I believe in a world without factory farming. If you thought that factory farming only happened overseas, then you don’t have the full picture.
This video will open your eyes to how your chicken, eggs and pork is raised, and how we can make factory farming a thing of the past.
Please, for the sake of these voiceless animals. A life worth living has got to be a worthy goal.
Gavin, I watched the video and I wept. I’ve always tried to by free range and barn raised where possible but sometimes I give way to price and convenience. I won’t be doing that any more.
thanks
I cried as well CW. Still a bit tender from yesterday, so just had to post this tonight.
This is the main reason that I keep my own free range backyard chooks. Guilt free eggs, and they live a long and fruitful life.
Gav x
The only genuine way we can end the needless suffering and exploitation is to GO VEGAN.
There is no such thing as “happy meat”. As Durienrider, a well-known vegan athlete, recently put it: in human terms the difference would be getting your throat slit whilst you’re on the couch, at home; compared to in prison. It’s a gross metaphor but the principle is sound.
The vegan lifestyle is good for the environment, your health and best of all doesn’t require you to treat animals as “things”. Truly compassionate people don’t make decisions based on “taste”.
p.s. Let me clarify one thing. I have no problem with people who have – rescue – chickens and keep their eggs. I just don’t buy into any form of exploitation – raising an animal for the purpose of subservience.
Peter Singer and Gary Francione are two great writers you ought to check out if you’re wanting to read more of the moral philosophy on which I base my position.
I am glad you added the PS Paul. I am sure some people would agree with you, but not all.
Does anyone have a differing opinion?
Gav
I thought the PS was important too. I know backyard chickens are a mainstay amongst simple lifers. I wish to get chickens–rescues, of course–when I have the yard for them. I mightn’t eat the eggs** myself but I will be sure to give them away.
To those people that do not agree with me–the majority–I ask you to do one thing: read Singer’s Animal Liberation or at least the chapter–which is freely available online–“All Animals Are Equal”. It’s a compelling piece of philosophy that is very hard to counter. I read it as part of a foundational philosophy course that I did at university–it was what inspired me to change from a sociology to philosophy major. I couldn’t counter Singer’s argument. It was frustrating. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what I thought was right when you have been shown that something is wrong: I stopped doing it!
** This will be something I will have to weigh up, as I am not necessarily opposed to the idea. Nor am I using chicken poo on my garden, if it came from backyard chooks.
I pledge to tray and raise as much of my family’s animal products as possible. We will be keeping our own chickens for meat and eggs and hope to get a goat for milk and other dairy next year as well as possibly 2 lambs for meat and lawn mowing. All will be treated with the utmost respect and given the best life they can. This film had me in tears too.
I’ve been living a vegetarian life for about 8 yrs now. I slowly ate less and less meat, until one day didn’t want it anymore. I grow what I can, buy what’s in season and make meals full of flavour. With care to include pulses and nuts etc. in our diet, my family’s health hasn’t suffered from not eating meat. My budget is happy too. My sisters, who do eat meat, have made an ethical decision and located a local butcher who sells certified free range meat. Now if I could convince my mother, who still buys cage eggs to convert to free range, I’d be happy.
Funny I touched ont his subject in a blog yesterday before I saw this campaign. I will be sharing it and have already tweeted and FB’d it.
I really feel that making the choice to go meat or all animal product free is entirely personal (and you are not going to convert the masses).
And keeping the menagerie of livestock that we do is not practical for everyone. But everyone can do something positive- even if its just not eating/buying as much, or (preferably) buying free range, or from local producers- where you can see the conditions!
I absolutely agree Gavin, there is no need for factory farming and we shouldn’t be supporting it with our dollars. I do not agree with Paul though. We raise the animals on our property and ensure that they have a happy and healthy (though often short) life. I let my chickens range free, and our cattle always have space and food and water. I can tell that they are happy with the arrangement because don’t try to leave (let’s face it, if cattle don’t want to be in your paddock, a little fence doesn’t stop them) and they come to me for food every day. It is a ridiculous suggestion that these animals are suffering, so veganism is not the only answer to animal welfare. Taking responsibility for your meat and where it comes from (either producing your own or meeting the farmer yourself) is the solution.
This video has only strengthed my motivation to reduce my meat consumption and source more ethically farmed products, which is timely really as I just discovered Taranaki farm in Woodend (VIC) which as it turns out is open for farm tours and talks this weekend with Joel Salatin of Food Inc fame. Praise to Animals Australia for a great video and praise to you Gavin for sharing with your readers.
Melanie
I went totally meat free after the live trade fiasco last year. We have pet cows and pet chickens and lovely eggs and after wiping my eyes (its that song from West Side Story -had me crying back in the 1960’s when it first came out) – I donated. We need people like Animals Australia to keep an eye on what goes on behind closed doors. Joy
It is disturbing how disconnected we have become with the food chain, hasn’t it Gavin.
I was a veggie for sometime but more recently joined the meat eaters again when I realised eating ethically didn’t mean no meat. The simple key was to know where it comes from. If you don’t then don’t eat it. And that goes for all food, not just meat.