Have you seen the videos of the cows being abused at the slaughterhouse in California? If you watch TV news at all...there's no avoiding them. They keep showing it -- over and over and over. And, much as I'd like them to stop -- because I do not have the stomach for it -- I want as many people to see them as possibly can.
And, yet, I can't bring myself to link to them here. So, let me just say -- for those who haven't seen them -- that they are disturbingly sad. They are "downer" cows (those too sick or old to walk into the slaughterhouse) being beaten, stabbed, pushed around with forklifts and God knows what else (I had to look away).
The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the first video (of the LIVE cow being pushed with a forklift...breaking it's legs...etc.) was...My God, it's a dairy cow. It spent it's life giving us milk...artificially forced to do so day after day -- and now it's horribly tortured into death when it's no longer useful to us.
My next thought was...I can no longer have any part of this. I want to go vegan.
And, yet, I know that is unrealistic for me and my active lifestyle. I was vegetarian (not vegan, but...vegetarian) for 8 years and it eventually did affect my race performance. I still don't eat red meat or any type of pork. I occasionally eat chicken and turkey (and, no, I'm not fooling myself into thinking those animals are treated any better than "downer" cows).
I know that my little personal protest wouldn't do much good (especially since I'll still continue to buy meat and dairy for the family), but it would allow me to live life with a clean conscious.
I wonder how many other vegetarians were created after seeing those videos this week.
I pray (really...PRAY) that there are criminal charges filed against those responsible and (forgive me for not being very Zen here) wish absolute, complete and total financial ruin for that slaughterhouse.
Comments (1)
I'm not daring enough to watch them... I happen to enjoy the occasional cheese burger... as long as it isn't from my school's cafeteria or McDonalds... because I don't perticularly enjoy either... but wow... that's awful that people could do such cruel things to a living creature... and for no other reason than they are no longer of use to the dairy farmers... and yet again, some people disgust me.
Posted by Michelle F. | February 19, 2008 5:52 PM
Posted on February 19, 2008 17:52