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Originally posted by Cowgirl Jack:
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Originally posted by Matt Kennedy:
Sure, that's overkill--- but when you really consider it, slaughterhouse animals and Holocaust victims DO/DID suffer similar fates (anyone who thinks otherwise should find out in detail what goes on in your average slaughterhouse, and you'll see that the analogy isn't very far off). It's just that most people refuse to even remotely consider the interests of non-human "food animals" in relation to humans.
Find out in detail what happen in the concentration camps. Ever been to one? I went to Dachau. And I've been in some poultry factories. What I saw in the poultry factories was nothing compare to a former concentration camp. My friend's grandparents survived that hell, thank you very much. They, along with my friend, were horrified to hear of this campaign. That's placing chickens at their level. That's placing Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and every victim of Hilter at the level of meat birds. What fucking gaul that took! There campagin is now having the reverse effect -- the majority of people do not like to see other innocent people compare to stock animals. Saying someone has the intelligence of a rabbit is one thing, placing Holocaust victims on the same plate as some birds is insane.
I know all about concentration camps (my late grandfather was married to a Holocaust survivor, and it's a subject that I've also read a great deal about over the years), Jacklyn. And I still find intensive, factory farming to be very similar to a Holocaust era concentration camp. You--- and so many others out there, unfortunately--- just have a problem with considering the interests of sentient beings that are non-human. Sure, humans have greater mental capacities than animals, but it's not a question of intelligence--- it's a question of suffering. Can animals suffer? The answer, quite obviously, is an emphatic yes. Humans can suffer and animals can suffer--- among many other things, we have that in common. The fact that animals have lesser mental abilities than us gives us no moral right to inflict pain, suffering, and death on them--- and if you think otherwise then I think you better stop to consider WHY you think so. Is it because you enjoy the taste of their flesh? Is it because that new pair of leather pumps look so bitchin' on ya? Is it because "people have always done it this way"? All of the above and then some, yes? These factory farms are fucking beyond barbaric. Every day millions of animals suffer and die to become our food and clothing, and their suffering was entirely unnecessary. People treat animals--- sensitive, feeling creatures--- as if they were inorganic, unfeeling raw materials to be used at our whim and fancy. Every day the most important interests of animals (the animal's interest in a life free of unnecessary suffering and death) are over-rided and denied in order for man to satisfy very trivial interests in comparison: hamburgers, steaks, leather coats, shoes, etc. It is undeniable that man can live healthy, satisfying lives without hamburgers and leather shoes, but animals don't do too well without their flesh attached to their bones. A vegan or vegetarian diet is perfectly healthy--- leading nutritionists have agreed upon this for decades--- AND it's plenty tasty (I know this for a fact as I'm a big "foodie" and always have been [wink] ), too. And we have an abundance of synthetic materials that are just as effective as leather and fur. So why subject animals to suffering and death when it is so completely unnecessary? I'm willing to cocede animals being used for testing new drugs (although huge reform is needed in this field), but what we are allowing to happen every day in these factory farms is just plain wrong--- not to mention environmentally unsound and horribly wasteful. The sheer waste of natural resources and completely edible crops that goes into "raising" just a pound of steak is staggering! The same time, effort, and resources that go into your average steak could usually produce up to 10 times as much vegetables or grains. Are you aware that the food (grains, oats, etc, etc.,etc.) used to feed factory farmed animals in this country alone could feed the entire world with quite a bit left over?!!? Imagine that: hunger and starvation could be eliminated if we all ate a vegan or vegetarian diet (provided we share/export leftover food from our crops to the less fortunate countries, of course). Something to consider when you take into account the fact that approximately 24,000 people per day die of malnutrition or other hunger-related causes throughout the world.

You are so outraged for these "lesser beasts" to be given even remotely the same consideration as humans. Those "meat-birds" you called them when referring to chickens--- your lack of compassion and concern for a feeling, breathing being is so evident in those words. And why? Why are animals given so little importance when compared to man? Because they will never be capable of doing Algebra or questioning the meaning of life? Bullshit. It's because might makes right--- it's because we HAVE to trivialize and lessen the importance of their lives in our minds in order to continue allowing them to suffer and die so that we can eat them and wear them and use them for "sport" and entertainment. It gets harder to look at yourself in the mirror once you start to question your relationship with these so-called lesser beasts, doesn't it? It's much easier to criticize and write PETA (and other groups dedicated to trying to end the unnecessary suffering and death of animals througout the world) off as a bunch of "loonies" than it is to stop and consider your own personal, moral/ethical responsibility in regard to those "meat-birds" and "food animals".