I found this ultra-disturbing video on ChooseVeg.com about the ill-treatment of commercially-raised animals, from when they're born until they're led to slaughter. In one portion of this ten-minute video, a cow is castrated, has its horns snipped off, and is repeatedly branded---all without any anesthesia. In another part of the video, chickens are "debeaked" so that they won't peck at each other in their disturbingly-cramped cages.
My wife and I eat vegetarian meals as often as we can, but more and more we find it difficult to reconcile our meat-eating ways. We have taken measures in the past, such as buying meat from a farmer who specialized in organically-raised cows, and have looked into buying eggs from families who keep chickens in their backyards and sell the eggs from these free range chickens, but our guilt sometimes is hard to reconcile.
This video may push us closer to vegetarianism---watch it and let me know what you think.
Thank you for caring. Is there hope that public awareness will bring about change?
Posted by: Nancy | January 08, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Yes and no. The more people we can make aware, the more they may make the conscious choice to reduce their meat consumption. However, I have brought he subject up with friends of mine, and they do acknowledge that they have heard of the cruel treatment of commercially-bred animals, but that they, in essence, "didn't want to know". For many, it is preferable to have this disconnect between what we eat and where it comes from. It's not disconcerting to buy a package of meat from a supermarket if you don't know or think about what that animal's life (and death) was like.
Posted by: Steven | January 11, 2009 at 11:36 PM