What's Love Got To Do With Meat?

In the recent winter storm named Atlas up to 70,000 cows, sheep and horses were left stranded, soaked with rain, and then were smothered or frozen in snow. Many of these cows were found in piles around the barbed wire meant to keep them "safe". Often buried in the drifts were young calves huddled by their mothers. 

On any site that reported this event, or in other instances where the "care" of "livestock" is scrutinized, animal users will defend their practices and habits with endless comments meant to illustrate how much they "love" their stock:

"We tenderly nurture and care for these production animals."

"Farm families love and care for each one."

"We do our best to keep our livestock comfortable; warm in the winter, cool in the summer, well fed, because we care."

"Although they may have death in the end, you can try to give them good care until then." 

"We love the animals we raise to feed the world."

At the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance you can see they "care" seventeen times on one page. Maybe they figure the more you say it... The more you mean it right? 

And Bonnie, a member of the National Turkey Federation, enters a grow-out barn singing Kumbia to the thousands of birds she claims to "love".

The pig pork people are just the same. They want you to know how much they "care" in one convincing logo. 

Dairymen are animal lovers too! You can read it seven times on one page, amid the photos of barren plastic hutches where the infant calves are "cared for" in isolation.

Or you could see the same line in a Dairy Farmers Care video where they "care" nine times in three minutes.

You can see the pattern over and over. Ranchers and "producers" "care" and "love" these animals so very much --- All the way to the kill floor.

But getting back to Atlas... The industry posted a series of photos that illustrate the impact this storm had. In one, the caption reads "Identifying and cutting ear tags from the animals we found deceased helped in keeping an accurate count of the lost." And other missing cows are being identified by their "brands" on left or right hip or rib, or elsewhere I guess...

Can't you feel the love?

And of course they have to keep track of the loss in order to be reimbursed via the Livestock Indemnity Program. Heck of a way to count the tears, through tags, brands, carcass disposal and cash. 

Any reasonable person can see right through this "love" and loss. It's not about the heartbreak of losing a friend and family member... It's about finances and lost profits. We should feel sorry for these ranchers we're told, for they'll never get to capitalize on flesh that's buried. Instead I and many others, weep for the cows, horses and sheep. I never knew a single one of them... But I know I love them more than those who "owned" them ever could.

I know what it means to genuinely care. It's someone who rearranges their whole day to rescue orphaned possums. It's someone who sets the alarm every 2 hours to insure that baby mice or rabbits are kept hydrated. It's someone who takes in a rejected calf from the dairy industry and loves him his entire life without a "lost milk tally". It's folks who pool their resources to rescue hundreds of "spent hens" . And they do it over, and over, and over and over again without the reward of one single egg as a "payment". 

It's finding a way to rescue one pig who then gives birth to sixteen others. It's rejoicing that all are healthy, without the calculated plan as to when they reach a market weight. Their value is priceless.

I could go on with how much authentic concern is given to these beings who have been rescued from the industries that profess to "care" while benefiting financially. And it's true, for some it is about the money... But not the making of it - But the sharing of it... Down to their last penny. That's a real love beyond counting ear tags and making meat.

Whether you are a consumer or a rancher - Words are hollow if they're not followed through with sincere action. Using others for your profit or personal benefit has nothing to do with love. Please if you don't do so already, live and Eat Like You Care.

April Fool! Animal Use - The Last Laugh Is On Us!

April Fool!  This is just a little day among all marked calendar events.  Meant to be harmless and silly - It's a day dedicated to jokes and pranks...  And I do understand a good laugh.  Laughter is "good for the soul" - Right?  Along with that notion I've also heard that one shouldn't take one's self too seriously.  If you've ever been the brunt of a set-up, and the ha-ha's were at your expense, the perpetrator will say they were just "kidding".  But most often this just kidding "apology" is not meant to be sincere at all.

And I admit as a vegan I am often dismayed and saddened at "jokes" meant to make light of some very grave things.

But here's the peculiar part with the way animal industries (and culture) have "fun" with animals as their subject matter.  

The joke is all backwards! 


The "trick" doesn't happen and then everything's sort of okay again, like with an April Fool's joke.  No harm. No foul. No! It's the exact opposite!  We deceive them and ourselves that their best care and interests are important.  Even paramount.  At the onset we teach kids that these farmed animals are our friends. Friends that deserve kindness and loyalty.  Everything at the start is so even and fair... No mischief or harm could ever be expected!

And then the punchline comes!  The biggest "joke" on them that there ever could ever be!  With false pretenses of "fair play"... We lead them to the kill floor and then we say "Ooops! Just kidding! We didn't really care that much about you at all!"

Sadly the joke is on us.  The effects of this in-side-out, backwards trick we play on our fellow creatures contaminates everything in our "sorry", kidding and kidded culture.  We cannot be happy with such a lie of this magnitude. It is only an illusion that has not been examined in full light of reality.  And those who wish to remain blind to it, ridicule their own wisdom.

Please do not be a fool!  Animals do not wish to die for us. We don't need to kill them.  And we certainly don't need to laugh at how "gullible" they are to trust us.

A kind suggestion: End the contradictions. Go Vegan