Are You Listening Now?
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Hair: Ms. Kippish
Mua: Melissa
The Ethics of Eating Animals
Everyone who knows me knows I love animals. No, I don’t think you understand. I REALLY love animals. I screech my car to a stop when I drive by helpless stray dogs and cats. I bring them food, rescue them and take them to animal hospitals to get checked out. Admittedly, I give more to homeless people when they are in the company of stray puppies or cats. I get upset when I see people step on roaches. Yes, roaches. This being said, my intense push toward turning the world vegan is not purely driven out of animal compassion. I could write for hours about the disgusting and inhumane treatment of animals in most big factory farms. I bet it would make you put your chicken wing down when I describe the hormones and antibiotics flowing through your piece of flesh you are about to gorge on…I can even make the most hardened carnivore reconsider their bloody steak diet once I explain the torture cows exhibit when having their throats slit, and how the USDA doesn’t have to let consumers know if the cow was sick with open, oozing sores right before slaughter. Why are we okay with raping animals for reproduction purposes and shocking or beating them with clubs to get them to comply? Got milk? I would love to explain more about humans injecting the bovine hormone to increase cow’s milk production causing Mastitis (an udder infection) that in turn increases the pus in your milk and some studies say is also having young girls enter puberty earlier. YUP. I’m that girl. I am the one that ruins dinner with fun meat and dairy facts.
You see, veganism is much more than saving animals; it’s about saving humans. Yes, it has been proven that humans can thrive on plant based diets. In fact, plant protein is more easily absorbed than animal protein. With a vegan diet we see less disease, less ailments, less surgery. Does your doctor want you to know this? Of course not. Sick people keep the health care system rich. Were you aware that the Food Pyramid that we were forced to memorize during our elementary school years has been sued for misinforming people? You see, the meat and dairy industries have some powerful lobbyists behind them. They have used their influence to “buy” their spot on the food pyramid, tricking us into believing that the number of servings “needed” is accurate. It is a shame that politics are so much a part of the food we eat.
What about the environment? Humans who eat meat produced in factory farms are not helping to conserve our natural resources. Meat production takes so much water (2,500 gallons for every 1 lb of beef.) Water is a finite resource. In the United States we are using far more than our share of the world’s water. If we cut back on beef consumption, we could help cure world hunger by shipping the grain we would have grown and fed exclusively to cows (they’re supposed to eat grass by the way) and give it to starving children somewhere in our own country or in a third world. Methane gas released from these factory farms is another problem. What about the deforestation going on in South America that’s happening to build cattle farms and keep up with the ever increasing demand for meat? The population is growing faster than the earth can keep up with, hence the lack of ethics in the production of this meat.
Not convinced yet? Well the United Nations agrees with me. They are asking everyone to go toward a more meat free diet at least a few days a week. Try it. You may be pleasantly surprised by the positive impact you can make in the world. Remember, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
If you would like to make a donation on my behalf for the ASPCA, I have a page! I am accepting donations that go DIRECTLY to the ASPCA on their website during the month of birthday only! The ASPCA is an organization that gives a voice to abused animals.
