The lie I hate most…

Amen to this editorial in today’s New York Times. I am a vegetarian. I don’t wear fur or leather. I believe that doing these things is immoral. I understand that many people disagree and think it is proper to use animals their own ends. I don’t necessarily have a problem with this point of view; so long as people understand what kind of lives factory farmed animals are living. The meat industry wants us to believe that animals spend their days eating grass and walking around outside in the sunshine. For anyone who takes the time to look, it is abundantly clear that this is a false image. The conditions in factory farms are beyond repugnant:

Of the 60 million pigs in the United States, over 95 percent are continuously
confined in metal buildings, including the almost five million sows in crates.
In such setups, feed is automatically delivered to animals who are forced to
urinate and defecate where they eat and sleep. Their waste festers in large pits
a few feet below their hooves. Intense ammonia and hydrogen sulfide fumes from
these pits fill pigs’ lungs and sensitive nostrils. No straw is provided to the
animals because that would gum up the works (as it would if you tossed straw
into your toilet).

There needs to be more transparency of this industry. Why is the kill floor not open to public inspection? If there are health or security concerns, why are there no webcams of the kill floor? Could it be that if people were able to witness what was really going on they would cease to eat animal carcasses? If you want to eat meat, that is your business. Just be cognitive of the suffering and indecency that the animals you consume have experienced.