Sep 11, 2013

Free Range: It's About Eating The Happiest Ones...

If you want to know the sheep you eat then apparently the place to go is Kinderhook Farm. They've got tons of appealing propaganda that will ease the coldest, carnist conscience! 
It looks so picture perfect!

There' also those bonny gals that sing cheery songs about the way they procure their fix for pretty-flesh. The tribute of "eating cheek to cheek" says it all. 

"We put love into every single pig" and "the pigs play with us".  The tune continues praising the happy sheep and bouncy lambs that live on grass... And how nice it is that these creatures are so content and well cared for. And how you're going to appreciate all those yummy-viscera-goodies that go so well with roasted beets!
They really have got the good times mapped out, don't they?


Apparently it's very important for some folks to know up close and personal who their victims are. They so desperately want to know that their meat "donors" lived a good life and that their chicken was a happy bird

By that logic they should feel really good about going into a peaceful pasture... With rolling hills, a running brook and lush shade trees. A paradise called Happy Meat Land! 
Up with the swell of angelic violins please!


Here the goal is to source out the most contented, serene and joyful victim possible. The happier they are the better! Once that totally satisfied and blissful one presents himself, the finger should point and say "That one! I'll take that one! The most radiant of all! That's the life I'll take! That's the casualty of my lust. And it ought to be a delicious treat!"  

Disturbing isn't it?

While down the path of Happy Meat Land they'll say they are doing such an honor (and sacrifice)... To go this route of "ethical" "beef", "pork" or "chicken"... They'll tell you often that it cost them so much more time and money to do so! And that you should support and respect them as they make an attempt to reduce the suffering their diet choices inflict.  
Ah hem (If you don't want to harm anyone you just don't eat them!)

No... I'll argue that even if they wanted to live by a more "kind", and "conventional", utilitarian ethic, it makes much more sense to liberate those who are enslaved in miserable cages and endure absolute and utter frustration! If those "locavores" "humane," "compassionate," "cruelty-free," "cage-free," "free range," "paleo," "pasture-raised," or "organic" fanciers were honestly attempting to minimize their negative impact then why steal a gleeful being from their slice of nirvana while good old American factory farmed misery is so plentiful? We know their lives are so meaningless... There are no songs being sung for them... Their carcasses get no special labels to commemorate their contribution as being a "quality" commodity.  Robbing a fine life seems even more mean spirited than your average-run-of cheats! It's being a double life-sucker! But of course it's not really about being kind at all! Most "animal-friendly" meat consumers are into it for their health or some other vain, narcissistic excuse. Don't you know? It's all about the show!

I'm calling them phonies!

I'm also calling it a crime to snuff any one's life! I'm calling junk-malarkey on stealing any bit of an other's piece of the here and now! You have no right to it no matter how wretched it is... Or how "nice" you make it sound... It's simply is not your life to claim!  "Humane" meat is an ugly oxymoron

More info on "the good life and one bad day" paradigm:


The Free Range Myth


Understanding Neocarnism: How Vegan Advocates Can Appreciate and Respond to “Happy Meat,” Locavorism, and “Paleo Dieting”



6 comments:

veganelder said...

"Human meat" doesn't even achieve oxymoron status...just moron status. "Happy Death" should be the label...or "Happy Murder" more accurately. Humans love to lie to themselves and to others and in the process they invariably create destruction and suffering.

Ingrid T said...

I cried when I read the sign at the sanctuary: "Here my story ends, my troubles are over, and I am home." How I wish that ever one of our fellow travelers of four legs and feathers, could realize this dream of refuge.

No matter how many times I see footage of farming and slaughter, I do not get inured to it. The images of the cones here are so difficult to bear, especially understanding the rhetoric surrounding this "humane" form of bird killing.

Thank you, Bea, for framing this issue in a way that I hadn't fully explored -- the idea of the cruelty being, in fact, magnified by the practice of "happy meat." Your perspective certainly strips the rationale of its pop culture power.

Anonymous said...

"Robbing a fine life seems even more mean spirited than your average-run-of cheats!"
I couldn't agree more Bea. I could understand how the disassociation on the Factory farm can numb and make killing more mindless. I can't understand how greater intimacy can lead to the same result, other than showing how intrenched speciesism is in the psyche.

Bea Elliott said...

Thanks veganelder! I'm in total agreement about the moron status and everything else. But my oh my they do love those pretty lies they tell themselves while causing such harm. :/

Bea Elliott said...

Hi Ingrid!
Of course my intent is never to burden vegans with the cones or any of their butchering apparatus (or lingo)... It's hard to get a message out there without involving a close look at it all though. Glad the video provided you with an expected happy ending. Joyful tears are always welcome!

And if I was able to provide you with just one more angle to defeat the "happy meat" proponents - I'm glad this post was written!

Certainly grateful for your comment and all you do! Thank you! <3

Bea Elliott said...

Hi John! You're right that the intimate relationship makes the betrayal that much more vicious. It also brings to full focus how we disregard even the "worthy" lives. Clearly if they're not human... they don't matter.

Thanks for your input and support!