is this what you would give your lover! To nestle their nose & chin into?

 

ANIMAL TESTING:

The Governments would never do this! But imagine instead of the labels that

most foods carry- telling you of Sodium & Cholesterol & Potassium , saturated

& unsaturated. Set up your own Moral & ethical Chart that spells out:

 

Pain content- how much was the suffering involved in making this product.

Were animals subjected to extreme pain or not- again Peta put out an expose

called " Biosearch - Animal experimentation " just plain awful! Boycott all

the products that use animal testing- The list is available through Peta.

Unfortunately the testing done is not always reasonable- it is sometimes for

protection against litigation. In other cases the results are not

transferable to humans from animal testing.

 

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS:

Perhaps it may give us joy & we puff up with pride when we give a few dollars

to charity! Be picky many Charities endorse & fund Cruelty! Animal testing.

 

DON'T BE PASSIVE:

Dr Steve Gross who is co-chair of the Illinois PAC for the humane treatment

of Animals is doing selfless work & has been doing so for decades; he is the

author's mentor. If you would like to play an active role in living cruelty

free & turning the tide by providing your time or other resources please

contact Dr Gross . His email is

Sgross @ ais.net

If you believe in not contributing to cruelty, then check out the companies

that get your $'s & make sure that they practice compassionate treatment of

all beings.

If you would like to know more about this look up the Peta fact sheets as

follows:

www.peta.org\mc\facts.html

The " Meet Your Meat " VHS tape put out by Peta is available as a CD-rom. If

you have a CD burner & willing to make atleast 4 copies to give to your meat

eating friends then get your free copy by sending your mailing address to

Chalissa1

 

Learn to live cruelty free; the sentient beings of the world thank you!