Holding Ourselves Accountable
We may not always be able to cross the fences and save the animals pleading for our help, but the least we can do is hold ourselves accountable for how much or how little we perpetuate an archaic system of violence.
We may not always be able to cross the fences and save the animals pleading for our help, but the least we can do is hold ourselves accountable for how much or how little we perpetuate an archaic system of violence.
Perhaps a more accurate way to look at a hen’s attachment to her eggs is not its presence, but its forced absence.
The idea that family or backyard farms can provide an ethical alternative to battery farming ignores some of the fundamental issues at the heart of the egg issue.
Joanna Lucas' essays on The Peaceful Prairie blog offer remarkable glimpses into the emotional lives of those who have been given ‘a second chance at life.’
Down and feathers are technically "by-products" of the meat and egg industry, and the story of their production is just as disturbing as that of any other animal-sourced product.
"In a vegan world the creatures would be reintegrated within the balance and sanity of nature as she is in herself. A great and historic wrong, whose effect upon the course of evolution must have been stupendous, would be righted. The idea that his fellow creatures might be used by man for self-interested purposes would be so alien to human thought as to be almost unthinkable."
Even for those select backyard chicken "farmers" who plan to keep their hens for the 12+ years or so that they will not be laying, there is a trail of tortured layer hens, and dead chicks in their wake.
One of the first of its kind in the United States, H. Jay Dinshah's revolutionary 1967 book invites readers to consider Ahimsa (nonviolence) as the way out of "a jungle worse than any devised by nature."
The following article, written by Paul Harvey (an American nationally-syndicated columnist) was published in a Los Angeles newspaper on January 1, 1980.
Do these labels really indicate an improvement in ethical standards, or are they simply a way for the animal industry to regain consumer confidence in their products?
To be deeply saddened by the murder of a family dog is a sane reaction to a horrific occurrence. The hypocrisy begins when we shut off that sadness in reaction to the murder of other animals.
As we look more closely at the reality of the backyard chicken trend, it becomes increasingly clear that it is the same commodification of animals, packaged in niche marketing to appeal to the modern “conscious consumer”.
Even a quick and genuinely painless death deprives an individual of the chance to experience his or her life, in any capacity, ever again. It stands to reason then, that if we believe other animals ought to be protected from being harmed unnecessarily, they ought to be protected from being killed unnecessarily.
While institutionalized exploiters certainly have a lot to answer for, it is consumers who are primarily responsible for animal cruelty through their purchases of animal products.
When we campaign to eliminate one branch of the animal trade while ignoring others, we send a message that certain forms of exploitation are worse than others.
The animal welfare model overwhelmingly benefits industry – not only by providing guidelines which help producers to adopt a more effective business model, but also by assuring consumers that it is possible to breed, raise, exploit, and slaughter animals in an ethical way.
As surely as the abolitionists of the past knew that no man or woman should be the property of any other, the abolitionists of today know that the legal property status of animals stands in the way of their ever receiving any meaningful rights or protection, let alone being granted the freedom to live according to their own needs and desires.
As most people are naturally opposed to unnecessary violence, becoming and staying vegan is not a matter of changing any of our basic moral beliefs. It simply requires us to be willing to change the habits we have developed that prevent us from living according to our principles.
Ethical vegetarians might not be aware that the production of milk and eggs involves both tremendous cruelty and also the deaths of billions every year. Not only are these animals killed just like those raised specifically for meat, but they are kept alive longer and subjected to a tragic lifetime of slavery, including the horrific violations that come from the brutal exploitation of their reproductive systems.