Ethical Behavior

          Let's consider the ethics of these two images. The turkey vultures are eating an animal that died naturally or accidentally, whereas the family is eating a docile, defenseless animal that was murdered. The turkey vultures need to eat the animal in order to survive, while the humans are eating merely for pleasure.

Furthermore, we humans did not even have the nerve to confine the pig, stun her with electroshock, hang her upside down, and then slit her throat. Instead, we had someone else do this for us, in secret, so we wouldn't feel bad.

If you do still eat meat, please go to a farm and meet in person the animal you intend to chew on and consume. Sit with him or her for an hour or so, and look into her eyes. Feed her from your hand. Pet her. Then offer to kill her yourself. See if then you can set your table and serve her to your family.

Perhaps the most stunning difference between the two pictures is that while vultures act mostly by instinct, human beings have a Conscience which continues to tell us where the truth is. We are coming to see that all animals deserve to be inside our circle of compassion. Animals feel and have strong preferences, they want to live and be comfortable, and they trust us to take care of them.

Loss of Self-hood

When viewing these two pictures, which chicken's welfare might we care about more - one of the chickens among the mass of chickens, or the one being cuddled by this beautiful little child? If the white chicken became snagged on a wire, or were trapped, might you rush to help it? What about one of the ones in the factory?

It's well known that human beings are challenged when it comes to feeling compassion for multitudes, even if the multitudes are human beings. And this is yet another problem with factory farms. Even when we're allowed to see photographs of the living conditions - and the horrific transport and slaughter - each individual is in a sea of other individuals, and our brains go numb with it.

We need to stop. We need to quietly consider the feelings of another living creature. If we had a pet chicken, and she sat on our lap while we read, and ate a banana from our hand, and followed us around the yard, would we turn on her and strangle her, slit her throat, and eat her? If not, what right do we have in eating any chicken? Each chicken we eat WOULD sit on our lap, eat from our hand, and cock her head at us with curiosity, if we offered her the chance. 

These are living creatures who want to live. When I ate chicken, I never thought about this. I never thought about the fact that someone had to confine a beautiful bird in practically a straight jacket, sear her beak off, and then sometime later snatch her in terror and murder her, cut her up, and package her. But now nothing could be more obvious. 

The Circle of Compassion

I recently had supper with a friend and mentioned that I feel like an abolitionist. I can't help but see a glaring injustice and horrifying cruelty toward a group of fellow beings, while others don't quite see it yet. She responded with, "Caitlin, I don't think it's like being an abolitionist. Animals just aren't as important as people."

I wondered after dinner why it is that people feel this way, and I think it's because animals can't talk. Well, obviously they can talk, but not in a language we can understand. Without language, their concerns can be ignored. So I think I understand now why I'm so drawn to protecting animals. It's because they're the ultimate victims. They're entirely innocent and have no human voice to plead for mercy. And in the case of domesticated animals, we're the ones who bring them into the world, so the way we treat them tells us in no uncertain terms who we are.

Comparing animal activism to abolitionism or the civil rights movement or the women's movement offends some people because they think it debases people. But in my mind, it in no way debases people, but only elevates animals. And by elevating animals, we in fact elevate people!

I advocate for animals for animals' sake, but also to help open and expand the human heart. My own heart has been opening, slowly for a couple of decades, but most especially in the last two years. I had no idea how animals were treated on factory farms, and I never thought about them in experimental labs. They were simply off my radar. But once you see the truth, your heart changes, your sensibilities change, and there's no going back.

The abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, the women's liberation movement, all permanently changed our core beliefs. New values then were passed onto our children, and there's no reversing these things. The animal rights movement is happening right now and will widen our circle of compassion even further, and forever.

Every time we bother to stop and respectfully observe an animal, without exception, we're surprised and even amazed at his intelligence, his ability to communicate with his own species, and his clear desire to live unmolested. The more we look, the more we see.

We will look back on these times and find it absolutely beyond belief that a human being once didn't love and respect every animal - that he forced them into crates, ignored their screams for help, raped and mutilated them, experimented on them against their will, butchered them and ate them. Even now, these things are only done in utter secrecy. Can you imagine your neighbor doing these things next door? We're on a continuum, and the times, they are a changin'.

Why Vegan?

Most of us grow up eating meat and eggs and drinking cow’s milk. It becomes as natural as breathing air. The children’s books we grow up with are filled with farm pictures - pigs smiling, geese acting silly, cows lying reverently in the grass. And maybe our parents take us to a petting zoo - a sweet, irresistible picture of gentle harmony. 

But the meat we eat is not from these animals. Nor the eggs, nor the milk. 99% of the animal products sold in stores is from CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). CAFO’s are a new invention, started in the 1950’s, and their name elucidates the deep problem they pose for animals. The animals are ‘concentrated’ together in order to maximize the amount of 'product' sold. The space allotted is the minimum possible without the animal dying, not the space desired by the animal. For an egg-laying hen, a pig, or a male calf, this means a life in a cage too small to move in. And the O in CAFO is for ‘Operation’, which means it processes a product, as opposed to caring for an animal, an animal that without any doubt, feels and suffers.

A few viewings of pigs in gestation crates, hens in battery cages, and cows knee-deep in their own feces makes it easy to see the moral problem with eating meat and eggs, but why give up milk and cheese and yogurt? How is milking a cow harmful? It turns out that in order to get milk from a cow, you have to impregnate it once a year, and then when the calf is born, you need to take the baby from her mother so she doesn't consume the milk. When the baby is taken from her mother, the bellowing of distress from both the mother and baby is one of the most heart wrenching experiences one can witness on a farm. Also, if the calf is a male, after he’s taken, he’s chained inside a pen too small to move, where he stands, motherless, for 4 months, until he’s taken to slaughter. So when we drink cow’s milk, we absolutely support the misery of this little calf.

So the milk we might lap from our cereal bowl at breakfast, or the yogurt we spoon at lunchtime - what is quintessentially wholesome in our minds – we now can see for what it is – something taken without asking, forced from a mother against her will, and something that causes male baby cows to live a life of sadness. This is very hard to believe, but only because CAFO’s are off limits to the public, and advertisers make things very, very beautiful.

For Non-Vegans

If you eat meat and dairy, please watch this movie. You'll see that vegans are not fringe, bushy-under-the-arms, self-righteous worry-warts. Well, some of us may be, but we're just people who know what you'll know after seeing this movie. That's the only difference. A year ago, I had no idea that the animal I was eating was miserable before being slaughtered and packaged up for my plate. I absolutely had no idea. I simply never thought about the fact that this animal had feelings and suffered. Absolutely incredible. I ate chicken for breakfast!

Movie Review: Peaceable Kingdom

This is a beautiful film with lots of footage of farm animals in clean, open-air, loving environments. Cows, chickens, goats, sheep, and pigs are each utterly charming and glow with health, trust, and freedom.

The film depicts a group of deeply devoted farmers who've had a change of heart and are now appalled with what they've done to animals. They're now running sanctuaries and speaking all over the country educating people about animal abuse on farms.

Seeing these animals' individual personalities and their sweet, innocent souls makes the idea of abusing them extremely heart wrenching and absolutely bewildering. Relatively few people are actually engaged in abusive farming, but millions of people drive the demand for it, unknowingly, by eating meat.

Join the Thousands of Us Who are Leafleting College Campuses!

VeganOutreach has created this superb brochure that quickly and powerfully illustrates the problem with eating animals and animal products and offers lots of vegan alternatives. You can order copies from their website, and hand them out on college campuses or anywhere you think would be responsive. After you leaflet, you can let VeganOutreach know how your experience was and connect with the many others who are leafleting all over the country.

Click here to view this brochure as a PDF.