Threat - 8
Growing Cruelty And
Desensitization
We are the living graves of murdered beasts,
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts,
If animals like men could possibly have rights.
We pray on Sunday that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the paths we tread.
We are sick of war, we do not want to fight,
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread,
And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.
Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and pain
We cause by doing so.
If thus we treat
Defenceless animals for sport or gain,
How can we hope in this world to attain
The Peace we say we are anxious for?
Thus cruelty begets its offspring—War.
~George Bernard Shaw
Cruelty can be described as indifference to suffering, and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept.
Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve violence, but violence is not necessary for an act to be cruel. For example, if another person is drowning and begging for help, and another person is able to help, but merely watches with disinterest or perhaps mischievous amusement, that person is being cruel. This trait is on the rise in global population today.
Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve violence, but violence is not necessary for an act to be cruel. For example, if another person is drowning and begging for help, and another person is able to help, but merely watches with disinterest or perhaps mischievous amusement, that person is being cruel. This trait is on the rise in global population today.
Total Lack of Reverence Towards Life
When a few birds get infected with bird-flu, we kill millions of them. When a few cows fall sick, we kill hundreds of thousands of them. This is cold blooded murder, this is holocaust and this is terrorism. In God’s kingdom, all beings have a right to live and one has to pay dearly for killing even an ant unnecessarily.
In spite of the availability of so much food, billions of animals are mercilessly raised, transported and slaughtered every year. The reactions are equally severe for mankind. Human beings also get killed in riots, bombings and wars like the animals they kill. Time is coming when people will ‘cull’ a whole race or a country when it gets infected with a disease.
In spite of the availability of so much food, billions of animals are mercilessly raised, transported and slaughtered every year. The reactions are equally severe for mankind. Human beings also get killed in riots, bombings and wars like the animals they kill. Time is coming when people will ‘cull’ a whole race or a country when it gets infected with a disease.
If you caught your kid raising cats in tiny boxes, forcing them to live in their own feces without clean air or sunlight, pulling their teeth and claws out with pliers to keep them from hurting each other, then skinning them alive to make collars to sell to friends, you'd rush him to a psychiatrist. But you support that very behaviour every time you buy meat, eggs, dairy or fur.
~ Dan Piraro
Factory Farms - Hells on Earth
Cruelty has existed in human society since time immemorial but in modern times, it has become industrialized. Cruelty has taken the shape of a global industry and the world has never witnessed such institutionalization of barbarism. People always killed animals for food, entertainment or fur etc. but killing in mechanized industrial slaughterhouses is a modern invention. Animals were never transported thousands of miles for killing and neither existed global marketing networks in animal products.
Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory - a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses.
Confinement at high stocking density is one part of a systematic effort to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions. There are differences in the way factory farming techniques are practiced around the world.
If we saw someone beating a puppy senseless with a stick on the street, we would most likely drop our backpack, run over, and knock the guy out. But if we never see it, it goes unnoticed and unpunished. The same goes with the meat industry.
Billions of animals are raised in appalling conditions that would have people thrown in jail if performed on dogs or cats, but farm animals are specifically excluded from Animal Welfare Acts which are supposed to exist in various countries. There's far too much information regarding animal treatment to give an accurate picture in just a few pages, but here are the most relevant facts behind the main sources of meat we consume.
Meat production, like any other industry, is one that is driven purely by profit. It exhibits complete disregard for humane animal treatment and the environment.
Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory - a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses.
Confinement at high stocking density is one part of a systematic effort to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade. Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions. There are differences in the way factory farming techniques are practiced around the world.
If we saw someone beating a puppy senseless with a stick on the street, we would most likely drop our backpack, run over, and knock the guy out. But if we never see it, it goes unnoticed and unpunished. The same goes with the meat industry.
Billions of animals are raised in appalling conditions that would have people thrown in jail if performed on dogs or cats, but farm animals are specifically excluded from Animal Welfare Acts which are supposed to exist in various countries. There's far too much information regarding animal treatment to give an accurate picture in just a few pages, but here are the most relevant facts behind the main sources of meat we consume.
Meat production, like any other industry, is one that is driven purely by profit. It exhibits complete disregard for humane animal treatment and the environment.
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“To kill cows means to end human civilization.” |
Milk or White Blood
Dairy Cows in Factory Farms
Regardless of where they live, all dairy cows must give birth in order to begin producing milk. Today, dairy cows are forced to have a calf every year. Like human beings, cows have a nine-month gestation period, and so giving birth every twelve months is physically demanding. The cows are also artificially re-impregnated while they are still lactating from their previous birthing, so their bodies are still producing milk during seven months of their nine-month pregnancy. With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce ten times more than they would produce naturally. As a result, the cows' bodies are under constant stress, and they are at risk for numerous health problems.
A nation can be judged by how it treats its animals.
~Gandhi
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“Lord Christ says ‘Thou shalt not kill’; why you are killing?” they give evidence that “Christ also ate meat sometimes.” Sometimes Christ ate meat, that’s all right, but did Christ say that “ You maintain big, big slaughterhouse and go on eating meat?” There is no common sense even. Christ might have eaten. Sometimes he... If there was no, nothing available for eating, what could you do? That is another question. In great necessity, when there is no other food except taking meat... That time is coming. In this age, Kali-yuga, gradually food grains will be reduced. It is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Twelfth Canto. No rice, no wheat, no milk, no sugar will be available. One has to eat meat. This will be the condition. And maybe to eat the human flesh also. This sinful life is degrading so much so that they will become more and more sinful. |
In developed countries, approximately half of the dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial infection of their udders. This is such a common and costly ailment that a dairy industry group, the National Mastitis Council, has been formed in several countries to specifically combat this disease. Other diseases, such as Bovine Leukemia Virus, Bovine Immunodeficiency Virus, and Johne's disease are also rampant on modern dairies, but they commonly go unnoticed because they are either difficult to detect or have a long incubation period. A cow eating a normal grass diet could not produce milk at the abnormal levels expected on modern dairies, and so today's dairy cows must be given high energy feeds. The unnaturally rich diet causes metabolic disorders including ketosis, which can be fatal, and laminitis, which causes lameness.
Another dairy industry disease caused by intensive milk production is "Milk Fever." This ailment is caused by calcium deficiency, and it occurs when milk secretion depletes calcium faster than it can be replenished in the blood.
In a healthy environment, cows would live in excess of twenty-five years, but in modern dairies, they are slaughtered after just three or four years. The abuse wreaked upon the bodies of dairy cows is so intense that the dairy industry also is a huge source of "downed animals" — animals who are so sick or injured that they are unable to walk or even stand. Investigators have documented downed animals routinely being beaten, dragged, or pushed with bulldozers in attempts to move them to slaughter.
Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), a synthetic hormone, is now being injected into cows to get them to produce even more milk. Besides adversely affecting the cows' health, BGH also increases birth defects in their calves.
Another dairy industry disease caused by intensive milk production is "Milk Fever." This ailment is caused by calcium deficiency, and it occurs when milk secretion depletes calcium faster than it can be replenished in the blood.
In a healthy environment, cows would live in excess of twenty-five years, but in modern dairies, they are slaughtered after just three or four years. The abuse wreaked upon the bodies of dairy cows is so intense that the dairy industry also is a huge source of "downed animals" — animals who are so sick or injured that they are unable to walk or even stand. Investigators have documented downed animals routinely being beaten, dragged, or pushed with bulldozers in attempts to move them to slaughter.
Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), a synthetic hormone, is now being injected into cows to get them to produce even more milk. Besides adversely affecting the cows' health, BGH also increases birth defects in their calves.
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Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric... These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans feel pain. |
Calves born to dairy cows are separated from their mothers immediately after birth. The half that are born female are raised to replace older dairy cows in the milking herd. The other half of the calves are male and are slaughtered for meat. Most are killed for beef, with many millions ending up as veal.
The veal industry was created as a by-product of the dairy industry to take advantage of an abundant supply of unwanted male calves. Veal calves commonly live for eighteen to twenty weeks in wooden crates that are so small that they cannot turn around, stretch their legs, or even lie down comfortably. The calves are fed a liquid milk substitute, deficient in iron and fiber, which is designed to make the animals anemic, resulting in the light-colored flesh that is prized as veal. In addition to this high-priced veal, some calves are killed at just a few days old to be sold as low-grade veal.
The veal industry was created as a by-product of the dairy industry to take advantage of an abundant supply of unwanted male calves. Veal calves commonly live for eighteen to twenty weeks in wooden crates that are so small that they cannot turn around, stretch their legs, or even lie down comfortably. The calves are fed a liquid milk substitute, deficient in iron and fiber, which is designed to make the animals anemic, resulting in the light-colored flesh that is prized as veal. In addition to this high-priced veal, some calves are killed at just a few days old to be sold as low-grade veal.
Terrorism Eggs
There are approximately 4 billion egg laying hens in the world confined in battery cages — small wire cages stacked in tiers and lined up in rows inside warehouses. Hens are commonly packed four to a cage measuring just 16 inches wide. In this tiny space, the birds cannot stretch their wings or legs, and they cannot fulfill normal behavioral patterns or social needs. Constantly rubbing against the wire cages, they suffer from severe feather loss, and their bodies are covered with bruises and abrasions.
In order to reduce injuries resulting from excessive pecking — an aberrant behavior that occurs when the confined hens are bored and frustrated — practically all laying hens have part of their beaks cut off. Debeaking is a painful procedure that involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue.
Laying more than 250 eggs per year each, laying hens' bodies are severely taxed. They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" when their liver cells, which work overtime to produce the fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat. They also suffer from what the industry calls 'cage layer fatigue,' and many become 'egg bound' and die when their bodies are too weak to pass another egg.
Osteoporosis is another common ailment afflicting egg laying hens, whose bodies lose more calcium to form egg shells than they can assimilate from their diets. Inadequate calcium contributes to broken bones, paralysis, and death.
After one year in egg production, the birds are classified as 'spent hens' and are sent off to slaughter. Their brittle, calcium-depleted bones often shatter during handling or at the slaughterhouse. They usually end up in soups, pot pies, or similar low-grade chicken meat products in which their bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises from consumers.
Disposing off of spent hens is particularly cruel. In a system called 'Jet-Pro', live birds are ground up and turned into 'Pellets. Also birds are routinely tossed alive into a wood-chipping machine to dispose them of .
After the hens finish with laying eggs, they may be 'force molted'. This process involves starving the hens for up to 18 days, keeping them in the dark, and denying them water to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Many die during this forced famine.
In order to reduce injuries resulting from excessive pecking — an aberrant behavior that occurs when the confined hens are bored and frustrated — practically all laying hens have part of their beaks cut off. Debeaking is a painful procedure that involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue.
Laying more than 250 eggs per year each, laying hens' bodies are severely taxed. They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" when their liver cells, which work overtime to produce the fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat. They also suffer from what the industry calls 'cage layer fatigue,' and many become 'egg bound' and die when their bodies are too weak to pass another egg.
Osteoporosis is another common ailment afflicting egg laying hens, whose bodies lose more calcium to form egg shells than they can assimilate from their diets. Inadequate calcium contributes to broken bones, paralysis, and death.
After one year in egg production, the birds are classified as 'spent hens' and are sent off to slaughter. Their brittle, calcium-depleted bones often shatter during handling or at the slaughterhouse. They usually end up in soups, pot pies, or similar low-grade chicken meat products in which their bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises from consumers.
Disposing off of spent hens is particularly cruel. In a system called 'Jet-Pro', live birds are ground up and turned into 'Pellets. Also birds are routinely tossed alive into a wood-chipping machine to dispose them of .
After the hens finish with laying eggs, they may be 'force molted'. This process involves starving the hens for up to 18 days, keeping them in the dark, and denying them water to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Many die during this forced famine.
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When there was too much animal killing, the incarnation of Lord Buddha was there to stop animal killing. In Buddhism there is no animal killing. Although they are now killing animals, but originally Buddha religion means non-violence. Also Lord Christ also said, "Thou shalt not kill." And Krsna says, ahimsa. So in no religion unnecessary killing of animals is allowed. Even in Mohammedans, they are also... Kurvani. Kurvani means they can kill animals in the Mosque. So everywhere animal killing is restricted. |
Male chicks are of no economic value, and they are discarded on the day they hatch — usually by the cheapest, most convenient means available. Either these little cute creatures are thrown into trash cans by the thousands or groundup alive or put into shredders, alive. This can result in unspeakable horrors, as described by one research scientist who observed that "even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls". In other words, fully conscious chicks were partially ground up and left to slowly and agonizingly die. Eyewitness accounts at commercial hatcheries indicate similar horrors of chicks being slowly dismembered by machinery blades en route to trash bins or manure spreaders.
The Rescue - A Story
On May 23, 2001, investigators rescued eight hens, in dire need of immediate veterinary care, from a factory farm in Maryland, USA.
A hen, later named Jane, was found pinned by one wing in the wire bars of her cage, survived the amputation of her wing and enjoyed sunbathing, running through the grass, dustbathing, jumping onto her perch at night, and eating her favorite treat--grapes. Jane was free from the exploitation of the egg industry for six months before succumbing to cancer.
The hens, practically featherless and very despondent when rescued, were given a second chance at life. One year later, Jane’s seven friends are alive and doing well--enjoying a virtual paradise compared to their former existence inside a factory farm. But this rescue is like a drop in a vast ocean. There are other 4 billion hens still suffering in battery cages all over the world.
A hen, later named Jane, was found pinned by one wing in the wire bars of her cage, survived the amputation of her wing and enjoyed sunbathing, running through the grass, dustbathing, jumping onto her perch at night, and eating her favorite treat--grapes. Jane was free from the exploitation of the egg industry for six months before succumbing to cancer.
The hens, practically featherless and very despondent when rescued, were given a second chance at life. One year later, Jane’s seven friends are alive and doing well--enjoying a virtual paradise compared to their former existence inside a factory farm. But this rescue is like a drop in a vast ocean. There are other 4 billion hens still suffering in battery cages all over the world.
The factory farm attitude is exemplified by the ISE corporation, whose lawyer asserted that it is legally acceptable to dispose of live birds as if they were manure. When the judge asked, 'Isn't there a big distinction between manure and live animals?' ISE's lawyer responded, 'No, your honour.'
On Assembly Lines - Dying Piece By Piece
Many beef cows are born and live on the range, foraging and fending for themselves for months or even years. They are not adequately protected against inclement weather, and they may die of dehydration or freeze to death. Injured, ill, or otherwise ailing animals do not receive necessary veterinary attention. One common malady afflicting beef cattle is called "cancer eye." Left untreated, the cancer eats away at the animal's eye and face, eventually producing a crater in the side of the animal's head.
Accustomed to roaming unimpeded and unconstrained, range cattle are frightened and confused when humans come to round them up. Terrified animals are often injured, some so severely that they become "downed" (unable to walk or even stand). These downed animals commonly suffer for days without receiving food, water or veterinary care, and many die of neglect. Others are dragged, beaten, and pushed with tractors on their way to slaughter.
Cattle all over the world are branded with hot iron brands. Needless to say, this practice is extremely traumatic and painful, and the animals bellow loudly as brands are burned into their skin. Beef cattle are also subjected to 'waddling,' another type of identification marking. This painful procedure entails cutting chunks out of the hide that hangs under the animals' necks.
In North America, most beef cattle spend the last few months of their lives at feedlots, crowded by the thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria and particulate matter, and the animals are at a constant risk for respiratory disease. Feedlot cattle are routinely implanted with growth-promoting hormones, and they are fed unnaturally rich diets designed to fatten them quickly and profitably. Because cattle are biologically suited to eat a grass-based, high fiber diet, therefore concentrated feedlot rations contribute to metabolic disorders.
Cattle may be transported several times during their lifetimes, and they may travel hundreds or even thousands of miles during a single trip. Long journeys are very stressful and contribute to disease and even death. A distinct disease called "Shipping fever” is common and costs livestock producers as much as $3 billion a year around the globe.
Accustomed to roaming unimpeded and unconstrained, range cattle are frightened and confused when humans come to round them up. Terrified animals are often injured, some so severely that they become "downed" (unable to walk or even stand). These downed animals commonly suffer for days without receiving food, water or veterinary care, and many die of neglect. Others are dragged, beaten, and pushed with tractors on their way to slaughter.
Cattle all over the world are branded with hot iron brands. Needless to say, this practice is extremely traumatic and painful, and the animals bellow loudly as brands are burned into their skin. Beef cattle are also subjected to 'waddling,' another type of identification marking. This painful procedure entails cutting chunks out of the hide that hangs under the animals' necks.
In North America, most beef cattle spend the last few months of their lives at feedlots, crowded by the thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria and particulate matter, and the animals are at a constant risk for respiratory disease. Feedlot cattle are routinely implanted with growth-promoting hormones, and they are fed unnaturally rich diets designed to fatten them quickly and profitably. Because cattle are biologically suited to eat a grass-based, high fiber diet, therefore concentrated feedlot rations contribute to metabolic disorders.
Cattle may be transported several times during their lifetimes, and they may travel hundreds or even thousands of miles during a single trip. Long journeys are very stressful and contribute to disease and even death. A distinct disease called "Shipping fever” is common and costs livestock producers as much as $3 billion a year around the globe.
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This killing of animals is for the non-civilized society. They cannot... They do not know how to grow food. They were killing animals. When man is advanced in his knowledge and education, why they should kill? Especially in America, we see so many nice foodstuffs. Fruits, grains, milk. And from milk, you can get hundreds of nice preparations, all nutritious. |
Inside The Slaughter House
Slaughterhouses examplify hell on earth and may be manual or mechanized. Modern mechanized slaughterhouses kill 250-500 cows every hour. The high speed of the assembly line makes it increasingly difficult to treat animals with any semblance of humaneness. A Meat & Poultry article states, "Good handling is extremely difficult if equipment is 'maxed out' all the time. It is impossible to have a good attitude toward cattle if employees have to constantly overexert themselves, and thus transfer all that stress right down to the animals, just to keep up with the line."
Prior to being hung up by their back legs and bled to death, cattle are supposed to be rendered unconscious. One common practice is 'stunning' which is usually done by a mechanical blow to the head. However, the procedure is terribly imprecise, and inadequate stunning is inevitable. As a result, conscious animals are often hung upside down, kicking and struggling, while a slaughterhouse worker makes another attempt to render them unconscious.
This is detailed in an April 2001 Washington Post article, which describes typical slaughterplant conditions:
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.
They blink. They make noises, he said softly. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around. Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. They die, said Moreno, piece by piece...
"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."
Prior to being hung up by their back legs and bled to death, cattle are supposed to be rendered unconscious. One common practice is 'stunning' which is usually done by a mechanical blow to the head. However, the procedure is terribly imprecise, and inadequate stunning is inevitable. As a result, conscious animals are often hung upside down, kicking and struggling, while a slaughterhouse worker makes another attempt to render them unconscious.
This is detailed in an April 2001 Washington Post article, which describes typical slaughterplant conditions:
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.
They blink. They make noises, he said softly. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around. Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. They die, said Moreno, piece by piece...
"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."
Boiling Alive - Are You Really That Hungry
After detailing the egg story, we shall examine the fate of birds meant for meat. These too are crowded by the thousands into huge, factory-like warehouses where they can barely move. Each chicken is given less than half a square foot of space, while turkeys are each given less than three square feet. Shortly after hatching, both chickens and turkeys have the ends of their beaks cut off, and turkeys also have the ends of their toes clipped off. These mutilations are performed without anesthesia, ostensibly to reduce injuries that result when stressed birds are driven to fighting.
Today's "broiler" (meat) chickens have been genetically altered to grow twice as fast and twice as large as their ancestors. Pushed beyond their biological limits, hundreds of millions of chickens die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks of age. An industry journal explains that "broilers [chickens] now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses. Modern broiler chickens also experience crippling leg disorders, as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy bodies. Confined in unsanitary, disease-ridden factory farms, the birds also frequently succumb to heat, infectious diseases, and cancer.
Today's "broiler" (meat) chickens have been genetically altered to grow twice as fast and twice as large as their ancestors. Pushed beyond their biological limits, hundreds of millions of chickens die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks of age. An industry journal explains that "broilers [chickens] now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses. Modern broiler chickens also experience crippling leg disorders, as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy bodies. Confined in unsanitary, disease-ridden factory farms, the birds also frequently succumb to heat, infectious diseases, and cancer.
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Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste, wars -- we must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement. And I think it's a strong one. |
Transport
Chickens and turkeys are taken to the slaughterhouse in crates stacked on the backs of open trucks. During transport, the birds are not protected from weather conditions, and a percentage of the birds are expected to die en route. Birds freeze to death in winter, or die from heat stress and suffocation in warm weather. It is “cheaper” for the industry to transport the birds in open crates without adequate protection, despite high mortality rates. Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, the birds are either pulled individually from their crates, or the crates are lifted off the truck, often with a crane or forklift, and the birds are dumped onto a conveyor belt. As the birds are unloaded, some miss the conveyor belt and fall onto the ground. Slaughterhouse workers intent upon 'processing' thousands of birds every hour have neither the time nor the inclination to pick up individuals who fall through the cracks, and these birds suffer grim deaths. Some die after being crushed by machinery or vehicles operating near the unloading area, while others may die of starvation or exposure days, or even weeks, later.
Inside The Slaughterhouse
Birds inside the slaughterhouse suffer an equally gruesome fate. Upon entering the facility, fully conscious birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles on a moving rail. Many slaughterplants first stun the birds in an electrified water bath in order to immobilize them and expedite assembly line killing.
However, stunning procedures are often inadequate. Poultry slaughterhouses commonly set the electrical current lower than what is required to render the birds unconscious because of concerns that too much electricity would damage the carcasses and diminish their value.
After the shackled birds pass through the stunning tank, their throats are slashed, usually by a mechanical blade. Inevitably, the blade misses some birds, who may still be moving and struggling after improper stunning. Proceeding to the next station on the assembly line - the scalding tank - the birds are submerged in boiling hot water. Those missed by the killing blade are boiled alive.
However, stunning procedures are often inadequate. Poultry slaughterhouses commonly set the electrical current lower than what is required to render the birds unconscious because of concerns that too much electricity would damage the carcasses and diminish their value.
After the shackled birds pass through the stunning tank, their throats are slashed, usually by a mechanical blade. Inevitably, the blade misses some birds, who may still be moving and struggling after improper stunning. Proceeding to the next station on the assembly line - the scalding tank - the birds are submerged in boiling hot water. Those missed by the killing blade are boiled alive.
tatas canu-dinam dharmah
satyam saucam ksama daya
kalena balina rajan
nanksyaty ayur balam smrtih
Sukadeva Gosvami said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the age of Kali.
~Srila Prabhupada (SB 12.2.1)
Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Cruelty and Barbarism
Every year, over 60 billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption worldwide.
As discussed earlier, in factory farms, millions of animals and birds are confined and tortured in hellish conditions, are deprived of sunlight, fresh air and natural food and the freedom to walk or fly. Thus we create an environment for the spread of virus and disease. And at the whiff of an infection, statutorily kill millions of them in the name of ‘culling’.
Millions of cows and pigs who make it to the slaughterhouse alive are unable to walk off the trucks. Called "downers," a former slaughterhouse worker describes the customary welcome for these animals:
“... they beat him with pipes, kick them, hit them with pieces of wood, stick them with knives. If he still won't move, you wrap the cable around his neck and drag them in with the hoist. You drag them while they're still alive." "And they stab cows in the butt to make 'em move. Break their tails. They beat them so bad. I've drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs pulling them in. And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop."
As discussed earlier, in factory farms, millions of animals and birds are confined and tortured in hellish conditions, are deprived of sunlight, fresh air and natural food and the freedom to walk or fly. Thus we create an environment for the spread of virus and disease. And at the whiff of an infection, statutorily kill millions of them in the name of ‘culling’.
Millions of cows and pigs who make it to the slaughterhouse alive are unable to walk off the trucks. Called "downers," a former slaughterhouse worker describes the customary welcome for these animals:
“... they beat him with pipes, kick them, hit them with pieces of wood, stick them with knives. If he still won't move, you wrap the cable around his neck and drag them in with the hoist. You drag them while they're still alive." "And they stab cows in the butt to make 'em move. Break their tails. They beat them so bad. I've drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs pulling them in. And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop."
Practically there is no mercifulness now, daya. Formerly a man was very charitable, but here, at the present moment, where is the question of charity? He cannot maintain oneself. So these things are reducing. Therefore Vyasadeva thought it wise to give the Vedic knowledge in writings so that we can read, we can hear, and we can utilize, we can take benefit out of it.
-Srila Prabhupada (Sunday Feast Lecture — Los Angeles, January 19, 1969)
The Word ‘Terrorist’ Is A Misnomer, Lot More Terrorists Are Around Fur Trade
Approximately 23.5 million furbearing animals - raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, nutria, beavers, muskrats, otters and others are killed each year by trappers around the world.
Despite the fun industry’s attempts to downplay the role of trapping in fur production, it is estimated that more than half of all fur garments come from trapped animals.
2.7 million animals are harvested on fur “farms” in US alone. Many more millions are skinned in other parts of the world to cover the bodies of westerners. The killing of these creatures is especially ruthless so as not to cause damage to the skin.
Despite the fun industry’s attempts to downplay the role of trapping in fur production, it is estimated that more than half of all fur garments come from trapped animals.
2.7 million animals are harvested on fur “farms” in US alone. Many more millions are skinned in other parts of the world to cover the bodies of westerners. The killing of these creatures is especially ruthless so as not to cause damage to the skin.
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So this is nature's law. You don't require to be sent to the slaughterhouse. You'll make your slaughterhouse at home. You'll kill your own child. Abortion. This is nature's law. ....If you kill, you must be killed. |
Hunting
Every year, hundreds of thousands of animals like elephants, tigers, rhinos and other endangered species are killed by poachers to sell in black markets. Additionally hundreds of thousands are killed in ‘canned hunts’ or hunting of animals procured from captivity including zoos, to allow rich hunters the thrill of killing them.
In US federal land alone (more than half a billion acres), more than 200 million animals are killed every year. Hunting is permitted on 60% of US wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks.
In US federal land alone (more than half a billion acres), more than 200 million animals are killed every year. Hunting is permitted on 60% of US wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks.
Fishing
Overharvesting of oceans and seas has led to threatened populations of many fish and marine mammals. Millions of seals are killed every year because of competition with humans for remaining fish. Other marine predators are devastating the balances of new fish populations because previous prey is disappearing.
China’s Graphic Skinning of Live Animals
China is a major exporter of fur for the western consumers. The skinning of animals is done without killing, while the animal is fully conscious. This is accomplished by either hanging the animal from one of the hind legs or by throwing it down on the floor. Several types of animals are reared in thousands of fur farms across China in most harrowing conditions. After skinning, the animal’s body is thrown over a heap of bodies. The poor animal, covered with blood and completely deskinned, looks around and remains alive for a considerable period of time. Merciful death descends only after a long wait, sometime after many days. The beautiful furry animal is turned into a horrific living carcass.
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When we kill the animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings. |
The Horror of the Indian Meat and Leather Trade Long Cruel Road To Slaughterhouse - The Painful Death March
For seven years, PETA India and its affiliates have conducted undercover investigations into the transport and slaughter conditions that are endured by the cows, buffaloes, sheep and goats who are used in the Indian meat and leather trade. The leather produced from the skins of these animals is exported throughout the world, including US and Europe.
The investigators have gathered graphic evidence of the widespread illegal abuse of these animals as well as evidence of unhygienic and dangerous conditions in slaughter facilities. The animals are subjected to cruelty that includes being crammed into lorries in such large numbers that many become severely injured when they are crushed or gouged by the horns of other animals. Many of them die en route. The evidence also reveals that most of the animals are dragged into abattoirs before they are cut open – often with dirty, blunt knives and in full view of one another – on floors that are covered with feces, blood, guts and urine. Some animals are even skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.
Cow is considered a sacred animal in India and that cow slaughter is banned in most states though the ban is never followed. Cows and calves are bought under the false pretense that they will live out their lives in rural farms. They are marched to slaughter houses for days and crammed into lorries, causing many to suffocate in direct violation of the constitution of India. Animals that collapse from exhaustion or injury have their eyes smeared with chilly peppers and tobacco and their tails broken in an effort to keep them moving.
The investigators have gathered graphic evidence of the widespread illegal abuse of these animals as well as evidence of unhygienic and dangerous conditions in slaughter facilities. The animals are subjected to cruelty that includes being crammed into lorries in such large numbers that many become severely injured when they are crushed or gouged by the horns of other animals. Many of them die en route. The evidence also reveals that most of the animals are dragged into abattoirs before they are cut open – often with dirty, blunt knives and in full view of one another – on floors that are covered with feces, blood, guts and urine. Some animals are even skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.
Cow is considered a sacred animal in India and that cow slaughter is banned in most states though the ban is never followed. Cows and calves are bought under the false pretense that they will live out their lives in rural farms. They are marched to slaughter houses for days and crammed into lorries, causing many to suffocate in direct violation of the constitution of India. Animals that collapse from exhaustion or injury have their eyes smeared with chilly peppers and tobacco and their tails broken in an effort to keep them moving.
The cow is not my mother? Who can live without milk? And who has not taken cow's milk? Immediately, in the morning, you require milk. And the animal, she's supplying milk, she's not mother? What is the sense? Mother-killing civilization. And they want to be happy. And periodically there is great war and wholesale massacre, reaction.
-Srila Prabhupada (Garden Conversation, June 14, 1976, Detroit)
Blatant Crime
India’s own minimal animal protection laws regarding transport and slaughter are blatantly ignored, and although it claims to have an Animal Welfare Reform Programme, the Indian Council for Leather Exports (CLE) refuses to take any action to prevent leather-selling businesses from obtaining hides and skins from such abattoirs. Animals of all ages, including small calves, are killed and used in the leather trade.
The Supreme Court
PETA India has a case pending before the Indian Supreme Court against the Union of India, each state-level government and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) for their failure to enforce animal protection laws and for allowing the unnecessary and extreme suffering to animals who are used for leather and meat. The Court has publicly expressed its shock at the evidence of cruelty that PETA India has submitted.
Dog is untouchable according to Vedic literature, and they are being kept. And cows? Killed. And cruelty to animals means not to be cruel to the cats and dogs. And for the cows, “Oh, there is no question of cruelty. It has no soul. Kill him.” This is your civilization, Dog civilization.
One side they’re advertising “Stop cruelty to animals,” another side they’re opening unrestricted slaughterhouse. Just see. Just like a gang of thieves gives a signboard, “Goodman and Company.” So there are so many members of the society against cruelty to animals. But they are all meat-eaters.
-Srila Prabhupada (Talk with Bob Cohen - February 27-29, 1972, Mayapura)
Major Retail Chains Ban Indian Leather Products
When PETA’s campaign to alleviate the suffering of animals used for leather was first launched in 2000, about 40 major companies stated that they would not use leather sourced from Indian animals. An estimated US$68 million was reportedly lost by the Indian leather industry as a result of these companies’ decisions not to support unlawful cruelty. The campaign also gained the support of celebrities all around the world, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sir Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Jackie Chan and others.
Recently, US retailer Liz Claiborne – which has annual sales of US$4.8 billion – has assured PETA US that it will not use leather from India. Kenneth Cole, another US retailer, which has annual sales of US$518 million – has also weighed in, giving its commitment to PETA US.
Recently, US retailer Liz Claiborne – which has annual sales of US$4.8 billion – has assured PETA US that it will not use leather from India. Kenneth Cole, another US retailer, which has annual sales of US$518 million – has also weighed in, giving its commitment to PETA US.
Increasing Cruelty Requiring Tougher Legislation
All over the world, torturing and killing of animals/humans is becoming increasingly common. Examples of cruelty cited below are everyday occurrences.
-Puppy found burned and bound with wires.
-Kitten's leg crushed after it was thrown from a balcony when a 17-year-old youth had an argument with his girlfriend. Another cat shot in the eye with a slug-gun pellet.
-Cat trapped by man, clubbed with a softball bat and dumped. Cat survived but badly injured, with an eye hanging out of its socket.
-Starving dog found with mouth taped shut and eyes hanging from sockets.
Most parts of the world have no felony animal-cruelty laws. Even where the laws exist, these are never enforced.
-Puppy found burned and bound with wires.
-Kitten's leg crushed after it was thrown from a balcony when a 17-year-old youth had an argument with his girlfriend. Another cat shot in the eye with a slug-gun pellet.
-Cat trapped by man, clubbed with a softball bat and dumped. Cat survived but badly injured, with an eye hanging out of its socket.
-Starving dog found with mouth taped shut and eyes hanging from sockets.
Most parts of the world have no felony animal-cruelty laws. Even where the laws exist, these are never enforced.
Prabhupada: Now Kirtanananda was prosecuted because he is not killing cows.
Brahmananda: By having them grow old, they were saying that “This is cruelty. You should kill them.”
Prabhupada: This is their civilization, that “You are not killing? You are cruel.” Just see. Christ said, “Thou shall not kill.” That is cruel. How can you pull on this civilization? But this is their religion. So what kind of persons they are?
- Srila Prabhupada (Room Conversation - February 28, 1977, Mayapur)
Cruelty Towards Animals Translates Into Crime Against Humanity
There appears to be a direct link between the way a person treats animals and the way he treats his fellow human beings.
US serial killer Dennis Rader admitted to police that before he ever started strangling humans, he killed dogs and cats, according to court records.
As a kid, George Bush, President of US, enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this be cause for alarm? How relevant is a man's childhood behavior to what he is like as an adult? Can we link this childhood behaviour of his with the heavy bloodshed and so called wars on terrorism during his tenure.
Cruelty to animals is a common precursor to later criminal violence. In fact, Bush's childhood friend, Terry Throckmorton, openly and laughingly admits, "We were terrible to animals." So how much importance should we attribute to this early behavior?
Is boy George's lack of empathy and cruelty not just childhood insensitivity, but rather a personality trait still present in the man? If so, we have much to be concerned about. Do we really want a man who appears to be empathetically challenged to hold the most powerful position in America?
Dr. Vizard says, "Cruelty to animals, if accompanied by a sexual interest in animals, is a high-risk indicator of a future sex offender.” Studies have shown that individuals who enjoy or are willing to inflict harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder, is a history of torturing pets and small animals.
According to the New York Times: "the FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders."
Alan R. Felthous reported in his paper "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People" (1980) that: "A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a boy."
This is a commonly reproduced finding, and for this reason, violence towards animals is considered a serious warning sign of potential serious violence towards humans.
US serial killer Dennis Rader admitted to police that before he ever started strangling humans, he killed dogs and cats, according to court records.
As a kid, George Bush, President of US, enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this be cause for alarm? How relevant is a man's childhood behavior to what he is like as an adult? Can we link this childhood behaviour of his with the heavy bloodshed and so called wars on terrorism during his tenure.
Cruelty to animals is a common precursor to later criminal violence. In fact, Bush's childhood friend, Terry Throckmorton, openly and laughingly admits, "We were terrible to animals." So how much importance should we attribute to this early behavior?
Is boy George's lack of empathy and cruelty not just childhood insensitivity, but rather a personality trait still present in the man? If so, we have much to be concerned about. Do we really want a man who appears to be empathetically challenged to hold the most powerful position in America?
Dr. Vizard says, "Cruelty to animals, if accompanied by a sexual interest in animals, is a high-risk indicator of a future sex offender.” Studies have shown that individuals who enjoy or are willing to inflict harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder, is a history of torturing pets and small animals.
According to the New York Times: "the FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders."
Alan R. Felthous reported in his paper "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People" (1980) that: "A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a boy."
This is a commonly reproduced finding, and for this reason, violence towards animals is considered a serious warning sign of potential serious violence towards humans.
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If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one. |
Animals Have A Soul, Animals Feel Just Like You Do
Those who claim that animals have no soul are the ones without soul. This is a completely nonsensical and absurd proposition that animals have no soul. We eat, sleep, mate and defend and animals do the same, then where is the difference. Rather animals are more ‘humane’ than the human beings.
Take for example rats who are highly sociable beings - they communicate with each other at high-frequency sounds, play together, wrestle, and love sleeping curled up together. Much like us, if they do not have companionship, they can become lonely, anxious, depressed, and stressed.. They become attached to each other, love their own families, and easily bond with their human guardians, returning as much affection as is given to them. Many rats will even “groom” their human companion’s hand and would appreciate a massage, a scratch behind the ears, or even a tickle in return. Recent studies by a neuroscientist at Bowling Green State University, suggest that when rats play or are playfully tickled, they make chirping sounds that are strikingly similar to human laughter. The rats he studied also bonded socially with the human tickler and even sought to be tickled more. Young rats have a marvelous sense of fun.
Male rats will snuggle up for a cuddle and find contentment curled up in a person’s lap. Rats love seeing kind people and will often bounce around waiting to be noticed and picked up. Rats can bond with their human companions to the point that if they are suddenly given away to someone else or forgotten, they can pine to death.
It is estimated that each year, tens of millions of rats and mice are killed in experiments in laboratories. With the popularity of genetic engineering, the numbers are increasing.
Let’s take another example of baboons. Like human parents, baboons tend to newborns around the clock. Babies stay close to their mothers, clinging to them as they forage for food and snuggling into their laps for a nap in the afternoon sun. Drawn to the nourishment and close contact provided by their mothers’ milk, young baboons even have tantrums when their mothers attempt to wean them.
Young baboons love to play, and they show a joy in living. They spend carefree days swinging from vines, playing games of chase, and wrestling and tumbling with their friends. Female baboons remain in the group into which they were born, among their relatives, throughout their entire lives. Their social lives are centered on the network of family in which they live.
Baboons who are being used as “research tools” in the modern labs and are denied all that is natural to them. Crammed into barren metal cages, these naturally social beings suffer unbearable loneliness. Mother baboons, who fuss over and care attentively for their young in the wild, have their babies taken from them. Trapped in their tiny prisons, they are deprived of the ability to roam over long stretches of land.
Experimenters at Columbia University are causing strokes in baboons by removing their left eyeballs and using the empty eye sockets to clamp critical blood vessels to their brains; they are surgically implanting heavy pipes into the skulls of baboons to induce stress and study the connection between stress and menstrual cycles; and they are pumping nicotine and morphine into pregnant baboons and their fetuses.
Male rats will snuggle up for a cuddle and find contentment curled up in a person’s lap. Rats love seeing kind people and will often bounce around waiting to be noticed and picked up. Rats can bond with their human companions to the point that if they are suddenly given away to someone else or forgotten, they can pine to death.
It is estimated that each year, tens of millions of rats and mice are killed in experiments in laboratories. With the popularity of genetic engineering, the numbers are increasing.
Let’s take another example of baboons. Like human parents, baboons tend to newborns around the clock. Babies stay close to their mothers, clinging to them as they forage for food and snuggling into their laps for a nap in the afternoon sun. Drawn to the nourishment and close contact provided by their mothers’ milk, young baboons even have tantrums when their mothers attempt to wean them.
Young baboons love to play, and they show a joy in living. They spend carefree days swinging from vines, playing games of chase, and wrestling and tumbling with their friends. Female baboons remain in the group into which they were born, among their relatives, throughout their entire lives. Their social lives are centered on the network of family in which they live.
Baboons who are being used as “research tools” in the modern labs and are denied all that is natural to them. Crammed into barren metal cages, these naturally social beings suffer unbearable loneliness. Mother baboons, who fuss over and care attentively for their young in the wild, have their babies taken from them. Trapped in their tiny prisons, they are deprived of the ability to roam over long stretches of land.
Experimenters at Columbia University are causing strokes in baboons by removing their left eyeballs and using the empty eye sockets to clamp critical blood vessels to their brains; they are surgically implanting heavy pipes into the skulls of baboons to induce stress and study the connection between stress and menstrual cycles; and they are pumping nicotine and morphine into pregnant baboons and their fetuses.
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The animals of this world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites. |
Cruelty-Free, Humanely-Raised Meat?
Conditions of factory farms are so horrible that meat eaters are resorting to ‘cruelty-free’ meat which is an irony in itself. There is an emerging class called “ethical omnivores” – people who won’t eat meat unless it is ‘humanely’ raised.
Two recent books - Fast Food Nation - a book that describes many horrific aspects of food meat/dairy production, and Dominion, in which a former speechwriter for President Bush describes how profit-margin-obsession and the separation of farming from the average consumer’s life has led to consumers supporting horrifically cruel conditions for farm animals.
There is a growing number of “ethical omnivores” - people who eat meat but only if it’s been raised humanely in a “cruelty-free” way (or at least less cruel than standard meat/dairy farm practice). The growing number of these ethical omnivores has led to the opening of new ground in what was previously a no-man’s land between carnivores and vegetarians, and given rise to numerous farms who sell free-range, cage-free, or humanely raised products.
But all this humaneness is about making mistreated, starved, mutilated, abused, and confined animals slightly less mistreated, starved, mutilated, abused, and confined. May be something is better than nothing.
Two recent books - Fast Food Nation - a book that describes many horrific aspects of food meat/dairy production, and Dominion, in which a former speechwriter for President Bush describes how profit-margin-obsession and the separation of farming from the average consumer’s life has led to consumers supporting horrifically cruel conditions for farm animals.
There is a growing number of “ethical omnivores” - people who eat meat but only if it’s been raised humanely in a “cruelty-free” way (or at least less cruel than standard meat/dairy farm practice). The growing number of these ethical omnivores has led to the opening of new ground in what was previously a no-man’s land between carnivores and vegetarians, and given rise to numerous farms who sell free-range, cage-free, or humanely raised products.
But all this humaneness is about making mistreated, starved, mutilated, abused, and confined animals slightly less mistreated, starved, mutilated, abused, and confined. May be something is better than nothing.
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Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendour, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility. |
Animal Testing - Millions Live In Agony, Only To Die In Vain
As many as 320 million animals are experimented on and killed in laboratories around the world every year. Experimentation means things like pumping chemicals into rats' stomachs, hacking muscle tissue from dogs' thighs, and putting baby monkeys in isolation chambers far from their mothers.
Animal experimentation is a multibillion-dollar industry fueled by massive public funding and involving a complex web of corporate, government, and university laboratories, cage and food manufacturers, and animal breeders, dealers, and transporters.
The industry and its people profit because animals, who cannot defend themselves against abuse, are legally imprisoned and exploited.
Fortunately for animals in laboratories, there are people who care. Some of them work in labs, and when they witness abuse, they call PETA. Thanks to these courageous whistleblowers, PETA's undercover investigators and caseworkers, who sift through reams of scientific and government documents, have exposed what goes on behind laboratory doors.
Animal experimentation is a multibillion-dollar industry fueled by massive public funding and involving a complex web of corporate, government, and university laboratories, cage and food manufacturers, and animal breeders, dealers, and transporters.
The industry and its people profit because animals, who cannot defend themselves against abuse, are legally imprisoned and exploited.
Fortunately for animals in laboratories, there are people who care. Some of them work in labs, and when they witness abuse, they call PETA. Thanks to these courageous whistleblowers, PETA's undercover investigators and caseworkers, who sift through reams of scientific and government documents, have exposed what goes on behind laboratory doors.
Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction.
-Professor Charles R. Magel
Animal Experimentation Is Unnecessary
Medical Research on animals accounts for only 2% of medical advances in this century. Atleast 10 billion dollars are poured into animal experiments every year around the world.
Draize Test
Rabbits are routinely blinded by having various products forced into their eyes by many companies today. This is called Draize Test. The Draize test does not guarantee human safety but protects companies from potential lawsuits by their customers. Their necks are stuck in wooden or metal traps, their eyes are kept open by clips and for days or weeks, harmful chemicals are poured in their eyes. Due to struggling to get free, they suffer broken necks and turn blind. Most of them die soon after.
Draize Test
Rabbits are routinely blinded by having various products forced into their eyes by many companies today. This is called Draize Test. The Draize test does not guarantee human safety but protects companies from potential lawsuits by their customers. Their necks are stuck in wooden or metal traps, their eyes are kept open by clips and for days or weeks, harmful chemicals are poured in their eyes. Due to struggling to get free, they suffer broken necks and turn blind. Most of them die soon after.
So without being devotee a man will become cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, in this way go to hell. And devotee cannot tolerate. We have studied in the life of Lord Jesus Christ. When he saw that in the Jewish synagogue the birds were being killed, he became shocked. He therefore left. Jes... He inaugurated the Christian religion. Perhaps you know. He was shocked by this animal-killing. And therefore his first commandment is “Thou shall not kill.” But the foolish Christians, instead of following his instruction, they are opening daily slaughterhouses.
Srila Prabhupada (Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.52 — Vrndavana, April 7, 1976)
Life in a Laboratory
Auschwitz, Dachau and the Gulag Camps Still Exist
Life in a laboratory is deprivation, isolation, misery and horrible pain.
Chimpanzees, in their natural homes, are never separated from their families and troops. They spend hours together every day, grooming each other and making soft nests for sleeping each night. They are loving and protective parents, and baby chimps will live close to their mothers for many years. But in a laboratory, chimpanzees are caged alone. There are no families, no companions, no grooming, no nests. There are only cold, hard steel bars and loneliness that goes on for so many years that most chimpanzees sink into depression, eventually losing their minds.
On top of the deprivation, there are the experiments. Animals are infected with diseases that they would never normally contract–tiny mice grow tumors as large as their own bodies, kittens are purposely blinded, rats are made to suffer seizures. Experimenters force-feed chemicals to animals, conduct repeated surgeries on them, implant wires in their brains, crush their spines, and much more. Think of what it would be like to endure this and then be dumped back into a cage, usually without any painkillers. Video footage from inside laboratories shows that animals cower in fear every time someone walks by their cages. They don't know if they will be dragged from their prison cells for an injection, blood withdrawal, a painful procedure or surgery, or death. Often animals see other animals killed right in front of them.
PETA documented at University of North Carolina, experimenters killing mice by cutting off their heads with scissors. There are no happy animals inside laboratories.
Animals are blinded, dropped in boiling water, burnt on hot plates, frozen in dry ice. They are allowed to bleed by exposing the carotid artery or by incision through the jugular vein. Electrodes are implanted in the brain to stimulate pain centres; they are subjected to huge doses of radiation and then forced to run on a treadmill to see how long they can survive. They are deafened, mutilated, exposed to infection, and driven mad. Babies are removed from their mothers to study the effects of deprivation. Free-ranging creatures are confined for years in small cages or, worse, in harnessed chairs. They are starved or forced to inhale carcinogenics or toxic material, till they die. Auschwitz, Dachau and the Gulag camps are still a reality for animals.
Chimpanzees, in their natural homes, are never separated from their families and troops. They spend hours together every day, grooming each other and making soft nests for sleeping each night. They are loving and protective parents, and baby chimps will live close to their mothers for many years. But in a laboratory, chimpanzees are caged alone. There are no families, no companions, no grooming, no nests. There are only cold, hard steel bars and loneliness that goes on for so many years that most chimpanzees sink into depression, eventually losing their minds.
On top of the deprivation, there are the experiments. Animals are infected with diseases that they would never normally contract–tiny mice grow tumors as large as their own bodies, kittens are purposely blinded, rats are made to suffer seizures. Experimenters force-feed chemicals to animals, conduct repeated surgeries on them, implant wires in their brains, crush their spines, and much more. Think of what it would be like to endure this and then be dumped back into a cage, usually without any painkillers. Video footage from inside laboratories shows that animals cower in fear every time someone walks by their cages. They don't know if they will be dragged from their prison cells for an injection, blood withdrawal, a painful procedure or surgery, or death. Often animals see other animals killed right in front of them.
PETA documented at University of North Carolina, experimenters killing mice by cutting off their heads with scissors. There are no happy animals inside laboratories.
Animals are blinded, dropped in boiling water, burnt on hot plates, frozen in dry ice. They are allowed to bleed by exposing the carotid artery or by incision through the jugular vein. Electrodes are implanted in the brain to stimulate pain centres; they are subjected to huge doses of radiation and then forced to run on a treadmill to see how long they can survive. They are deafened, mutilated, exposed to infection, and driven mad. Babies are removed from their mothers to study the effects of deprivation. Free-ranging creatures are confined for years in small cages or, worse, in harnessed chairs. They are starved or forced to inhale carcinogenics or toxic material, till they die. Auschwitz, Dachau and the Gulag camps are still a reality for animals.
“... all beings have beliefs, desires, perception, memory, and a sense of the future and are to be considered "subjects-of-a-life" and have intrinsic value.”
Entertainment Animals
The Circus
Since 1990, captive elephants have killed more than 300 people. The degree of suffering and cruelty of training techniques is clear when naturally peaceful elephants attack humans.
Marine Parks
Killer whales and dolphins live only 25% of their natural life expectancy when captive. Normally they swim dozens of miles in the wild and suffer stress-induced disease and ailments when kept in small pools and forced to perform tricks.
Dog Races
Up to 50,000 greyhounds are killed a year or sent to experimentation when they are no longer profitable for the racing industry.
Since 1990, captive elephants have killed more than 300 people. The degree of suffering and cruelty of training techniques is clear when naturally peaceful elephants attack humans.
Marine Parks
Killer whales and dolphins live only 25% of their natural life expectancy when captive. Normally they swim dozens of miles in the wild and suffer stress-induced disease and ailments when kept in small pools and forced to perform tricks.
Dog Races
Up to 50,000 greyhounds are killed a year or sent to experimentation when they are no longer profitable for the racing industry.
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Some rascals put forward the theory that an animal has no soul or is something like dead stone. In this way they rationalize that there is no sin in animal killing. Actually animals are not dead stone, but the killers of animals are stone-hearted. Consequently no reason or philosophy appeals to them. They continue keeping slaughterhouses and killing animals. |
Cruelty in the KFC Slaughterhouse - A Case Study
US fast food giants are taking over the world. They can be found in every nook and corner of every city in the world.
PETA’s undercover investigation into a Moorefield, West Virginia, slaughterhouse that was named KFC’s “Supplier of the Year” found workers who were stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against the floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals’ beaks off, twisted their heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed their bodies so hard that the birds expelled feces—all while the chickens were still alive.
More than 850 million chickens are killed for its restaurants each year. There is a campaign called “Boycott KFC” pledge which is going around and enrolling members.
PETA’s undercover investigation into a Moorefield, West Virginia, slaughterhouse that was named KFC’s “Supplier of the Year” found workers who were stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against the floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals’ beaks off, twisted their heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed their bodies so hard that the birds expelled feces—all while the chickens were still alive.
More than 850 million chickens are killed for its restaurants each year. There is a campaign called “Boycott KFC” pledge which is going around and enrolling members.
Whiteners Used In Pink Milk
Like humans, cows give milk for their babies. They are therefore regularly artificially inseminated and given hormones to produce 100 pounds of milk a day. This is ten times more than they would produce naturally. As a result, a huge percentage of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial infection of the udders. Since this milk is still considered drinkable, the blood and pus from their infections, along with massive quantities of antibiotics, end up in the milk on supermarket shelves. Many times milk turns pink due to presence of blood. This milk is turned natural white by adding whitening chemicals.
Foie gras Cruelty
The controversial production of foie gras (the liver of a duck or a goose that has been specially fattened) involves force-feeding birds more food than they would eat in the wild, and much more than they would voluntarily eat domestically. The feed, usually corn boiled with fat (to facilitate ingestion), deposits large amounts of fat in the liver, thereby producing the buttery consistency in the flesh.
At the start of production, a bird might be fed a dry weight of 250 grams of food per day, and up to 1,000 grams (in dry weight) by the end of the process. The actual amount of food force-fed is much greater, since the birds are fed a mash whose composition is about 53% dry and 47% liquid.
The feed is administered using a funnel fitted with a long tube (20–30 cm long), which forces the feed into the animal's esophagus. Modern systems usually use a tube fed by a pneumatic pump. Many times during feeding, bird's esophagus gets damaged which causes injury or deaths.
At the start of production, a bird might be fed a dry weight of 250 grams of food per day, and up to 1,000 grams (in dry weight) by the end of the process. The actual amount of food force-fed is much greater, since the birds are fed a mash whose composition is about 53% dry and 47% liquid.
The feed is administered using a funnel fitted with a long tube (20–30 cm long), which forces the feed into the animal's esophagus. Modern systems usually use a tube fed by a pneumatic pump. Many times during feeding, bird's esophagus gets damaged which causes injury or deaths.
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Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. |
Zoosadism
Zoosadism refers to torturing of animals for entertainment purposes.
Cat Burning
Cat burning was a form of zoosadistic entertainment in European countries and it continues in some form or another by inflicting cruelty on cats. In this form of entertainment, people would gather dozens of cats in a net and hoist them high into the air from a special bundle onto a bonfire. The assembled people would "shriek with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." Sometimes a fox was burned.
Cat Burning
Cat burning was a form of zoosadistic entertainment in European countries and it continues in some form or another by inflicting cruelty on cats. In this form of entertainment, people would gather dozens of cats in a net and hoist them high into the air from a special bundle onto a bonfire. The assembled people would "shriek with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." Sometimes a fox was burned.
mrgostra-khara-markakhu
sarisrp khaga-maksikah
atmanah putravat pasyet
tair esam antaram kiyat
One should treat animals such as deer, camels, asses, monkeys, mice, snakes, birds and flies exactly like one's own son. How little difference there actually is between children and these innocent animals. (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.14.9)
Bull Fighting
More than 40,000 bulls are killed every year in bloody bullfights around the world. For ‘entertainment’, the animals are tortured over the course of an hour, speared in their backs before finally dying from blood loss and exhaustion.
Bullfighting is criticized by many animal rights activists, referring to it as a cruel or barbaric blood sport, in which the bull suffers severe stress and a slow, torturous death.
Bull fighting includes horrors like prolonged and profuse bleeding caused by horse-mounted lancers, the charging by the bull of a blindfolded, armored horse who is "sometimes doped up, and unaware of the proximity of the bull", the placing of barbed darts by banderilleros, followed by the matador's fatal sword thrust. These procedures are a normal part of bullfighting and death is rarely instantaneous. Then there are various failed attempts at killing the animal before it lies down.
Occasionally, if the public or the matador believe that bull has fought bravely, they may petition the president of the plaza to grant the bull an indulto. This is when the bull’s life is spared and allowed to leave the ring alive and return to the ranch where it came from. However, few bulls survive the trip back to the ranch. With no veterinarian services at the plaza, most bulls die either while awaiting transportation or days later after arriving at their original ranch. Death is due to dehydration, infection of the wounds and loss of blood sustained during the fight.
More than 40,000 bulls are killed every year in bloody bullfights around the world. For ‘entertainment’, the animals are tortured over the course of an hour, speared in their backs before finally dying from blood loss and exhaustion.
Bullfighting is criticized by many animal rights activists, referring to it as a cruel or barbaric blood sport, in which the bull suffers severe stress and a slow, torturous death.
Bull fighting includes horrors like prolonged and profuse bleeding caused by horse-mounted lancers, the charging by the bull of a blindfolded, armored horse who is "sometimes doped up, and unaware of the proximity of the bull", the placing of barbed darts by banderilleros, followed by the matador's fatal sword thrust. These procedures are a normal part of bullfighting and death is rarely instantaneous. Then there are various failed attempts at killing the animal before it lies down.
Occasionally, if the public or the matador believe that bull has fought bravely, they may petition the president of the plaza to grant the bull an indulto. This is when the bull’s life is spared and allowed to leave the ring alive and return to the ranch where it came from. However, few bulls survive the trip back to the ranch. With no veterinarian services at the plaza, most bulls die either while awaiting transportation or days later after arriving at their original ranch. Death is due to dehydration, infection of the wounds and loss of blood sustained during the fight.
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Srila Prabhupada: some of the Christian people say, “We believe that animals have no soul.” That is not correct. They believe animals have no soul because they want to eat the animals, but actually animals do have a soul. |
Holocaust - Everyday And In Every Corner
Meat and dairy industries have no consideration for sick, diseased or disabled animals and they suffer unspeakable abuse and neglect at production facilities, stockyards and slaughterhouses.
Under current law, most sick, diseased or disabled animals are still sent to slaughter for human food—in spite of their tortured condition. Sadly, even sick and suffering animals spell profit to the meat and leather industry. Profit, not humane considerations, guides industry practice. From the industry perspective, there is no financial gain in euthanizing a suffering animal, but if that animal can be dragged, pushed or prodded onto into the slaughterhouse, a profit can be made. Because of this simple economic fact, there is little doubt that the abuse of such animals is widespread across the world.
Under current law, most sick, diseased or disabled animals are still sent to slaughter for human food—in spite of their tortured condition. Sadly, even sick and suffering animals spell profit to the meat and leather industry. Profit, not humane considerations, guides industry practice. From the industry perspective, there is no financial gain in euthanizing a suffering animal, but if that animal can be dragged, pushed or prodded onto into the slaughterhouse, a profit can be made. Because of this simple economic fact, there is little doubt that the abuse of such animals is widespread across the world.
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Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country... they have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now." |
Following the discovery of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)—also known as “mad cow disease”— the governments took modest measures to curtail the slaughter of sick cattle for human consumption. The result was that sick animals were left to die, piled atop one another for hours or even days without food, water or veterinary care.
In early 2008, video documentation exposed California slaughterhouse workers using shock prods, chains, high pressure hoses and even forklifts to move suffering, bellowing, and injured cattle into the slaughterhouse.
In early 2008, video documentation exposed California slaughterhouse workers using shock prods, chains, high pressure hoses and even forklifts to move suffering, bellowing, and injured cattle into the slaughterhouse.
You have become mad and you are engaged in doing all forbidden things which you should not do. You are doing that. And why you are doing that? Nunam pramattah kurute vikarma [SB 5.5.4]. Why? Yad indriya-pritaya aprnoti. Simply for sense gratification. Simply for sense gratification. I have seen one hotel man in Calcutta. He cut the throat of a chicken, and the chicken, half-cut, it was flapping and jumping. The child of the hotel man, he was crying, and the hotel man was laughing. He was taking pleasure, “Oh, how this chicken, half-cut throat, and how he is jumping... Why you are crying? Why you are crying?” And in Western countries I think students are sometimes taken to slaughterhouse to see. Is it a fact? Yes. You see. They take pleasure. Doing something sinful, they take pleasure. For pleasure’s sake they do that.
Srila Prabhupada (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.16 — Bombay, November 16, 1974)
Eating Fish Alive
In some restaurants, fish are actually eaten alive — eviscerated, filleted, and delivered to the serving table. The eyes are covered so that the fishes will not see and react to diners reaching for parts of their bodies.
One article, written by Hodding Carter, describes eating a live fish in gruesome detail: "We each reached in with our chopsticks. The fish buckled... Now, as it slowly died, would it feel each piece of its body lifted away and hungrily masticated?"
One article, written by Hodding Carter, describes eating a live fish in gruesome detail: "We each reached in with our chopsticks. The fish buckled... Now, as it slowly died, would it feel each piece of its body lifted away and hungrily masticated?"
Grilling Birds Alive
In some South East Asian countries and China, restaurants have a large grill in which live birds are thrown in. Customers choose their bird for grilling. The birds, before getting roasted, go round and round until collapse from exhaustion. Customers watch this ‘spectacle’ and then dine.
Eating Destruction - Meat Diet Endangering Planet
Animal products based diet is leading to widespread environmental destruction, resource depletion and a global health crisis unparalleled in human history.
Dietary advice on the subject of global warming and environmental health was never as definitive as it is today. The United Nations has called on governments and individuals to open their eyes to climate change, calling it "the most serious challenge facing the human race." More than any other factor, how we meet that challenge will depend on what we eat.
Dietary advice on the subject of global warming and environmental health was never as definitive as it is today. The United Nations has called on governments and individuals to open their eyes to climate change, calling it "the most serious challenge facing the human race." More than any other factor, how we meet that challenge will depend on what we eat.
Factory Farming - Highest Carbon Footprints
According to a 2006 UN-sponsored report titled "Livestock's Long Shadow," animal factory farming plays a major role in every aspect of environmental collapse, from ozone depletion to ocean dead zones.
On the street, in your front, if somebody’s being killed, nobody will take care; he’ll go on. There is no mercifulness. Even the mother has no mercifulness, killing the child. This is Kali-yuga.
-Srila Prabhupada (Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.3 -Toronto, June 19, 1976)
Factory farms, which hold tens of thousands of animals per facility in windowless warehouses, are responsible for more than 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Emissions from industrial farming are not just caused by cow burps. They are also caused by the one billion tons of waste (including 64 percent of ammonia emissions, the primary producer of acid rain) produced by suffering animals held in extreme confinement.
Containing high levels of hormones and pesticides, this untreated toxic waste is converted into concentrated liquid sewage, known as "slurry." Stored in vast 25-million-gallon lagoons, this endlessly increasing waste releases gases into the atmosphere before it is used to fertilize feed crops. The leading cause of soil and groundwater contamination, lagoon breaches and fertilizer spills are increasingly common.
Even as these animal farms produce more emissions than transportation, they are also responsible for a majority of emissions produced by all transportation functions. Most food animals travel hundreds of thousands of miles in their lifetimes as they are transported between various operations such as stockyards and slaughterhouses. Maintaining the support industries of factory farming also takes a toll on local environments. Planting, fertilizing, irrigating and harvesting feed crops, continually pumping water and sewage, running packing plants and slaughterhouses, (which kill 250 cows an hour), all rely on heavy machinery and fossil fuel consumption.
Containing high levels of hormones and pesticides, this untreated toxic waste is converted into concentrated liquid sewage, known as "slurry." Stored in vast 25-million-gallon lagoons, this endlessly increasing waste releases gases into the atmosphere before it is used to fertilize feed crops. The leading cause of soil and groundwater contamination, lagoon breaches and fertilizer spills are increasingly common.
Even as these animal farms produce more emissions than transportation, they are also responsible for a majority of emissions produced by all transportation functions. Most food animals travel hundreds of thousands of miles in their lifetimes as they are transported between various operations such as stockyards and slaughterhouses. Maintaining the support industries of factory farming also takes a toll on local environments. Planting, fertilizing, irrigating and harvesting feed crops, continually pumping water and sewage, running packing plants and slaughterhouses, (which kill 250 cows an hour), all rely on heavy machinery and fossil fuel consumption.
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If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. |
Meat Eaters Devouring Forests, Destroying Ecosystems
About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing meat animals -twice the area used for growing crops. Because of the deforestation, soil erosion and desertification meat industry causes, it is fundamentally unsustainable and has an extremely negative impact on the environment. Thirty percent of the earth's land is now occupied by livestock, with another 33 percent devoted to GMO feed crops, and this number is expanding every year. Seventy percent of previously forested land in the Amazon has been converted into cropland and pastures, destroying biodiversity, introducing carcinogenic pesticides, and playing a primary role in pushing species toward extinction at a rate 500 times of that we ought to be experiencing according to models based on fossil records.
Right now we raise about 40 billion animals for food. Inevitably, intensive animal agriculture depletes valuable natural resources. Instead of being eaten by people, the vast majority of grain harvested is fed to farm animals. This wasteful and inefficient practice has forced agribusiness to exploit vast stretches of land. Forests, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats have been decimated and turned into crop and grazing land. Scarce fossil fuels, groundwater, and topsoil resources which took millenium to develop are now disappearing. Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is now used to raise animals for food.
The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.
50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970. In Canada also, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.
Right now we raise about 40 billion animals for food. Inevitably, intensive animal agriculture depletes valuable natural resources. Instead of being eaten by people, the vast majority of grain harvested is fed to farm animals. This wasteful and inefficient practice has forced agribusiness to exploit vast stretches of land. Forests, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats have been decimated and turned into crop and grazing land. Scarce fossil fuels, groundwater, and topsoil resources which took millenium to develop are now disappearing. Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is now used to raise animals for food.
The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 55 sq. feet of rainforest is needed to produce a quarter-pound burger.
50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970. In Canada also, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.
So this is our program. Let the cows live. We take sufficient milk. We are getting milk, one thousand pounds. One thousand pounds daily in our, one center, New Vrindaban, Virginia. So we are making various preparations from the milk, and they are very happy, and the cows are also happy. So this is one of our programs, to stop killing this important animal. And the flesh-eaters may wait a little until the cow dies. Then he gets the opportunity. Why there should be slaughterhouse maintained? As you are one of the leading citizens of Paris, we appeal to you to take up this consideration seriously. Why we should maintain slaughterhouse? If we want to eat the flesh, let us wait till the death. And there will be death. There is no doubt about it. So why they should maintain slaughterhouse? And this is most cruelty. A animal which is giving milk, so important foodstuff, and that is being killed, it does not suit any moral sense of any human being.
Srila Prabhupada (Room Conversation with Monsieur Mesman, Chief of Law House of Paris — June 11, 1974, Paris)
Grave Threat To Water Supply
In the context of the global water supply, the impact of animal agriculture threatens utter catastrophe. Every kilo of beef requires 16,000 liters of water to produce, according to the Institute for Water Education. This means a single person can save more water simply by not eating a pound of beef than they could by not showering for an entire year. Factory farming is responsible for 37 percent of pesticide contamination, 50 percent of antibiotic contamination and one-third of the nitrogen and phosphorus loads found in freshwater. Nearly half of all water consumed in the US is used to raise animals for food.
Poisoning water is bad enough, but depleting the supply is suicidal. The majority of the earth's water is now used to support animal agriculture, and much of it cannot be reclaimed.
Poisoning water is bad enough, but depleting the supply is suicidal. The majority of the earth's water is now used to support animal agriculture, and much of it cannot be reclaimed.
New Fatal Diseases
Many of the worst human diseases — BSE, TB, avian flu, West Nile virus, bluetongue— are associated with animals of modern meat industry which are kept in crammed, unhygienic conditions.
Unprecedented Pollution
The animals raised for food in the US alone produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population on Earth, at a rate of 86,600 pounds per second. Only a sixth of this excrement is used as fertilizer; the rest is just dumped into lakes and rivers, untreated. Slaughterhouse runoff is killing millions of fish, and is the main reason why 35% of Earth’s rivers and streams are "impaired". In countries with concentrated animal agriculture, the waterways have become rife with a bacteria called pfiesteria. In addition to killing fish, pfiesteria causes open sores, nausea, memory loss, fatigue and disorientation in humans. Even groundwater, which takes thousands of years to restore, is being contaminated. For example, the aquifer under the San Bernadino Dairy Preserve in southern California contains more nitrates and other pollutants than water coming from sewage treatment plants.
But it's not only fresh water sources that are at risk; ocean waters are also imperiled. Dead zones, vast stretches of costal waters in which nothing can live, are created by untreated hormone, nitrate and antibiotic laden slaughterhouse waste seeping into the soil, groundwater and rivers before contaminating the ocean. According to the EPA, In USA, 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states has been permanently contaminated by industrial farm waste.
One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 120000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.
But it's not only fresh water sources that are at risk; ocean waters are also imperiled. Dead zones, vast stretches of costal waters in which nothing can live, are created by untreated hormone, nitrate and antibiotic laden slaughterhouse waste seeping into the soil, groundwater and rivers before contaminating the ocean. According to the EPA, In USA, 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states has been permanently contaminated by industrial farm waste.
One pig factory farm produces raw waste equivalent to that of a city of 120000 people -- except unlike a city, it doesn't have a waste treatment facility. Its raw wastes are dumped straight into surrounding rivers and lakes.
Massive Energy Requirements
Raising animals for food requires more than one-third of all raw materials and fossil fuels used in the United States. Producing a single hamburger patty uses enough fossil fuels to drive a small car 20 miles.
Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.
Meat production requires 10-20 times more energy per edible tonne than grain production.
... we prefer our own [human] species over others for arbitrary reasons, just as racists and sexists prefer their race or sex over others.
Meat Eating - Cause For World Hunger & Criminal Waste of Grains
There is plenty of food. It is just not reaching human stomachs. Of the 2.13bn tonnes consumed in 2008, only 1.01bn, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), reached people.
The great food recession is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. The price of rice has risen by three-quarters in the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices. But at 2.1bn tonnes, last year’s global grain harvest broke all records. It beat the previous year’s by almost 5%. If hunger can strike now, what will happen if harvests decline?
While 100 million tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760 million tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals. This could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If we care about hunger, we have to eat less meat.
Traditionally, most societies have eaten meat until recently - for special occasions. Meat as staple diet is unknown in any traditional culture.
It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. The same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries. Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.
The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).
A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.
Really, it comes down to this: generating meat for human consumption requires vast amounts of land that could be used to feed people, and is therefore withholding food from millions of people who are starving.
The great food recession is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. The price of rice has risen by three-quarters in the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices. But at 2.1bn tonnes, last year’s global grain harvest broke all records. It beat the previous year’s by almost 5%. If hunger can strike now, what will happen if harvests decline?
While 100 million tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760 million tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals. This could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If we care about hunger, we have to eat less meat.
Traditionally, most societies have eaten meat until recently - for special occasions. Meat as staple diet is unknown in any traditional culture.
It is depressing to consider that throughout the last big famine in Ethiopia, that country was exporting desperately needed soy to Europe to feed to farmed animals. The same relationship held true throughout the famine in Somalia in the early 1990's. The same relationship holds between Latin America and the United States today. As just one example, two-thirds of the agriculturally productive land in Central America is devoted to raising farmed animals, almost all of whom are exported or eaten by the wealthy few in these countries. Animals in the US are fed 70% of the nation's corn, wheat, and other grains.
The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people -- more than the entire human population on Earth. Meanwhile, the UN says that 800 million people are suffering from "nutritional deficiency" (i.e. they're starving).
A meat based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet -- that is, the amount of land to feed one meat-eater can be used to feed seven vegetarians.
Really, it comes down to this: generating meat for human consumption requires vast amounts of land that could be used to feed people, and is therefore withholding food from millions of people who are starving.
One million animals are eaten every hour in the US alone.
The average meat eater consumes 90 animals a year.
Every year, ten billion animals are slaughtered in North America alone for meat consumption.
Increasing Meat Consumption - Decreasing Survival Possibilities
Despite these horrifying statistics, global production of meat is projected to double in the next 10 years.
Average American is already consuming more than 200 pounds of meat per year and rest of the world is trying to follow in their footsteps. In an immediate sense, adopting a meat-free diet may be the most rewarding and effective step an individual can take to help save the planet.
Viewing any animals as commodities has had a profoundly negative impact on understanding the world we live in. There is no more important task at hand than combating the false notion that the entire natural world is economically quantifiable or exists simply for our purposes alone.
An animal, an ocean, a forest, a species...and humanity are not separate, but intimately connected in every way. The world consumes 240 billion kilos of meat each year. But more than 75 per cent of what is fed to an animal is lost through metabolism or inedible parts such as bones.
Average American is already consuming more than 200 pounds of meat per year and rest of the world is trying to follow in their footsteps. In an immediate sense, adopting a meat-free diet may be the most rewarding and effective step an individual can take to help save the planet.
Viewing any animals as commodities has had a profoundly negative impact on understanding the world we live in. There is no more important task at hand than combating the false notion that the entire natural world is economically quantifiable or exists simply for our purposes alone.
An animal, an ocean, a forest, a species...and humanity are not separate, but intimately connected in every way. The world consumes 240 billion kilos of meat each year. But more than 75 per cent of what is fed to an animal is lost through metabolism or inedible parts such as bones.
Well-planned vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.
- The American Dietetic Association's position paper on vegetarianism
Bleak Future
The UN and OIE estimate that in coming decades there will be billions of additional consumers in developing countries eating meat factory farmed in developing countries, but currently only about 40 out of the around 200 countries in the world have the capacity to adequately respond to a health crisis originating from animal disease (such as avian flu, West Nile virus, bluetongue, and foot and mouth disease).
Widespread use of antibiotics increases the chance of a pandemic resistant to known measures, which is exacerbated by a globally distributed food system. Decreased genetic diversity increases the chance of a food crisis.
Many people may gladly recycle paper and aluminum cans or take the subway rather than drive to work, they get home and cook up a steak for dinner, unaware that the environmental damage caused to produce that steak far outweighs their other environmental efforts.
We have to make our choice now.... steak on our platter or our very survival.
Widespread use of antibiotics increases the chance of a pandemic resistant to known measures, which is exacerbated by a globally distributed food system. Decreased genetic diversity increases the chance of a food crisis.
Many people may gladly recycle paper and aluminum cans or take the subway rather than drive to work, they get home and cook up a steak for dinner, unaware that the environmental damage caused to produce that steak far outweighs their other environmental efforts.
We have to make our choice now.... steak on our platter or our very survival.
Story of Pigs - Four Legged and Two Legged
Pigs are sentient being and they have a soul, irrespective of what so-called religious leaders may claim. A recent incident which took place in Andhra Pradesh, South India, substantiates this point.
A tiny pig was found circumambulating dhwaja sthambam (holy pillar) of various temples. Temple priests tried to shoo away the pig but it refused to budge. The news attracted local media and crowds arrived on the scene. The pig was given a statewide coverage. Next day, the pig took bath in Godavari ( a river considered holy) and again started the devotional chore. It was also reported to be putting its head inside the vermilion (kumkum) container as the regular devotees do. Owner of the pig said that it went missing from his herd few days ago and he noticed it only through media. The pig owner also said that there were no temples around where he lived and also that the pig never got exposed to any temple atmosphere.
A tiny pig was found circumambulating dhwaja sthambam (holy pillar) of various temples. Temple priests tried to shoo away the pig but it refused to budge. The news attracted local media and crowds arrived on the scene. The pig was given a statewide coverage. Next day, the pig took bath in Godavari ( a river considered holy) and again started the devotional chore. It was also reported to be putting its head inside the vermilion (kumkum) container as the regular devotees do. Owner of the pig said that it went missing from his herd few days ago and he noticed it only through media. The pig owner also said that there were no temples around where he lived and also that the pig never got exposed to any temple atmosphere.
“A single person can save more water simply by not eating a pound of beef than they could by not showering for an entire year.”
Now look at the facts how pigs get treated in modern slaughterhouses and factory farms.
With corporate hog factories replacing traditional hog farms, pigs raised for food are being treated more as inanimate tools of production than as living, feeling animals. From beginning to end, this system is a nightmare from which the animals have no escape, and it all starts with the breeding sows.
Modern breeding sows are treated like piglet-making machines. Living a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, each sow has more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in gestation crates – small metal pens just 2 feet wide that prevent sows from turning around or even lying down comfortably. At the end of their four-month pregnancies, they are transferred to similarly cramped farrowing crates to give birth. With barely enough room to stand up and lie down and no straw or other type of bedding to speak of, many suffer from sores on their shoulders and knees.
Numerous research studies conducted over the last 25 years have pointed to physical and psychological maladies experienced by sows in confinement. The unnatural flooring and lack of exercise causes obesity and crippling leg disorders, while the deprived environment produces neurotic coping behaviors such as repetitive bar biting and sham chewing (chewing nothing).
Approximately 105 million pigs are raised and slaughtered in the U.S. every year and another 800 million worldwide. As babies, they are subjected to painful mutilations without anesthesia or pain relievers. Their tails are cut off to minimize tail biting, an aberrant behavior that occurs when these highly-intelligent animals are kept in deprived factory farm environments. In addition, notches are taken out of the piglets' ears for identification. By two to three weeks of age, 10% of the piglets will have died. Those who survive are taken away from their mothers and crowded into pens with metal bars and concrete floors. A headline from National Hog Farmer magazine (from North America) advises, "Crowding Pigs Pays...", and this is exemplified by the intense overcrowding in every stage of hog confinement systems. Pigs will live this way, packed into giant, warehouse-like sheds, until they reach a slaughter weight of 250 pounds at 6 months old.
With corporate hog factories replacing traditional hog farms, pigs raised for food are being treated more as inanimate tools of production than as living, feeling animals. From beginning to end, this system is a nightmare from which the animals have no escape, and it all starts with the breeding sows.
Modern breeding sows are treated like piglet-making machines. Living a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, each sow has more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in gestation crates – small metal pens just 2 feet wide that prevent sows from turning around or even lying down comfortably. At the end of their four-month pregnancies, they are transferred to similarly cramped farrowing crates to give birth. With barely enough room to stand up and lie down and no straw or other type of bedding to speak of, many suffer from sores on their shoulders and knees.
Numerous research studies conducted over the last 25 years have pointed to physical and psychological maladies experienced by sows in confinement. The unnatural flooring and lack of exercise causes obesity and crippling leg disorders, while the deprived environment produces neurotic coping behaviors such as repetitive bar biting and sham chewing (chewing nothing).
Approximately 105 million pigs are raised and slaughtered in the U.S. every year and another 800 million worldwide. As babies, they are subjected to painful mutilations without anesthesia or pain relievers. Their tails are cut off to minimize tail biting, an aberrant behavior that occurs when these highly-intelligent animals are kept in deprived factory farm environments. In addition, notches are taken out of the piglets' ears for identification. By two to three weeks of age, 10% of the piglets will have died. Those who survive are taken away from their mothers and crowded into pens with metal bars and concrete floors. A headline from National Hog Farmer magazine (from North America) advises, "Crowding Pigs Pays...", and this is exemplified by the intense overcrowding in every stage of hog confinement systems. Pigs will live this way, packed into giant, warehouse-like sheds, until they reach a slaughter weight of 250 pounds at 6 months old.
The air inside hog factories is so polluted with dust, dander and noxious gases from the animals' waste that workers who are exposed for just a few hours per day are at high risk for bronchitis, asthma, sinusitis, organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Unlike these workers, the pigs have no escape from this toxic air, and roughly half of all pigs that die between weaning and slaughter succumb to respiratory disease.
Poor air quality, extreme close-quarters confinement and unsanitary living conditions combine to make diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), swine influenza virus (SIV) and salmonellosis a serious threat to animal welfare.
In addition to their direct effects on animal health, several viruses are known to suppress pigs' immune systems, leading to greater risk from opportunistic bacteria which further degrade health and result in on-farm deaths. These viral infections frequently go undiagnosed because they are masked by the overlying bacterial disease and testing is expensive.
The overcrowding and confinement is unnatural and stress-producing since pigs are actually very clean animals. If they are given sufficient space, pigs are careful not to soil the areas where they sleep or eat. But in factory farms, they are forced to live in their own feces, urine and vomit and even amid the corpses of other pigs.
In addition to overcrowded housing, sows and pigs also endure extreme crowding in transportation, resulting in rampant suffering and deaths.
Poor air quality, extreme close-quarters confinement and unsanitary living conditions combine to make diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), swine influenza virus (SIV) and salmonellosis a serious threat to animal welfare.
In addition to their direct effects on animal health, several viruses are known to suppress pigs' immune systems, leading to greater risk from opportunistic bacteria which further degrade health and result in on-farm deaths. These viral infections frequently go undiagnosed because they are masked by the overlying bacterial disease and testing is expensive.
The overcrowding and confinement is unnatural and stress-producing since pigs are actually very clean animals. If they are given sufficient space, pigs are careful not to soil the areas where they sleep or eat. But in factory farms, they are forced to live in their own feces, urine and vomit and even amid the corpses of other pigs.
In addition to overcrowded housing, sows and pigs also endure extreme crowding in transportation, resulting in rampant suffering and deaths.
Wingless Vultures And Two Legged Jackals Eating Rotten Carcasses
There's a growing amount of evidence that a meat-based diet actually quite unhealthy for people. The filthy and unsanitary conditions of slaughterhouses contaminate almost all meats that we eat. Increasingly, meat covered with feces, abscesses, tumors, hair, and maggots has moved into the human food system. Most of t h e slaughterhouses are infested with cockroaches and rats and condemned meat is taken out of trash barrels and returned to production lines.
Testimonials from USDA Inspectors and slaughterhouse workers.
Following are the extracts from affidavits by USDA inspectors. This is the condition of modern slaughterhouses in developed countries. This is the beef that is now passing federal inspection. What to speak of slaughterhouses in the third world!
"Rats were all over the coolers at night, running on top of meat and gnawing at it … We saw fecal contamination get through -- up to one-foot smears -- as well as flukes (liver parasites), grubs (wormlike fly larvae that burrow into the cow's skin and work their way through the animal's body), abscesses (encapsulated infections filled with pus), (hide) hair, and ingesta (partially digested food found in the stomach or esophagus)" ... "Manure, hair, hide, metal, and chewing tobacco regularly contaminate products... Cows are slaughtered that have been dead on arrival, some so long they are ice-cold." "Insects have a feast. Rodent infestation and cockroaches up to two inches long have been prevalent. There are pools of urine on the viscera table that regularly contacts products. The company sprinkled the floor with anti-maggot solution, but the drains are so often stopped up, filthy water splashes
on the carcasses even if they don't fall off the rail..."
“Red meat animals and poultry that were dead on arrival were hidden from us and hung up to be butchered. … Severed heads from cancer eye cattle were switched to smaller carcasses before inspection so less meat would be condemned. … Up to 25 percent of slaughtered chicken on the inspection line was covered with feces, bile, and ingesta. … In one enforcement action at a single facility, we retained six tons of ground pork with rust which was bound for a school lunch program in Indiana, 14,000 pounds of chicken speckled with metal flakes, 5,000 pounds of rancid chicken necks, and 721 pounds of green chicken that made employees gag from the smell. Rancid meat had been smoked to cover foul odor, or marinated and breaded to disguise slime and smell. ... Chickens and hams were soaked in chlorine baths to remove slime and odor and red dye was added to beef to make it appear fresh."
‘With the advent of modern slaughter technologies,' said former USDA microbiologist Gerald Kuester, 'there are about fifty points during processing where cross-contamination can occur. At the end of the line, the birds are no cleaner than if they had been dipped into a toilet.'
With one hamburger containing meat from as many as one hundred different animals, one infected animal can cross-contaminate sixteen tons of beef. And because the grinding process creates a much larger surface area for the bacteria to inhabit than a cut of beef, they find hamburger meat especially hospitable.
In 1991, a USDA microbiologist and leading authority on a bacteria called ‘Campylobacter’ found the bacteria present in 98 percent of store-bought chickens. According to the National Academy of Sciences, studies of market-ready chickens found Campylobacter on up to 82 percent. And in a survey of fifty brand-name broilers in Georgia, a government researcher found 90 percent contaminated with Campylobacter. Even Food Safety Review , the USDA's own publication, reported that "heavily contaminated flocks may result in a contamination rate of 100 percent for finished products." And again, even with chlorine and the other "improvements" in place, Campylobacter was found on up to 100 percent of the chickens coming out of the chill tank.
"Rats were all over the coolers at night, running on top of meat and gnawing at it … We saw fecal contamination get through -- up to one-foot smears -- as well as flukes (liver parasites), grubs (wormlike fly larvae that burrow into the cow's skin and work their way through the animal's body), abscesses (encapsulated infections filled with pus), (hide) hair, and ingesta (partially digested food found in the stomach or esophagus)" ... "Manure, hair, hide, metal, and chewing tobacco regularly contaminate products... Cows are slaughtered that have been dead on arrival, some so long they are ice-cold." "Insects have a feast. Rodent infestation and cockroaches up to two inches long have been prevalent. There are pools of urine on the viscera table that regularly contacts products. The company sprinkled the floor with anti-maggot solution, but the drains are so often stopped up, filthy water splashes
on the carcasses even if they don't fall off the rail..."
“Red meat animals and poultry that were dead on arrival were hidden from us and hung up to be butchered. … Severed heads from cancer eye cattle were switched to smaller carcasses before inspection so less meat would be condemned. … Up to 25 percent of slaughtered chicken on the inspection line was covered with feces, bile, and ingesta. … In one enforcement action at a single facility, we retained six tons of ground pork with rust which was bound for a school lunch program in Indiana, 14,000 pounds of chicken speckled with metal flakes, 5,000 pounds of rancid chicken necks, and 721 pounds of green chicken that made employees gag from the smell. Rancid meat had been smoked to cover foul odor, or marinated and breaded to disguise slime and smell. ... Chickens and hams were soaked in chlorine baths to remove slime and odor and red dye was added to beef to make it appear fresh."
‘With the advent of modern slaughter technologies,' said former USDA microbiologist Gerald Kuester, 'there are about fifty points during processing where cross-contamination can occur. At the end of the line, the birds are no cleaner than if they had been dipped into a toilet.'
With one hamburger containing meat from as many as one hundred different animals, one infected animal can cross-contaminate sixteen tons of beef. And because the grinding process creates a much larger surface area for the bacteria to inhabit than a cut of beef, they find hamburger meat especially hospitable.
In 1991, a USDA microbiologist and leading authority on a bacteria called ‘Campylobacter’ found the bacteria present in 98 percent of store-bought chickens. According to the National Academy of Sciences, studies of market-ready chickens found Campylobacter on up to 82 percent. And in a survey of fifty brand-name broilers in Georgia, a government researcher found 90 percent contaminated with Campylobacter. Even Food Safety Review , the USDA's own publication, reported that "heavily contaminated flocks may result in a contamination rate of 100 percent for finished products." And again, even with chlorine and the other "improvements" in place, Campylobacter was found on up to 100 percent of the chickens coming out of the chill tank.
Millions Of Baby Seals - Clubbed To Death Every Year
Every year in Canada during the spring time, fishermen gather to the shores of Newfoundland to begin a cruel slaughter of seals for their pelts. This year, the horrific Canadian seal slaughter has begun -- 325,000 baby seals to be killed this season alone, 95% of them less than 4 weeks old.
Shockingly, the annual cull is subsidized and therefore supported by the Canadian government.
Shockingly, the annual cull is subsidized and therefore supported by the Canadian government.
Nonsensical & Insane Government
Because seals are known to eat cod, the Canadian government claims that by lowering the seal population the cod population will rise. However, they have overlooked key aspects of this theory: only 3% of a seal's diet consists of cod, and other animals eat cod. Although the amount of cod that Harp seals eat may be debatable, no matter what the numbers are, the fact of the matter agreed by all credible scientists and biologists is that the seals didn't cause the fishery collapse.
Even US Government Rejects This Insanity
An excerpt from US Congress Resolution 33 is as follows:
Whereas the fishing and sealing industries in Canada continue to justify the expanded seal hunt on the grounds that the seals in the Northwest Atlantic are preventing the recovery of cod stocks, despite the lack of any credible scientific evidence to support this claim;
Whereas two Canadian Government marine scientists reported in 1994 that the true cause of cod depletion in the North Atlantic was over-fishing, and the consensus among the international scientific community is that seals are not responsible for the collapse of cod stocks.
Whereas the fishing and sealing industries in Canada continue to justify the expanded seal hunt on the grounds that the seals in the Northwest Atlantic are preventing the recovery of cod stocks, despite the lack of any credible scientific evidence to support this claim;
Whereas two Canadian Government marine scientists reported in 1994 that the true cause of cod depletion in the North Atlantic was over-fishing, and the consensus among the international scientific community is that seals are not responsible for the collapse of cod stocks.
Senseless Cruelty
While there are regulations as to how to perform the seal cull, there are never enough people enforcing them. Over the past year, IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) documented 660 violations of the laws in this area in just one season. The sealers were found 79% of the time clubbing the seals without checking to see if the animals were dead before skinning them.
When an independent group of veterinarians examined the skulls of killed seals, 42% were found to have little or no fracture, suggesting a high possibility that they were conscious when skinned. Often these conscious and skinless seals are thrown onto heaps of others to rot and die. Live seals are also brutally hooked by sealers and dragged across the ice onto ships or other locations where they will then be killed and skinned, though not necessarily in that order.
When an independent group of veterinarians examined the skulls of killed seals, 42% were found to have little or no fracture, suggesting a high possibility that they were conscious when skinned. Often these conscious and skinless seals are thrown onto heaps of others to rot and die. Live seals are also brutally hooked by sealers and dragged across the ice onto ships or other locations where they will then be killed and skinned, though not necessarily in that order.
Another US Resolution
US Congress Resolution 33, 109th Congress, 1st Session, dated February 1, 2005 summarizes the facts:
Whereas the veterinary report [conducted by an independent team of veterinarians invited by IFAW to observe the hunt] concluded that as many as 42 percent of the seals studied were likely skinned while alive and conscious;
Whereas the commercial slaughter of seals in the Northwest Atlantic is inherently cruel, whether the killing is conducted by clubbing or by shooting;
Whereas many seals are shot in the course of the hunt, but escape beneath the ice where they die slowly and are never recovered, and these seals are not counted in official kill statistics, making the actual kill level far higher than the level that is reported;
Whereas the veterinary report [conducted by an independent team of veterinarians invited by IFAW to observe the hunt] concluded that as many as 42 percent of the seals studied were likely skinned while alive and conscious;
Whereas the commercial slaughter of seals in the Northwest Atlantic is inherently cruel, whether the killing is conducted by clubbing or by shooting;
Whereas many seals are shot in the course of the hunt, but escape beneath the ice where they die slowly and are never recovered, and these seals are not counted in official kill statistics, making the actual kill level far higher than the level that is reported;
Time To Stop This Insanity
Its time for Canadian government to understand that killing for the pleasure of killing is no good. Canada is not going to starve even if these innocent seal babies ate up all their fish. God has provided food for all living beings and they should not poke their sinister nose into God’s affairs, conducted perfectly through the agency of material nature.
War Crimes
Baked Alive In Hot Sun, Drinking Blood of Fellow Prisoners
During war in Afghanistan, "Death by container" had been a cheap means of mass murder used by both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance for several years. Abandoned freight containers - international standard size, 40 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet- litter the roads of Afghanistan, rusting reminders of the many tons of aid that have poured into the country over the past 20 years. It was reputedly a savage Uzbek general who first saw the container's potential as a killing machine in 1997. After a Taliban assault on Mazar-e Sharif had been repulsed, the general -according to a subsequent U.N. report-killed some 1,250 Taliban by leaving them in containers in the desert sun. When the containers were opened, it was found the inmates had been grilled black. When the Taliban took Mazar-e Sharif in 1998, they in turn killed several hundred enemies in the same fashion.
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death,” a documentary film that has received significant screenings in Europe was produced and directed by Irish filmmaker and former BBC producer Jamie Doran. The film tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to the film, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. When the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds.
Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave.
“Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death,” a documentary film that has received significant screenings in Europe was produced and directed by Irish filmmaker and former BBC producer Jamie Doran. The film tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to the film, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. When the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds.
Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave.
Great World War 2008
42 Million Babies Killed
In year 2008 alone, nearly 42 million babies were killed in the womb all over the world. Put simply, per day, 115,000 babies were killed in 2008. This translated into 80 babies every minute. By the time you finish reading these passages on abortion, hundreds of unborn babies, lying in supposedly secure womb of their mothers would be brutally done to death. And let us not forget that most of these murders are not caused by medical exigencies.
In most parts of the world, abortion had been an illegal practice and only in last few decades, it gained legal status. Prior to 1973, it was illegal in the US as well but a historic case in the US Supreme Court , Roe vs Wade, changed all that.
In most parts of the world, abortion had been an illegal practice and only in last few decades, it gained legal status. Prior to 1973, it was illegal in the US as well but a historic case in the US Supreme Court , Roe vs Wade, changed all that.
The Silent Scream
The Silent Scream is a 1984 video about abortion directed and filmed by Dr. Bernard Nathanson. The film depicts the abortion process via ultrasound and vividly shows an abortion taking place on the fetus. In detail, the fetus is described as appearing to make outcries of pain and agony during the process. The video has been shown at the White House also on the request of President Ronald Reagan.
Marshall Foch, he was in charge of the French centers. So there were many refugees from Belgium, most women and children. They came to France. And in charge was Marshall Foch. So this Mr. MacPherson, he told me that “We were officers. We informed that so many refugees have come from Belgium. What to do.” Then Marshall became very angry. You see. He became very... “What can I do? In this battlefield?” So it was ordered that they should be killed. So actually it so happened that all these women and children, they were assembled together, and four guns from four sides, they were blown up. You see. Their own Allies.
So these things take place in war, sometimes. There is no international law, no humanitarian... Everything goes on. Everything. Similarly, the point is that as people act, hook and crook, everything, for satisfying the senses, gaining some material profit.
-Srila Prabhupada (Lecture - Bombay, December 26, 1972
Following gruesome methods are generally used:
Saline Abortions - Gruesome, Painful
Saline abortions are one of the most brutal and inhumane medical procedures performed today. Saline abortion causes horrific suffering for unborn babies and poses great dangers to women’s health.
In a saline abortion procedure, the abortionist injects a long needle through the wall of the uterus and removes the amniotic fluid which provides a safe and nutritious environment for the developing child. It is replaced with a hypertonic saline (salt) solution which is toxic to the unborn child. Within one to oneand-one-half hours, the baby’s heart stops beating. The corrosive effect of the salt solution often burns and strips away the outer layer of the baby’s skin. The mother soon delivers a burned, shriveled and dead baby.
Dilation And Evacuation Abortion (D&E)
Slow And Painful Death, Live Babies Cut Into Pieces
In this horrid method, the women’s cervix is dilated, which is a two or three day process requiring two trips to the abortionist, forceps are inserted through the enlarged cervix into the uterus. The body parts of the baby are grasped at random with a large, long toothed grasping clamp. With the large, long toothed grasping clamp, the abortionist twists the limbs and body parts from the unborn baby — and pulls them from the baby — and pulls the body parts out of the vaginal canal. The head is then crushed in order to remove it through the vaginal canal. The body parts must be reassembled outside of the mother’s body to be sure all was removed from the womb. If some body parts are missing, then the abortionist must continue to search for the missing body parts and retrieve them. At a gestational age of twenty weeks, the mother can feel her baby kick. The toughest part of the dilation and evacuation abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby is floats freely inside the uterine cavity. The skull pieces must then be extracted. Some abortionists have reported that on bad days, a little face may come out and stare back at you. No anesthetic is administered to the unborn child.
Saline Abortions - Gruesome, Painful
Saline abortions are one of the most brutal and inhumane medical procedures performed today. Saline abortion causes horrific suffering for unborn babies and poses great dangers to women’s health.
In a saline abortion procedure, the abortionist injects a long needle through the wall of the uterus and removes the amniotic fluid which provides a safe and nutritious environment for the developing child. It is replaced with a hypertonic saline (salt) solution which is toxic to the unborn child. Within one to oneand-one-half hours, the baby’s heart stops beating. The corrosive effect of the salt solution often burns and strips away the outer layer of the baby’s skin. The mother soon delivers a burned, shriveled and dead baby.
Dilation And Evacuation Abortion (D&E)
Slow And Painful Death, Live Babies Cut Into Pieces
In this horrid method, the women’s cervix is dilated, which is a two or three day process requiring two trips to the abortionist, forceps are inserted through the enlarged cervix into the uterus. The body parts of the baby are grasped at random with a large, long toothed grasping clamp. With the large, long toothed grasping clamp, the abortionist twists the limbs and body parts from the unborn baby — and pulls them from the baby — and pulls the body parts out of the vaginal canal. The head is then crushed in order to remove it through the vaginal canal. The body parts must be reassembled outside of the mother’s body to be sure all was removed from the womb. If some body parts are missing, then the abortionist must continue to search for the missing body parts and retrieve them. At a gestational age of twenty weeks, the mother can feel her baby kick. The toughest part of the dilation and evacuation abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby is floats freely inside the uterine cavity. The skull pieces must then be extracted. Some abortionists have reported that on bad days, a little face may come out and stare back at you. No anesthetic is administered to the unborn child.
Right now we raise about 40 billion animals for food.
Dilation and Curettage (D&C)
In this technique, the cervix is dilated or stretched to permit insertion of a loop-shaped steel knife in order to scrape the wall of the uterus. This cuts the baby’s body into pieces and cuts the placenta from the uterine wall. Bleeding is sometimes considerable.
Methotrexate & Misoprostol
Two drugs that were developed for cancer (methotrexate) and ulcer (misoprostol) treatment are now being used in combination to kill babies. Methotrexate is used to poison the baby and then Misoprostol empties the uterus of the baby. Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug with the potential for serious toxicity, which can result in the death of the mother as well as the baby.
Partial Birth Abortions
A partial-birth abortion is the killing of a baby seconds before birth. The abortionist turns the baby around and pulls the boy or girl out of the womb feet first. "Delivery" is stopped when just the top of the baby’s head is the only part of the baby still within the birth canal. The abortionist then uses scissors to puncture the back of the baby’s head at the base of the skull, inserts a suction tube and sucks the baby’s brains out. After the baby’s head is collapsed, "delivery" is completed.
In 1996, US Congress passed a federal law, the Partial-birth Abortion Act, to outlaw this inhumane, barbaric assassination of defenseless babies but President Bill Clinton vetoed the measure.
Prostaglandin
Prostaglandin are hormones which assist the birth process. Injecting concentrations of them into the amniotic sac induces violent labor and premature birth of a child usually too young to survive. Oftentimes salt or another toxin is first injected to assure that the baby will be delivered dead, since some babies have been delivered alive. Serious side-effects and complications from prostaglandin use, including cardiac arrest and rupture of the uterus are possible.
In this technique, the cervix is dilated or stretched to permit insertion of a loop-shaped steel knife in order to scrape the wall of the uterus. This cuts the baby’s body into pieces and cuts the placenta from the uterine wall. Bleeding is sometimes considerable.
Methotrexate & Misoprostol
Two drugs that were developed for cancer (methotrexate) and ulcer (misoprostol) treatment are now being used in combination to kill babies. Methotrexate is used to poison the baby and then Misoprostol empties the uterus of the baby. Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug with the potential for serious toxicity, which can result in the death of the mother as well as the baby.
Partial Birth Abortions
A partial-birth abortion is the killing of a baby seconds before birth. The abortionist turns the baby around and pulls the boy or girl out of the womb feet first. "Delivery" is stopped when just the top of the baby’s head is the only part of the baby still within the birth canal. The abortionist then uses scissors to puncture the back of the baby’s head at the base of the skull, inserts a suction tube and sucks the baby’s brains out. After the baby’s head is collapsed, "delivery" is completed.
In 1996, US Congress passed a federal law, the Partial-birth Abortion Act, to outlaw this inhumane, barbaric assassination of defenseless babies but President Bill Clinton vetoed the measure.
Prostaglandin
Prostaglandin are hormones which assist the birth process. Injecting concentrations of them into the amniotic sac induces violent labor and premature birth of a child usually too young to survive. Oftentimes salt or another toxin is first injected to assure that the baby will be delivered dead, since some babies have been delivered alive. Serious side-effects and complications from prostaglandin use, including cardiac arrest and rupture of the uterus are possible.
Hysterotomy
Similar to the Cesarean Section, this method is generally used if the salt poisoning or prostaglandin methods fail. Sometimes babies are born alive during this procedure which raises questions as to how and when the infants are killed and by whom. Some infants who are attended to after a hysterotomy have been known to survive and were subsequently accepted by their natural mothers, or placed in adoptive homes.
This method offers the highest risk to the health of the mother. The risk of mortality from hysterotomy is two times greater than risk from D&E.
Similar to the Cesarean Section, this method is generally used if the salt poisoning or prostaglandin methods fail. Sometimes babies are born alive during this procedure which raises questions as to how and when the infants are killed and by whom. Some infants who are attended to after a hysterotomy have been known to survive and were subsequently accepted by their natural mothers, or placed in adoptive homes.
This method offers the highest risk to the health of the mother. The risk of mortality from hysterotomy is two times greater than risk from D&E.
Abortion is the ultimate form of child abuse.
Civilized Cannibalism
Foetophagy: Aborted Foetus as Food.
Cooked Human Foetuses for $100! This is a story of what is happening in Taiwan, China and many other parts of the world where the aborted human foetuses are being eaten as food. This "dish" is so popular in places like Taiwan that hospitals sell these aborted foetuses for between $50 to $79 a piece. In hotels, spices are applied to these foetuses and then they are cooked in an oven or on a barbecue and placed on a platter before being brought to the dining table.
A report released by the Eastern Express in Hong Kong mentions that human foetuses are being served in restaurants in China, and are being smuggled into Hong Kong.
Cooked in soup or mixed with minced pork, many believe human foetuses to be highly nutritious and delicious.
With hundreds of millions of pregnancies aborted every year, this trend is only expected to grow. This is alarming in view of the fact that abortion is widely practiced in China. Forced abortion under the Chinese birth control policy means possibly hundreds of thousands of pregnancies are terminated each year.
Women in Tibet have long reported cases of forced abortion under often terrifying, painful, and unhygienic conditions.
Benefitting financially from human body parts is a well established practice in China. Organs are regularly cut out of prisoners who have been executed. These are highly saleable being "fresh" and from persons not suffering from sickness. There have been reported cases of organs being cut out of prisoners on their way to the execution ground. Such attacks have been carried out without anaesthetic or sterilisation.
However repugnant, immoral, and outrageous the practice, there does not appear to be a statute forbidding the eating of human unborn babies.
A report released by the Eastern Express in Hong Kong mentions that human foetuses are being served in restaurants in China, and are being smuggled into Hong Kong.
Cooked in soup or mixed with minced pork, many believe human foetuses to be highly nutritious and delicious.
With hundreds of millions of pregnancies aborted every year, this trend is only expected to grow. This is alarming in view of the fact that abortion is widely practiced in China. Forced abortion under the Chinese birth control policy means possibly hundreds of thousands of pregnancies are terminated each year.
Women in Tibet have long reported cases of forced abortion under often terrifying, painful, and unhygienic conditions.
Benefitting financially from human body parts is a well established practice in China. Organs are regularly cut out of prisoners who have been executed. These are highly saleable being "fresh" and from persons not suffering from sickness. There have been reported cases of organs being cut out of prisoners on their way to the execution ground. Such attacks have been carried out without anaesthetic or sterilisation.
However repugnant, immoral, and outrageous the practice, there does not appear to be a statute forbidding the eating of human unborn babies.
Equal rights for women....and unborn women. Fully half of the babies aborted are women.
Eating Live Monkey Brains
In parts of Europe and Asia, eating the monkey's brain out of his opened skull is supposed to arouse sex drive.
They have a table with a hole in the middle, called monkey table. It splits down in the center where the monkey’s neck is locked, so that the head is above the table and the body underneath it.
Then a man comes and hammers and chips away the top of the monkeys head. The customers then apply salt and stir the monkey brain, turning it into a soup, all this while the monkey is fully conscious.
Reportedly many types of brains and testicles are eaten - that of bear, owl, jackals etc. Looks like there is nothing that human beings will not eat, alive or dead.
Another popular method of eating monkey brain is by cutting the skull and pouring boiling oil into it to cook it.
Then there are restaurants where they serve 'drunk shrimp', which is drowned in brandy while you wait, and served and eaten while still alive. Also there is cheese lobster, where the cheese is mixed into a part boiled lobsters guts - as it is served the arms and eyes are still moving.
They have a table with a hole in the middle, called monkey table. It splits down in the center where the monkey’s neck is locked, so that the head is above the table and the body underneath it.
Then a man comes and hammers and chips away the top of the monkeys head. The customers then apply salt and stir the monkey brain, turning it into a soup, all this while the monkey is fully conscious.
Reportedly many types of brains and testicles are eaten - that of bear, owl, jackals etc. Looks like there is nothing that human beings will not eat, alive or dead.
Another popular method of eating monkey brain is by cutting the skull and pouring boiling oil into it to cook it.
Then there are restaurants where they serve 'drunk shrimp', which is drowned in brandy while you wait, and served and eaten while still alive. Also there is cheese lobster, where the cheese is mixed into a part boiled lobsters guts - as it is served the arms and eyes are still moving.
Torture In Modern Society
Torture is widely practiced worldwide. Amnesty International received reports of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in more than 150 countries during the four year period from 1997 to 2000. These accusations concerned acts against political prisoners in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries. State torture has been extensively documented and studied, often as part of efforts at collective memory and reconciliation in societies that have experienced a change in government. Surveys of torture survivors reveal that torture is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information. Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity. When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression and deterrence against dissent and community empowerment.
Thou Shalt Not Kill
-By Srila Prabhupada
The Srimad-Bhagavatam states that any bona fide preacher of God consciousness must have the qualities of titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion). In the character of Lord Jesus Christ we find both these qualities. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified, he didn’t condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. (Of course, they could not actually kill him. But they were thinking that he could be killed, so they were committing a great offense.) As Christ was being crucified he prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing.”
A preacher of God consciousness is a friend to all living beings. Lord Jesus Christ exemplified this by teaching, “Thou shalt not kill.” But the Christians like to misinterpret this instruction. They think the animals have no soul, and therefore they think they can freely kill billions of innocent animals in the slaughterhouses.
So although there are many persons who profess to be Christians, it would be very difficult to find one who strictly follows the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ.
A Vaisnava is unhappy to see the suffering of others. Therefore, Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be crucified — to free others from their suffering. But his followers are so unfaithful that they have decided, “Let Christ suffer for us, and we’ll go on committing sin.” They love Christ so much that they think, “My dear Christ, we are very weak. We cannot give up our sinful activities. So you please suffer for us.”
Jesus Christ taught, “Thou shalt not kill.” But his followers have now decided, “Let us kill anyway,” and they open big, modern, scientific slaughterhouses. “If there is any sin, Christ will suffer for us.” This is a most abominable conclusion.
Christ can take the sufferings for the previous sins of his devotees. But first they have to be sane: “Why should I put Jesus Christ into suffering for my sins? Let me stop my sinful activities.”
Suppose a man — the favorite son of his father — commits a murder. And suppose he thinks, “If there is any punishment coming, my father can suffer for me.” Will the law allow it? When the murderer is arrested and says, “No, no. You can release me and arrest my father; I am his pet son,” will the police officials comply with that fool’s request? He committed the murder, but he thinks his father should suffer the punishment! Is that a sane proposal? “No. You have committed the murder; you must be hanged.” Similarly, when you commit sinful activities, you must suffer — not Jesus Christ. This is God’s law.
-Srila Prabhupada (Science of Self-realization)
The Srimad-Bhagavatam states that any bona fide preacher of God consciousness must have the qualities of titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion). In the character of Lord Jesus Christ we find both these qualities. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified, he didn’t condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. (Of course, they could not actually kill him. But they were thinking that he could be killed, so they were committing a great offense.) As Christ was being crucified he prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing.”
A preacher of God consciousness is a friend to all living beings. Lord Jesus Christ exemplified this by teaching, “Thou shalt not kill.” But the Christians like to misinterpret this instruction. They think the animals have no soul, and therefore they think they can freely kill billions of innocent animals in the slaughterhouses.
So although there are many persons who profess to be Christians, it would be very difficult to find one who strictly follows the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ.
A Vaisnava is unhappy to see the suffering of others. Therefore, Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be crucified — to free others from their suffering. But his followers are so unfaithful that they have decided, “Let Christ suffer for us, and we’ll go on committing sin.” They love Christ so much that they think, “My dear Christ, we are very weak. We cannot give up our sinful activities. So you please suffer for us.”
Jesus Christ taught, “Thou shalt not kill.” But his followers have now decided, “Let us kill anyway,” and they open big, modern, scientific slaughterhouses. “If there is any sin, Christ will suffer for us.” This is a most abominable conclusion.
Christ can take the sufferings for the previous sins of his devotees. But first they have to be sane: “Why should I put Jesus Christ into suffering for my sins? Let me stop my sinful activities.”
Suppose a man — the favorite son of his father — commits a murder. And suppose he thinks, “If there is any punishment coming, my father can suffer for me.” Will the law allow it? When the murderer is arrested and says, “No, no. You can release me and arrest my father; I am his pet son,” will the police officials comply with that fool’s request? He committed the murder, but he thinks his father should suffer the punishment! Is that a sane proposal? “No. You have committed the murder; you must be hanged.” Similarly, when you commit sinful activities, you must suffer — not Jesus Christ. This is God’s law.
-Srila Prabhupada (Science of Self-realization)
