to post something (not a poem).? I wrote this a few months ago. Please read and comment if you'd like.
It's kind of long...
.
.
Thoughts upon viewing the April 21, 2010 PBS program entitled: POV Food Inc.
Apparently, the show didn't intend animal cruelty to be the main focus but some of the images therein were hard to see at the time (and hard to stop seeing now).
Here in OK, there are always lots of cattle grazing in wide green pastures. It was sad and horrible to see other cattle that were forced to stand and feed for so long in tiny, filthy spaces that manure came all the way up around their ankles. Another scene was so awful and shocking that I couldn't even make it out completely, but it seemed like a cow with wraps around stumps (...were the bottoms of its legs gone...?) What happened to it? Why was it in that condition?... Also, someone driving a piece of big machinery was pushing/rolling a cow. It was looking at the machine and kicking its legs up in the air, struggling to get up, and pleading out with a terrible cry. The driver just kept pushing... There are laws against cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. Since neither the slaughterhouse companies nor the workers are inclined to obey these laws on their own, perhaps they should be under constant surveillance. If officials cannot always be there to observe them, cameras should be installed to capture every inch and moment of the process. The production might be slowed down slightly (because they would no longer get away with such practices as meat hooking and dragging live animals*, etc... to increase speed and efficiency) but they would still make plenty of money. The only way to help prevent animal cruelty in the food industry is to penalize the companies and the individual workers who commit these heinous crimes. The laws are in place but they must be enforced to matter.
footnote:
*Eisnitz, Gail A. Slaughterhouse. Prometheus Books, 1997
(Eisnitz interviewed one worker, who had worked in ten slaughterhouses, about pig production. He told her:
“ Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much, they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in the chute that's had the shit prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole. You try to do this by clipping the hipbone. Then you drag him backwards. You're dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen hams — thighs — completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward.)
A final thought: Just because an animal is slated for death does not mean that merciful and humane treatment no longer matters. Callous or malicious acts of cruelty should never be tolerated. It is still unethical and unlawful and this applies not only in the food industry but also at the time of, and before an animal (in the pound or elsewhere) is slated to be euthanized. The idea that “Oh well, it’s going to die anyway…” needs to stop. Imagine if you were dying and instead of being treated kindly, you were thrown down, kicked, walked upon or worse. Wouldn’t it still matter even though you were dying anyway? Animals aren’t humans, true, but they have feelings. They experience pain and fear and they don’t want to die any more than humans do. Humane and compassionate treatment (even at the time of death) is the least we can do to show respect for a fellow living creature. Also, it is the law. Please, let’s enforce it.
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Thank you for reading :]
It's kind of long...
.
.
Thoughts upon viewing the April 21, 2010 PBS program entitled: POV Food Inc.
Apparently, the show didn't intend animal cruelty to be the main focus but some of the images therein were hard to see at the time (and hard to stop seeing now).
Here in OK, there are always lots of cattle grazing in wide green pastures. It was sad and horrible to see other cattle that were forced to stand and feed for so long in tiny, filthy spaces that manure came all the way up around their ankles. Another scene was so awful and shocking that I couldn't even make it out completely, but it seemed like a cow with wraps around stumps (...were the bottoms of its legs gone...?) What happened to it? Why was it in that condition?... Also, someone driving a piece of big machinery was pushing/rolling a cow. It was looking at the machine and kicking its legs up in the air, struggling to get up, and pleading out with a terrible cry. The driver just kept pushing... There are laws against cruel and inhumane treatment of animals. Since neither the slaughterhouse companies nor the workers are inclined to obey these laws on their own, perhaps they should be under constant surveillance. If officials cannot always be there to observe them, cameras should be installed to capture every inch and moment of the process. The production might be slowed down slightly (because they would no longer get away with such practices as meat hooking and dragging live animals*, etc... to increase speed and efficiency) but they would still make plenty of money. The only way to help prevent animal cruelty in the food industry is to penalize the companies and the individual workers who commit these heinous crimes. The laws are in place but they must be enforced to matter.
footnote:
*Eisnitz, Gail A. Slaughterhouse. Prometheus Books, 1997
(Eisnitz interviewed one worker, who had worked in ten slaughterhouses, about pig production. He told her:
“ Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much, they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in the chute that's had the shit prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole. You try to do this by clipping the hipbone. Then you drag him backwards. You're dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen hams — thighs — completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward.)
A final thought: Just because an animal is slated for death does not mean that merciful and humane treatment no longer matters. Callous or malicious acts of cruelty should never be tolerated. It is still unethical and unlawful and this applies not only in the food industry but also at the time of, and before an animal (in the pound or elsewhere) is slated to be euthanized. The idea that “Oh well, it’s going to die anyway…” needs to stop. Imagine if you were dying and instead of being treated kindly, you were thrown down, kicked, walked upon or worse. Wouldn’t it still matter even though you were dying anyway? Animals aren’t humans, true, but they have feelings. They experience pain and fear and they don’t want to die any more than humans do. Humane and compassionate treatment (even at the time of death) is the least we can do to show respect for a fellow living creature. Also, it is the law. Please, let’s enforce it.
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Thank you for reading :]