The meat and dairy industries are pretty good at convincing consumers that if they buy animal parts labelled with “humane”, “grass-fed”, “free range” et cetera, then these animals somehow suffer less and therefore it is the “best option” for the discerning animal lover who just can’t seem to stop eating the “object” of their desires.
The reality is that all animals end up in the exact same slaughterhouse, subjected to the same torturous death rituals that each of these industries have institutionalised, depending on the species they enslave and exploit of course.
The word “humane” means to show compassion or benevolence, so how exactly does one prod, cut, whip, electrocute and stab animals compassionately to death?
The notion of “humane slaughter” is an oxymoronic insult to the truth regarding the severe abuse and violence that animals in these industries are forced to endure.
From birth to death these innocent beings suffer in squalid conditions and are routinely sujected to a range of abuses: bodily mutilations without pain relief, recurrent rape cycles and, eventually, a ritualistic death that bears a scary resemblence to sacrificial cult practices.
For every egg you buy, millions of male chicks are mascerated or suffocated as soon as they are born. For every glass of milk you consume, a baby calf that grew inside their mother for nine months has their throat slit so that you can drink the milk that was meant for them.
We have asserted our dominance over other sentient beings so aggressively that we no longer even recognise those animals as individuals – they are merely products, commodities, the recently advertised fast food burger-combo ingredients that’s dirt cheap and only costs your health.
After a certain point, claiming ignorance as a supposedly informed member of society really just doesn’t cut it though and the sad reality is, unless you’re living a vegan life you are actively funding and sanctioning the abuse of animals; it really is as black and white as that. That’s not a judgement by the way, that’s just how supply and demand works and, I’m sorry, but if you insist that our predilection for the taste of dead animals body parts and secretions is more important than preventing animal abuse, well I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree.
“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
MAHATMA GANDHI
If you’re against animal abuse, then stop paying for it to happen – choose to live a compassionate life that doesn’t normalise cruelty, rape, abuse and violence.
We do a grave disservice to our children the moment we teach them to be speciesist: that it’s wrong to kill a cat, but okay to kill a cow – it is our first introduction to prejudice and the one from which all other forms of prejudice stem.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.