Have Your Meat and Torture It To.
IS CRUELTY NECESSARY TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE?
One of my facebook friends posted some horrific photos of absolutely terrible injuries inflicted on horses going to a slaughter house which enraged and disgusted me so much I threw caution and censorship to the wind and shared them on my own profile.
I can't understand why our species has lost reverence for Life and can be so cruel to other Life forms. Having always had a keen interest in the Earth, nature and the environment, combined with being bullied a lot by society it came to my understanding that people who are cruel to animals and their pets do the same to other animals in their life, like their wife, mother and kids!
These people often turn into serial killers and were often suffering from what I call the Abominable snow man effect in Rudolph... Really angry at the world and feeling unloved. I try to always remember that when people are mean these days so I remember to see to the heart of them and not judge them for their ego.
I must say, while this may be a bit "white man nostalgia" or perhaps too much Walt Disney as a kid, but for me and I hope my First Nation Native Friends and Family will back me on this one, what I respect a great deal in indigenous cultures was there was a ritual, thanks and blessing built into their culture when there was ever any killing of an animal, that gave thanks to its Spirit, Life and the Universe which showed Gratitude. Wow... we sure need more of that in this world!
Their are many groups out there raising awareness and a voice for the world's vulnerable animals and people: Dolphin's, rain forests, homeless, elephants, dogs and seals are just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure you have your own soft spots too. When I was a kid, one of my pet peeves was inhumane trapping like leg hold traps and snares where the animal eats its own paw off and dies a slow painful death...
But I digress off topic yet again....
What I found interesting from the discussion about animal cruelty I posted on my facebook profile, was how it quickly turned into a eating meat versus vegetarian discussion.
I often try to refrain from using over used WWII terminology to describe the horrific food factory torture farms of our modern society but its hard not to go there. To me Life, any Life, is worthy of respect and reverence, not a horrific existence where it lives in absolutely despicable conditions and a terrified ending. I can't help but think that that energy felt by this animal, becomes part of the food we eat!
I went to go see the movie Food Inc at our local theatre and I was just appalled and saddened by our species.
"In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment."
Shees, and that's a sanitized synopsis of what you see in the movie. I will never forget them taking a fork lift to the poor maimed cow crippled by its living conditions. Its scary people! Please wake up from your dream...
Below are some comments and feedback from my facebook page that I think you will enjoy reading and might spawn some thoughts, opinions, suggestions of your own...
STRONG WARNING! 14+ EXTREMELY DISTURBING IMAGES
Some of the photos at the link show emaciated starving filthy little baby horses aka foals, a horse with both its eyes gouged out, and another with its insides hanging out of a puncture. Was it intentional? The people say YES! New Hope Horse Shelter (DoubleHP)'s PHOTOS - b4 they are slaughtered: there are no words..only shame & sadness
19 Comments NO LIKES!
Duane Burnett
You have been warned. These photos are posted by the New Hope Horse Shelter (DoubleHP) and show horses and baby colts maimed and in tortured pain. Where is our reverence and respect for all Life? Someone please explain this. I can't comprehend what has happened to our species that this is even remotely acceptable!
Penny Berdahl
Thats nasty :( Makes me cry ..poor thing :(
Duane Burnett
makes one speechless. how can a conscious being be so cruel and disrespectful of Life.
Matt James McNab
D'=
Diana Halter
I cannot look. I will imagine them healed. Peace.
Roberto Kaplan
Shocking perception of a destructive reality.
Zoe Barbaro
i don't understand....what are horses slaughtered for????
Micha Bruecker
Thank you Duane!
Yes, horses are cute, right? What about the pigs, cows, chickens etc. etc. who are treated the same way or worse? We don't WANT to know how our meat is treated before we throw it on the BBQ. The only way to stop this is to become vegan, grow your own meat or camapign heavily e.g. buy only meat you know where it comes from.
Rob Thomson
Animals are being bred for inhumane slaughter by humans who have an archaic and unnecessary taste for flesh. We don't need animal protein anymore. Our brains no longer need meat protein as they did in prehistoric times when we were developing a larger brain mass. We have options today.We humans are a sad and sorry lot indeed. Visit a slaughter house and you will - I guarantee it - never, never eat animal flesh again.
Duane Burnett
I watched the movie Food Inc at the Raven's Cry.. and I was disgusted that our species condones such horrible concentration camps for food production. The worse for me was the lame horse, its front legs crippled by the conditions it lived in, so to move it they took a forklift to it. Absolutely no respect for Life! I can imagine that their tortured... See More Spirits are taken up in the meat we eat. Here in these photos of maimed horses, they are going to the factory for glue, dog food and make-up! Don't I feel pretty now?
Rob Thomson
I was horrified when I visited a slaughter house first in my youth in Toronto at the Essex plant in Weston then later in life as an insurance broker insuring food production plants and farms in BC. The anxiety level in the animals was overwhelming - they sensed what was happening inside and the pens and stockyards were appalling. Commercial animal ... See Moreslaughter is nothing short of cruelty and we humans just ignore it so we can dig into or fat laden burgers. However revenge is nature's I guess as all that animal flesh combined with our lifestyle and lack of exercise is the main culprit for disease and death. I guess in a sense what you eat bits you back sooner or later.
Taylor Peterson
that's so mean to do i woud help them if i could :((((((((((
Diana Gledhill-Park
Ya why horses? What do they do with them? and Im not going to look at the clip...
Kathy McDougall Elson
this is terrible!! I can't even watch this clip. I am a horse lover and if we ever do get property I want to get one but what can be done about this?! It's just wrong!!
Micha Bruecker
Horses are meat. If you want to help, then STOP EATING MEAT. As simple as that. Whining won't do anything.
Trish Thompson
so sorry but some of us need meat to live
and what does that have to do with cruelty.
Vegetables are alive too Micha
Duane Burnett
thanks for all the great feed back everyone.... I go around saving the worms and slugs from harm in this world, seeing this cruelty towards animals gave this horrible nightmare about taking a chainsaw to a live animal to cut it into a better fitting size! Another typical night for me. Arghhh! I did take a moment to breath in the pain and breath out Peace... ♥
Rob Thomson
We who live in the comfort of the 1st world do not need "meat" to live. Meat is the flesh of sentient animals including humans. We needed meat protein early in our evolution as humans in order to develop necessary brain mass but at this point in our evolution we can utilize less meat protein and consume sufficient quantities from alternate vegetable and fruit sources. In the west, our need for meat is simply a lifestyle choice not an essential as we have access to most alternate protein sources. Meat protein is a scarce commodity in the 3rd and 4th worlds and we would do better here to assist our fellow human beings by changing our consumption pattens, reducing our greed and looking to the future where food production is plant based and sustainable unlike animal husbandry.
Micha Bruecker
Trish, have you ever been in a slaughter house? There's your answer regarding cruelty (not that it begins there). I have a lot of compassion for veggies, but I don't put them in the same category as mammals.
New Hope Horse Shelter (DoubleHP)
Duane, that is a great uproar! Way to go! you might want to visit http://www.animals-angels.com. They are the ones who got the photos from USDA. And gave us permission to use them to help show the truth. They are interesting. They go on the road too, following trucks around and taking pictures in livestock auction facilities. Showing us the truth.
Duane Burnett
Apparently horses are shipped to Canada which is not immune to people torturing the animals according to this CBC NEWS report and many other Canadian news agencies.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2010/04/22/calgary-horse-bouvry-slaughterhouse-rcmp-cruelty-inhumane.html
Micha Bruecker
DUANE, I COULD NOT AGREE MORE with everything you said!
Yes, food has become a huge strictly for-profit industry without much regard for the suffering of the sentient beings it "produces".
That is just part of the story: In fact, every single human on this planet could be fed well, we have enoughagrculturally viable land to do this. However, the ... See Morebig companies who hold the near-monopoly on food production are not interested in fair distribution (not to mention nutritional content or safety), only in satisfying their shareholders.
When I was a kid most neighbours grew the majority of their food in their backyard and kept some chickens and rabbits - most of the latter in fairly good conditions.
Having a garden patch to grow some of the food we consume helps. We try and help out the neighbours who cannot (or do not want to) harvest their fruit etc. by doing it for them and sharing the crop.
Each of us can greatly improve matters and our own life by becoming more independent of BIG FOOD INC.
Thank you for starting this.
Nichole Lagasse
Thanks for sharing this Duane!
Hard to swallow those photos....while humans are omnivores and have the enzymes in our intestinal tracts to digest "meat". Biologically, we absorb both Vit B12 and iron easier and more efficiently from "meat" but to subject a sentient being, be our food source, offspring or a companion, to abject misery? how healthy ... is that gonna be to consume? Holy shit...it is unforgivable!
Evolution gave us free will, but our digestive enzymes follow. Not digesting heme sources shuts down the production of enzymes in the gut to no longer seek meat for B12 and iron. Hell...give a lifelong veggie a bacon cheeseburger and you might just kill her!
Tough fence to sit on. 'specially since I love meat.
Again, thanks for the food for thought! I wish for warm open loving pastures for those who suffered!
David F Devo Faber
I cut up a fresh carrot today and it screamed and bled beta-carotene all over the cutting board. I then had a glass of water and some bacteria yelled "please not into that hole". So I took my last breath of air as the microbes cried.
It is all bad. Us humans have got to go, we are just a blight on the planet.
NUTRITION-LESS FOOD
What is sad is most everything in the supermarket these days is just plain garbage, how can fruit juice not have any nutrition in it but take up an entire aisle? The food that is healthy is almost non-existent or too costly for families too afford or riddled with pesticides and toxins.
What is going on out there people? Have we gone mad? Seems a bag of potato chips and an aisle of 100 different types of shampoo bottles has more value then Life itself. Kids think that beef comes from the store and many of us are in a collective denial.
Food is produced with one thing in mind, the cheapest way possible, forcing our farmers to live in poverty, while corporations make big bucks, our democracy becomes more and more of a capitalist dictatorship, our farmlands are paved, our animals tortured for a steak, chicken breast, bacon and eggs, and our fish kept in pig pens that kill our oceans.
GOOD GRIEF!
Thanks for reading my lament this far.... appreciate that. I think I am realizing as I blog in this online journal, that standing up for the rights of other Life forms, whether that be wildlife, animals, pets or people, has always been in my blood since I was a kid.
If you have comments or information you would like to add, please share them with me.
... and please remember, It's always a good day on the Sunshine Coast!
Peace! Yours for the Planet, Duane
Story/photos (C) Duane Burnett
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