My step father was a farm vet. He is a man who I deeply respect. He was very honest about how animals feel and the physical and emotional pain that they experienced. Still, he believed that eating dairy and meat was essential to human health. I spent most of my life being a milk and lover. My mother thought that I drank too much milk. But, once she remarried, she praised me for drinking milk and eating cheese.
Before my mother remarried, she was a supervisor at a laboratory that specialized in animal testing for other large companies. She said that the animals were so far gone psychologically that they would not respond to any human interaction. Moreover, any comforting was prohibited because it could mess up the integrity of the experiment. She believed that laboratory testing was necessary to protect human health.
During this time, I thought that I sure would not want to be a farm animal or a laboratory animal. The animal's life has got to suck. Even if it is the only life you know it still has got to suck. It reminds me of the prison camps in North Korea. Many of the prisoners do not know that there is a better world out there. But, I do not think ignorance about a better life ends the suffering. (Or maybe I am wrong.)
At this point, animal cruelty is such a deep part of out culture in the United States that we simply accept it as the circle of life type philosophy. I bought into that stuff until my PETA mentor explained to me how to get nutrients from plants.
The worst part of animal cruelty is not how they die. It is how they live. First, I would hate the social deprivation of living in a laboratory. I understand that solitary confinement drives human prisoners crazy. Second, I would hate living in my own feces in a crowded room with 30 other people. This is how many farm animals live. In both cases, I would look forward to ending my suffering at the slaughter house.
This real issue in my head is that animal cruelty is so blatant. Yet, we close our eyes and ignore the problem.
Before my mother remarried, she was a supervisor at a laboratory that specialized in animal testing for other large companies. She said that the animals were so far gone psychologically that they would not respond to any human interaction. Moreover, any comforting was prohibited because it could mess up the integrity of the experiment. She believed that laboratory testing was necessary to protect human health.
During this time, I thought that I sure would not want to be a farm animal or a laboratory animal. The animal's life has got to suck. Even if it is the only life you know it still has got to suck. It reminds me of the prison camps in North Korea. Many of the prisoners do not know that there is a better world out there. But, I do not think ignorance about a better life ends the suffering. (Or maybe I am wrong.)
At this point, animal cruelty is such a deep part of out culture in the United States that we simply accept it as the circle of life type philosophy. I bought into that stuff until my PETA mentor explained to me how to get nutrients from plants.
The worst part of animal cruelty is not how they die. It is how they live. First, I would hate the social deprivation of living in a laboratory. I understand that solitary confinement drives human prisoners crazy. Second, I would hate living in my own feces in a crowded room with 30 other people. This is how many farm animals live. In both cases, I would look forward to ending my suffering at the slaughter house.
This real issue in my head is that animal cruelty is so blatant. Yet, we close our eyes and ignore the problem.
