Thursday, July 23, 2009

Christians, why don’t you do what Jesus would do?

The following two posts were old, however I deleted them by accident, so I'm reposting them:



Now, I don’t mean to anger Christians by saying this since I am one myself, but why are so many of us fake about our churches teachings? No, no, I’m not talking about all of the picayune viewpoints that our churches tell us to follow or even going to church every weekend; I could care less about them. I’m talking about one of the main teaching in the bible: respecting Gods creations. Chances are, you, your priest, and just about everyone around you ate one of Gods creations today which goes by the common name of meat. I know it doesn’t sound wrong, but do you think Jesus would want us to eat his creations?


Of course, nearly everyone is going to say, “Well, look at the bible, God says it’s fine to eat animals.” This is true, taking the scripture verbatim, there are plenty of justifications that can be found for eating God’s creations. Jesus himself ate fish (Luke 24:42-43) and lamb (Luke 22:8-15). He even fed a crowd full of people with fish (Matthew 14:17-21). However, in presenting these examples, there is also a plethora of contradictions to these verses. One of the most relevant examples of this is found in the perfect, sinless world, or Garden of Eden, where God says:

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.” (Gen. 1:29-30).

Taking the word of the Lord plainly, this perfect, sinless world was vegetarian.

These types of contradictions mentioned above occur quite often in the Bible especially when we take the passages literally. In addition, the meanings of some verses are often skewed when they are translated since they aren’t adjusted to the current culture. This can lead to misinterpretations. In following the trend of contradictions, it is possible to find some Biblical passages which unmistakably condone some forms of slavery, burning witches and anti-Semitism, and killing innocent people in war. Christians don’t follow these passages; common sense tells us that the Jesus we know would never endorse these activities. Christians look to the overall teachings of the merciful and compassionate man in the Bible, Jesus, not specific passages, to decide God would want us to do.

Now, back to the question posed above, looking at the compassionate man you know from the Bible, Jesus, and not specific passages, do you think our God of love would want you to kill his own creations, which, like you, feel pain? I most certainly would hope not. Why would God put animals on this earth, who feel pain, squeal, and squirm in agony when we try to slit their throats, if he intended them to be killed every day? For those who seriously believe that their ‘loving’ God would encourage this, then I think it’s time they found a new, more compassionate God. A ‘loving’ and ‘compassionate’ God who gave his creations the ability to feel pain with the intention of slaughter? Come on now, let’s get serious. God is compassionate, not ruthless.

Still, regardless of all the teachings of compassion the bible teaches us, some people believe that killing God’s creations is what Jesus would do. In all reality, you could give me all the biblical quotes in the world, and I would still find it very hard to believe God would enjoy us killing his own sentient creations. The Jesus I know from the bible, who teaches mercy, compassion, and love for all of God’s creations, would never inflict pain on his own creations, especially if it wasn’t necessary. Use the overall teachings of the bible and common sense about God, not specific passages from the Bible to justify your actions. Do what the compassionate God you love would want you to do, not what is most convenient for yourself. The compassionate God I love wouldn’t want us to inflict pain, suffering, and death on his own creations. I guess my God is completely different from yours.


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The Evolution of Discrimination

More than half of dog owners in the US bought their dogs a Christmas present this year. Ninety percent pampered them with treats throughout the year. And common sense will tell you that nearly all of these pet owners mourn the death of their animal. Then what happens? What force nixes this steadfast love for animals when we sit down and eat? We would never think of torturing a dog, yet every time we eat a hamburger, we contribute to a completely unnecessary torturing of another animal. The truth is, we are picky in which animals have a right to live. Some animals are legally allowed to be raped, tortured, and killed, while for other, it is illegal and unethical to leave them in the car for too long. We blatantly assign certain animals higher classes than others.



Assigning these different levels, or ‘class systems’ mentioned above is not a new practice; it has been around for ages. The earlier forms of this ‘class system’ were completely obvious. An example is the feudal system. The ‘lords and ladies’ would rule over the ‘serfs and poor farmers’. Once you were born in these classes, you were stuck at that class level. There was no moving up or down in the class ranks. Over time, society changed and viewed this ‘class system’ as wrong.

Today, we don’t have this blatant class system. The class system society currently dictates isn’t anywhere near as obvious as it was several hundred years ago but it still not desirable and nearly identical in pattern. In the current system, society groups people and things using invisible classes. It puts us morally at rest when we don’t see these classes so what we do is unconscientiously place one class or group in a ‘higher’ group than the others. For the most part, overtime, these invisible groups become visible as society uncovers the once unseen discrimination. Unfortunately, the pattern is ongoing so it repeats itself again and again through time.

As we move through history, we can see the evolution of discrimination. When we look back at United States history, we see that our society taught us that it was completely acceptable to make a distinction between races so drastic to say that if you are white, you are a human and if you are black, you are property. If you killed a white person, you would be put to death. If you killed a black person, which was a piece of property, no one would care. It was also quite convenient to use blacks for cheap labor. Blacks were beaten, starved, raped, tortured, enslaved, and killed without anyone blinking an eye. There was no point to question the ethical purity of this. It was completely acceptable in the eyes of society. Whites have privileges while blacks are merely commodities. Over time, people changed, but it wasn’t until 1936 that they found a word to describe the terrible discrimination of races: racism.

In the close past, we saw the effects of racism. Nazi Germany was a prime example of racism. The society of Nazi Germany taught of a superior race named the Aryan race; everything else was subpar. Those who were a part of this Arian race had no qualms about the mass holocaust on others because of course; they were the superior race. There was no need to question if their actions were right or wrong; their society taught them a holocaust was acceptable.

Presently there are white supremacy extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who are thriving. On the KKK’s homepage, it boasts having over 200 separate Klan groups in America. The KKK will occasionally be seen in marches in the traditional, all white robes. Even the thought of these white supremacy klansmen angers most. It should. Society now sees that giving such supremacy to one race yet disrespecting others is wrong. We didn’t 150 years ago.

On a different discrimination, our society taught us that women were inferior to men. A decade ago, women started to gain equality. Before this time, women didn’t have the brain capacity to drive a car, have a normal job, and they sure as hell couldn’t vote. We all know this was wrong. But it wasn’t even until 1920 that all women could vote.

Even today, women are considered inferior to men. Brothels are still legal. Child porn can easily be found on the internet. Hardcore pornography in which women are completely disrespected and insulted is a multibillion-dollar industry. This teaches us that these types of mistreatments are acceptable. This leads to female movie-stars getting stalked in hopes of getting a shot without their underwear on. On the news, it isn’t rare to see women or young girls get beaten and raped. Increasingly women are gaining equality but surely haven’t reached equilibrium with men yet. The reason all of this still goes on without anyone thinking that it is wrong is because most of society teaches us what is completely acceptable; there was no reason to question it.

Increasingly in the news, we see the issues of heterosexism. Heterosexism is the idea that heterosexuals are superior to same gender-loving individuals. This idea runs ramped throughout America; there is no hiding it. People who believe in heterosexism want to prevent homosexuals from getting married because it is degrading to their morals. They believe that their god, who says to love his own creations equally, would not give same gender-loving couples equal rights. Another one of the more overlooked heterosexism discriminations our society faces, is the ever-evolving pop-culture lingo. Our culture has sculpted words used to describe homosexuals into hateful, offensive, and disparaging slang such as ‘faggot’, ‘gay’, ‘queer’, and ‘homo’. In a typical conversation with a teenager, it would be hard to go through entirely without the use of one of these offensively redefined words. Most of our society says that these discriminations are allowed to go on because not enough people see a problem with it.

Debatably, the most over-looked, belittled, and ignored form of discrimination is the use of non-human animals in food. Paralleling all of the previous trends of discriminational –ism’s, most people don’t think of this as a form of discrimination. This is because in this circumstance, it’s convenient to be discriminate. Each year, Americans torture and kill over 10 billion animalsincluding cows, chickens, and pigs for food when not one of animals needed to be killed. Legally, cats and dogs can’t be tortured in any respect, yet other animals who are equally smart, can and are legally tortured, killed, and eaten every year. If they were to do any typical farming practices to cats or dogs, it would be deemed animal abuse.

The word we use to describe the favoritism toward pets versus food animals is speciesism. This means that humans act discriminatory towards certain animals while favoring others i.e. It is wrong to kill cats and dogs if you don’t need to, but it is perfectly acceptable and legal to kill cows, pigs, and chickens for food. Chances are, you think that this is completely acceptable. Guess what? That’s what the people thought and still think of racism, sexism, and heterosexism; it was what society taught them to be acceptable, why question?

The trends of discrimination have been clear and repetitive. You couldn’t compare humans(whites) with property(blacks), Men with women, or Heterosexuals (the preferred orientation of god) with homosexuals and until recently, you couldn’t compare pets with food-animals. Now, for the first time in history, ‘food’ animals are getting rights. In both Germany and Switzerland, they have changed the wording of their constitution to include animals. Fur farms are illegal in England. These countries started to implement the most rudimentary rights for animals because they are starting to see the most blatant form of discrimination. The idea of discrimination is simple, if you wouldn’t torture and kill your pet if you don’t need to, then don’t torture and kill other animals if you don’t need to? You don’t have to torture and kill animals, it’s just convenient and socially acceptable to do so. In fact, some nutritionists would encourage you to stay away from meat entirely. Society teaches us that needlessly killing certain animals is acceptable and we don’t question it. Neither did any of the paralleling -ists: the racists, sexists and heterosexists.

Be a little independent. Open your eyes to the trends. And stop making excuses for yourself because it’s convenient. If you don’t do this, never call yourself a non-discriminate person; you’ll just be lying to yourself. The pattern is simple; this is the evolution of discrimination.


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Monday, April 6, 2009

Since when does being a vegan make you liberal?

You would be amazed how many people think, because I’m a vegan, I’m automatically a raging liberal. I’ve never understood this. For some reason, when I first tell someone, “Hey, I’m a vegan”, they think they know all of my political and lifestyle choices. One person, the first time I met him, even invited me to the largest drug selling event in all of the North East! He must have confused me with a weed smoking, free loving, dreadlock having, hacky sack playing, vegan hippie. Pretty close description of me minus the fact that I’ve never used drugs in my life, I think having promiscuous sex is gross, I wash my short hair twice a day, and the only time I’ve played hacky sack, I kicked it on top of a vending machine. But it’s not just people who I meet that have this idea that all vegans are liberal; my roommate even calls me a vegan hippie! Since when does being a vegan make you liberal?

Matthew Scully is a vegan. He is also pro-life, pro-war, and pro-just about every single issue liberals can’t stand(except the NRA). He helped the former president of the US, George Bush get re-elected and was Sarah Palin’s speech writer. Liberals hate him as much as they hate Pat Buchanan—which reminds me, Pat Buchanan won an award from PETA for his sympathy for animal rights. Now don’t tell these two animal rights is a liberal cause!


Conservatives can, and should be pro-animal rights as animal rights is by no means a patrician issue (though the reasons for animal rights may be patrician). Any serious conservative-right Christian should be able to answer this question pretty easily: Why would God put animals on this earth, who feel pain, squeal, and squirm in agony when we try to slit their throats, if he intended them to be killed every day? What kind of sadistic fuck do you think God is? There is no way He would prefer us to torture and kill his creations that feel pain when we can eat non-sentient plants. I suppose that’s why there are so many Christians who are now vegetarian—they already asked themselves this question, if Jesus was around today, would he slaughter animals who feel pain?

Another stance of conservatives is pro-life. It would be only logical to extend a conservative viewpoint to respect all life—after all, most people who are pro-life believe life starts at a few cells, so logically one of God’s creations, which is by far more developed, deserves some consideration. If not, the pro-life stance would be quite contradictory (like a pro-lifer who believes in the death penalty).Pro-life means all life, not just what is most convenient.

On the other side, I know there are motives why liberals should be vegans too. Going vegan is one of the best things you can do to the environment and your health, but I’m not a vegan for the environment or my health. In fact, if it was worse for the environment or health, I could care less, I would still be a vegan. Boy I would be a fake liberal! I’m a vegan because the way we treat animals is horrifically unacceptable, not because of my political ideology.

This idea that vegans and Animal Rights advocates are all liberal is ludicrous. People try and alienate themselves from animal rights by dismissing Animal Rights as an extremist issue. They will come up with excuse after excuse as to why killing animals is such a wonderful and necessary thing. Some would rather come up with excuses to kill animals rather than look at the reasons not to kill animals! I know, it’s sick! Animal rights is not a Partisan issue, so don’t make it one. If you are a conservative you should believe in animal rights and if you are a liberal you should believe in animal rights. Liberals and Conservatives, every time you go shopping in a capitalistic society, you are voting with your money. Do the right thing and vote to saves lives. Your God, your environment, your body, and the animals will thank you.


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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Dumberest Question Ever

Being a vegan, I get my fair share of dumb questions, but today truly topped the cake. Now, by dumb questions, I mean some dumb questions! Can vegetarians eat animal crackers? Can vegans eat fish? And aren't we meant to eat meat? But this one was by far the most dim-witted question I’ve gotten in a while:

Both plants and animals are alive, so what’s the difference between the two? You’re no better than the rest of us.

We’re going to school at Penn State. Do we really not know the difference between plants and animals yet? Perhaps we can find the difference in these next two pictures:


and this


Still looking for a difference? Yeah, me too.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know it wasn't a serious question and it was at best a poor excuse as to why he eats meat, but come on, come up with something that shows you thought logically for a second. Hell, even make something up! But the point of all of this is not to show how dumb the question was, but to show that most people haven’t given it any thought as to how poorly we treat the animals we call meat. Most people can’t even think of a reason to care! But surprisingly, there are reasons to care....

When I was a child, my friend down the road would catch bee's and use insulation foam to permanently stick them to the ground so they would squirm around and eventually die. He didn’t see any problem with this. When I went back to my house and told my mom how disgusted I was, she agreed and made a big deal out of it saying I probably shouldn't hang out with him anymore if he does things like that. I now know why it was such a big deal. If a child abuses an animal, or insect in this case, there is something physiologically wrong with them.

And the end of this story brings me to a question: why is it when a child abuses something as small as an insect there is something drastically wrong, but when we abuse animals daily without ever second guessing, it’s perfectly acceptable? Do we have to mistreat animals like that? At what point is it wrong?













Uh Oh! I better have not just hear another excuse!


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Sunday, March 29, 2009

More Shams from Environmentalists

From time to time you hear various environmentalists expressing their distain of the government subsidies towards biofuels which totals around 6 billion a year. This is certainly worthy of attention as these fuels are counterproductive in solving our environmental problems, but I find it particularly funny that environmentalists still have not questioned the government subsides on animal products, something that is exponentially worse on the environment.




Currently, the US government subsidizes meat directly however in very small amounts( around $300 million). The real way the meat industry gets all of the government subsidies is from other sectors of agriculture (corn, soybeans, wheat, oats). Since the livestock sector consumes unreasonable amounts of vegetables, 80% of the US corn and 90% of soy meal crops, they use the subsidies from vegetables to feed their animals. To give you an idea of how much the US government subsides these crops, between 2000 and 2004, an average of $4.5 billion to corn and $2 billion to soy was given out to the agriculture sector. Nearly all of government subsides initially intended for vegetables went to livestock feed instead.

With this being said, when environmentalists start to complain about these subsides on biofuels, I question their sincerity. These subsides have only been around for a few years, yet meat subsides have been around since the early 1970’s. Both subsides are around the equivalent monetarily, yet the subsides for meat are far worse on the environment. Has anyone heard a main-stream peep out against these meat subsidies? I know I certainly haven't. I have however heard meat-eaters who ironically call themselves environmentalists(Al Gore) voicing plenty of disdain towards biofuel subsides(Mr. Krugman). The subsides on meat have already contributed to more environmental devastation over thier 40 years of existence than subsides on biofules could ever realistically contribute, yet environmentalists still haven't picked up on it. It's time that changed.

I know I've said this plenty of times, but the single best thing you can do for the environment is go vegetarian. And as the UN claims, "the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”.

For those who consider themselves environmentalists, I strongly urge you to reduce your consumption of animal products. It's the best thing you can do to mitigate your carbon footprint.


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The Unreliability of Animal Testing

As some of you may know, Animal Testing is one particular area which I take great interest in, so last week, when I came across an article which claims scientists may have found a cure for diabetes, I wanted to dig deeper into the study.

In short, these scientists from Baylor, used a process called Gene Therapy where they take a gene called neurogenin3, attach it to a virus which then delivers the gene to the adult stem cells in the liver of the mouse. The mouses liver, within a week, brought the blood sugar levels back to normal.

There's a catch though: The virus they use to deliver the gene could be deadly in humans.


For anyone who is up on animal testing, this is not a surprising finding. The anatomy of the animals we drug test on and humans are drastically different and because of this, countless drugs pass in lab animals, yet need to be withdrawn from the market a few years later. One of the many classic examples, VIOXX, passed drug testing in six different species yet a few years later, needed to be withdrawn cause it was found to cause heart attacks. By the time it was recalled, it was estimated by the FDA that it killed around 28,000 people.

This example above is shocking, however it does not capture how poor the results of animal testing truly are. And actually, many people, even vegetarians, aren't aware of is how poor the predictability of animal testing is.

The FDA found that if a drug works in animal trials, 92% of the time it will not work in humans. It doesn't take a scientist to understand that is an unacceptable rate, but we must keep in mind, the reason it's only 92% and not closer to 99% is because the pass rate of many skin drugs is very high(this is attributed to "fake skin" rather than animal testing). Many of more serious drugs, such as cancer drugs, have an attrition rate closer to 98%. Lastly, of that 8% that passes in clinical trials, half of those drugs will be recalled from the market or relabeled because of unknown side effects.

These numbers are extremely interesting to look at especially on the pharmasutical side. Why on earth would these pharmasutical companies, which are entirely profit driven, continue to use procedures that are outdated and have terrible success rates? The answer is both politically and profitability oriented.

These companies could use there immense lobbying power on the government to change the FDA's policies on animal testing, however they would much rather stay on the FDA's good side.

In another angle, the FDA strongly suggests passing the potential drugs in two or more animals before approval. Since the variability from animal to animal is so high, if the drug doesn't work in a mouse or rat, it may work in an amphibian or rabbit. These additional outs prove to be beneficial to the pharmasutical companies when applying for drug approval.

Both of these factors, staying in the good graces of the FDA and the availability of different animal tests translates to one thing, faster and better chance for approval of drugs. Why is this so important? Just imagine passing a blockbuster drug such as Lipitor, which makes $13.7 million a day. A week or two faster in the drug approval process means millions more in profit. Even if the drug is recalled years later, the company still made hundreds of millions to billions in profits from the drug.

Animal testing is often times misunderstood as beneficial, yet in reality is holding science back. With a 92% attrition rate in animal testing, we need to use alternatives. The Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods, funded by the US government, has looked at slightly under 200 alternatives to animal testing and recommended where to properly use them but the FDA still requires animal testing. Animal testing will not be thrown out overnight as alternatives must be approved on a test by test basis, however with increasing pressure from the public, the FDA will likely change it's policies on drug development. As a Pro-Science and Pro-progress supporter, I strongly urge the FDA to get rid of the animal tests that don't work and use alternative tests which yield better results.



Note: Before my inbox is flooded with e-mails regarding Genetically Engineered animals, I would like to be clear that these GE Animals mealy give a false hope to Pro-animal testers. These animals are going to come with the same and possibly additional problems that normal animal testing comes with. Humans and Animals are vastly genetically different, it's time we throw out the old technology(animal testing) and bring in something a little better that will bring out cures.


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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Peoples Have Crazy Idea's on Where our Meat Comes From

This last week was Meat-out week at Penn State. Meat-out is a national event where Vegetarians and Vegans encourage people to give up meat products for one day out of the year. Since Penn State is a huge Agriculture school, many of the Ag and Animal science students took offense to the event as their job depends on people consuming animals/animal bi-products. As a resuly, they held a "Meat-in" day where they passed out information on the benefits of eating meat and Beef Jerky. As a counter, the Vegetarian Club at Penn State passed slightly over 1,100 pamphlets on factory farms out. The Penn State Collegian, the student newspaper, covered the story. After the article came out, a couple articles came out denouncing Vegetarians and Vegans along with the other side.

This first is the Letter to the Editor that started the whole ordeal:

Practices of meat farmers ensure safety of livestock


All of the practices that farmers do are for
the safety of the animal with production in
mind. PETA argues that animals are being
treated inhumanely and spread stories of how
mother sows are penned in stalls so that they
cannot turn around.This is a true fact but
what PETA neglects to tell the public is that
that is for the safety of the piglets.

This living arrangement is for the ultimate
good of the animal, when penned this way
they are less likely to kill their piglets by lying
on them then when they are just left to roam
free. In addition young piglets, just like babies,
are not very good on their feet, and would find
it very difficult to chase after their mother
when it came time to eat and the small piglets
would ultimately die.

If PETA would remove its ugly head from
an industry it does not understand every ani-
mal would be better off.

The other major issue PETA argues is the
ingestion of animal meat. If humans did not
eat meat there would be an over-abundance of
animals in the world and they would become
obstacles on roads like the over populated
deer herds in Pennsylvania. The consumption
of animal flesh is not only just something we
do because of tradition, but it is a direct stim-
ulant to the US Economy. The U.S. meat
industry is the largest sector of agriculture
and agriculture is the largest sector of the
U.S. economy.

Meat industry sales in 2003 were nearly $90
billion, according to the U.S. Department of
Commerce. With the current status of our
economic system who would want to pull that
chuck of change out of the equation? For
many rural communities, livestock production
and meat processing are economic corner-
stones and cannot be replaced or compro-
mised!


The responce:


Making profit trumps safety
as farmers’ main concern


In Nicholas Wingert's letter to the editor
(“Practices of farmers ensure safety of live-
stock,” March 19), he states "All of the practices
that farmers do are for the safety of the animal
with production in mind." He has one part right:
With production in mind. The only time corpo-
rate farmers treat the animals with safety is
when it is economically beneficial to them.

According to the United Egg producers,
which is funded through egg producers in the
United States, 95 percent of the eggs we eat
are from caged birds; it recommends giving
each bird anywhere from 67-86 square inches
of room.

That is slightly less than a sheet of paper.
With these recommendations, chickens aren't
able to spread their wings for all of their adult
life. Keep in mind, this is what the Egg pro-
ducers are telling you: You can use your own
mind to interpret how badly they really treat
them.

In Mr. Wingert's opinion, farmers treat ani-
mals with care. I suppose this is why we have
videos of cows and pigs being hoisted into the
air by forklifts, piglets being thrown 10 feet
into the air, farm animals unable to turn
around in their stalls, and chickens being
recklessly thrown into transport trucks before
slaughter.

These videos are not the exception. There
are dozens of investigations highlighting the
largest animal producers such as Tyson,
AgriProcessors, Butterball, and Perdue, just
to name a few, committing countless atroci-
ties. These few producers supply a vast
majority of our meat.

As the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out,
18 beef processors account for 80 percent of
the market share.

Every time we go food shopping, we are
voting with our dollar. I would hope people
choose to consume less animal products and
byproducts in turn reducing animal suffering.
And lastly I hope that people aren't hood-
winked by the propaganda that Factory farms,
where we get a majority of our meat from,
treat their animals humanely.


And the response to that:

Ignorance of meat's critics visible in uninformed views

This is in response to the many letters to the editor that talk about Meat-In Day and Meat-Out Day.

I have many friends who are vegetarians and many who aren't and either way I completely respect their decisions. My vegetarian friends, however, also respect those of us who eat meat and never call us ignorant because the decision to eat meat is not solely based on knowledge, but on personal beliefs.

I know that I am not ignorant as I grew up surrounded by farms, my roommate is a farmer, and I am a food science major. I know where my food comes from and how the animals that produce my meat products are raised. The majority of farmers focus on the safety of their animal and treat them with care.

Yes, I do realize that there are exceptions and animals are mistreated in some cases, but they are exceptions. I know all of this from my education.

Those of you who claim that you know otherwise from videos online are the ignorant ones. I actually take classes here at Penn State about where my food comes from. You look up videos on the Internet. Let me ask you which source you think is more reliable?
e


This letter was not published, however it was submitted:

“Ignorance of meat's critics visible in uninformed views”, echo’s an argument made by many. They use completely anecdotal information to claim that a majority of the animals we eat come from producers who treat animals with care. This is completely false. A majority of the animals we eat do not come from traditional farms.

According to president of the U.S. National Farmers' Union, the top four cattle producers account for 80% of the market in the U.S. In addition, the WorldWatch Institute found that 74% of the worlds chicken and nearly all of the U.S. chicken comes from factory farms. Keep in mind, medium CAFO’s (factory farms), may contain anywhere from 37,500 to 124,999 chickens at a time(EPA).

It doesn’t take much to understand there are very few practical ways to raise thousands of birds on one farm humanely. It shouldn’t come to a surprise there aren’t any pictures of the birds living or slaughter conditions on Perdue’s, Butterball’s, or Tyson’s websites; they would go bankrupt overnight.

The author also cited personal beliefs as a reason to justify killing animals for food. I would hope, in a world with a growing number of nutritionists recommending keeping animal products off your plate, some form of the golden rule could be applied here as I’m sure most would not want to be killed simply because they taste good.( I’m not comparing humans with animals, I’m merely mentioning they deserve consideration.)

I would encourage those who believe that the animals we eat are raised and killed in a humane manner, to do additional research. The farms in our neighborhoods are by no means a true depiction of how we treat the animals we slaughter. Instead, the packages of meat from the supermarket contain an animal’s abused life which we support financially every time we purchase meat. I would encourage those who eat animal products to understand how cruel those products truly are and think twice when buying their food.



Though this letter did not make it into the newspaper, there is a moral to the story. These letters are evidence that a majority of people are not aware of how much of our meat comes from factory farms. When they see a scenic farm, they think, wow they treat these animals just fine. This misconception truly subtracts from the Vegetarian/Vegan arguments validity.

Vegetarians and Vegans need to keep showing people how badly we treat animals. So long as we kill 10 Billion animals a year in the US alone, I think we can do better. For every person that goes vegetarian, over 100 animals are saved a year-- I think thats something worth working for.


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