That is precisely why I cannot bring myself to eat meat (especially pork) anymore. Comparing and contrasting our animal welfare regulations (wrt to farm/food animals) with Europe's paints a ghastly picture. I am most definitely not an evangelist for vegetarianism and among my favorite jokes is still, "Why did the vegan cross the road? To tell someone they were vegan." Yet, in my rapidly approaching old age I am increasingly aware of the amount of cruelty in the world and I no longer wish to lead my life in a manner that is complicit with any sort of cruelty.
Our regulations allow for pigs to be hauled in the back of trucks for up to 28 hours without food or water. There's a group of activists in California who flag down the drivers hauling the pigs across the street from a "processing plant" (nay slaughter house). They do this with the company's approval that has agreed to allow the trucks to pause for two minutes so that activists can walk up to the pigs, speak kindly to them and give them some water, which they guzzle down ferociously. The activists say they do this twice a week because these pigs are just six months old and they have never known any kindness in their entire lives and are about to be slaughtered.
What has stuck with me most is one of the activists saying (paraphrased), "These pigs are just six months old and they are very frightened." Frightened. A very short life filled beyond capacity with cruelty, then parched in the back of a truck only to be slaughtered whilst consumed with fear. And make no mistake, pigs are intelligent enough to know true fear.
I simply cannot get that idea out of my head. Terrified young animals jacked up with beta agonists whose entire lives have been filled with cruelty. As much as I very recently loved bacon and ham, I find myself unwilling to continue to turn a willful blind eye to the fear I am helping to instill and the cruelty I am helping to promote through my food choices.
I feel this way and say all this but I do not now, nor would I ever criticize anyone for eating three pounds of bacon and two pounds of ham with each meal. This is my own conviction and it is an entirely personal one.
Our regulations allow for pigs to be hauled in the back of trucks for up to 28 hours without food or water. There's a group of activists in California who flag down the drivers hauling the pigs across the street from a "processing plant" (nay slaughter house). They do this with the company's approval that has agreed to allow the trucks to pause for two minutes so that activists can walk up to the pigs, speak kindly to them and give them some water, which they guzzle down ferociously. The activists say they do this twice a week because these pigs are just six months old and they have never known any kindness in their entire lives and are about to be slaughtered.
What has stuck with me most is one of the activists saying (paraphrased), "These pigs are just six months old and they are very frightened." Frightened. A very short life filled beyond capacity with cruelty, then parched in the back of a truck only to be slaughtered whilst consumed with fear. And make no mistake, pigs are intelligent enough to know true fear.
I simply cannot get that idea out of my head. Terrified young animals jacked up with beta agonists whose entire lives have been filled with cruelty. As much as I very recently loved bacon and ham, I find myself unwilling to continue to turn a willful blind eye to the fear I am helping to instill and the cruelty I am helping to promote through my food choices.
I feel this way and say all this but I do not now, nor would I ever criticize anyone for eating three pounds of bacon and two pounds of ham with each meal. This is my own conviction and it is an entirely personal one.