.. n part because they are immobile, yet suffer because of the inability to move..Chickens are cheap, cages are expensive”(Why Vegan? 2) Animals are usually locked up in buildings with no windows crowed with hundreds to tens of thousands of other animals. They are also subject to extreme weather conditions, such as extreme heat and extreme cold. Animals have been genetically mutated to become higher yielding products. These murders use methods like gene splicing, and selective breeding. There are also hormones administrated as well as unnatural feeding schedules.
It is truly repugnant to think of the effects of genetic mutation on animals. I have seen cows with breasts unnaturally huge to carry more milk. “Unnaturally large amounts of flesh cause the animal to suffer joint inflammation and pain that is aggravated by the concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors”(Why Vegan? 2). If thats not enough animals are harmed a number of other ways in slaughterhouses. Like castration, which involves cutting the animals testicles off with a knife, with no anesthetic for economic purposes.
Not to mention the number of times a cow is branded with third degree burns. The methods of death are largely abundant, in fact so that one could write a book and call it the “101 Ways Animals Die in the Slaughterhouse”. If animals dont die from disease first, then they have to first be transported to a corporate farm. The transportation process is like the slave-ships from Africa, in the fact that for economical reasons the animals are overcrowded and left to live in each others excrement.
There are diseases such as shipping fever that often take the lives of many animals involved in the transportation process. The weather can be a largely overlooked method of death for these innocent animals. “Because chickens lose feathers in rough living conditions, transport in freezing weather results in frozen body parts, causing severe pain”(Why Vegan? 5). Many animals are frozen in place by their own manure.
The trauma inflicted from such joyrides to the slaughterhouse have produced “downers”. Downers are animals that are too weak and sick to function. Even when electrocuted and beaten, the animal refuses to go on. “Approximately 350,000 dairy cows are downers each year”(Why Vegan? 5) Animals that are downers are often beaten and dragged by chains still alive to the “deadpile”. Another form of death comes from a practice called captive bolt head stunning. A device that resembles somewhat of a pistol is aimed at the animals head.
A metal rod is shot into the brain, often times missing the point of unconsciousness and therefore must be repeated. Remember that shooting a struggling animal can be difficult and require a sufficient amount of practice. Next we come to Electric head stunning, when an electric stunner is used to give the animal a seizure. After the animal is shocked where it is often not unconsciousness and still susceptible to feeling pain, the animals throat is cut. Animals can regain consciousness after a second. Some animals even undergo the skinning process still alive.
Farming has become the number one threat to our nations animals. Some common arguments for the beef industry would be the all classic, meat is good for you. It is supposed to contain vitamins and minerals that are not otherwise found. However, this argument is not true, it is a fact that vegetarians and vegans have a far healthier diet than a meat eater. Michael Klaper, MD has stated that, “The human body has no more need for cows milk than it does for dogs milk, horses milk, or giraffes milk”(Why Vegan? 9).
In fact plant foods have been known to protect the body from cancer. Animal foods like meat, can raise the risk for cancer because of the compounds found in it. Vegetarians dont have to worry about heart disease associated with saturated fat from red meat. Another common argument is that it has been going on forever, since primitive man. Are we not intelligent and rational beings, arent we no longer primitive? What if the slaughter house had glass walls and was connected to your favorite restaurant. Would you want to pick the animal of your choice and then watch it be murdered? Would that hamburger taste as good? “Slaughterhouses should be in restaurants and grocery stores.
They should have a glass wall so that people must see the animal they choose. Look into that animals eyes and say , “OK, slit his throat” (Why Vegan? 5). Are these animals ours to enslave and murder, or are they Gods creatures? It all boils down to oppressive power structures and the way that they are designed. Oppressive power structures are institutions of thought created to oppress the weaker race, ethnicity, gender, and species. The struggle for Animal Rights and the issues involved are no different than the struggle for womens rights. They are both used as biological machines, one confined to a life of reproduction and domesticity, and the other confined to life of torture and death.
People, often times, argue that humans are smarter than animals so it doesnt matter. If we are so smart , than cant we realize that Vivisection and the Meat industry are wrong? If you enslave and mistreat your animal youre probably going to do the same thing to your child. It all comes back to morals. Speciesism is the belief that our society is the only one worthy of ethical consideration.
This promotes the idea that those who are weaker and indifferent are to be exploited because we can do so. “All arguments to prove mans superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals”(Why Vegan? 14). If we allow humans to live, then why not animals? There are a number of things one can do to help fight against the atrocities discussed in this paper. The first and most crucial thing that should be done is going Vegetarian. Which is the process of not eating meat, for more information you can check out this veggie page, http://www.veg.org/veg/. Then there is the practice of Veganism which is the denial of all animal byproducts like milk, eggs, etc.
For more information of Veganism one could consult the informative website located at, www.veganoutreach.org/. Another thing to do would be to check out PETA, by writing to them at People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, P.O. Box 42516, Washington, DC 20015. You can also check out the American Anti-Vivisection Society web page at http://www.aavs.org. For a list of animal safe products one can consult this informative website, www.allforanimals/cruelfree.html.
Without participating in the movement for Animal Rights can we really call ourselves animal lovers? When you consume animal products with the information given in this text can you really say that you love your animals? This paper was written in loving memory of my dog BoBo, and is dedicated to the billions dead and to the progress of the Animal Rights movement as a whole. With the facts presented in this paper it can only be said that we as Americans obviously dont love animals as much as we claim too. Works Cited 1. American Anit-Vivisection Society.
Home page. 17, Mar.2000 http://www.aavs.org/ 2. Faces of Death. Writer. Alan Black.
Dir. Conan Lecilare. Nar. Dr. Francis B.
Gross Gorgon Video, 1990. 105 min. 3. People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals Animal Experiments. Washigton, DC.1-2 4.
Rand, Ayn The Virtue of Selfisness. USA: Penguin Books, 1964. 1. 5. Regan, Tom and Singer,Peter Animal Rights and Human Obligations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989 6.
Vegan Outreach Why Vegan? Pittsburgh: 1999.
