I think it's because of the connection we have with certain animals. A more personal connection. And of course that we're not used to it. That's why a lot of people also have a problem with the fact that some people eat bunnies, cats and/or dogs.
^^ All meant in general of course.
I don't think it's a very justified attitude, though. All animals deserve life equally. Who are we to say which ones should end up on our plate or should end up as our beloved pet? Cows feel pain, just as much so as dogs, yet millions and millions of them are slaughtered for our hamburgers every year. It's all so sick to me.
---------- Post added at 12:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 AM ----------
This is something I put together for a school presentation...
Veganism – The Solution
Raising animals to eat is the most inefficient, wasteful, and environmentally destructive method of producing food imaginable. This may surprise you, but we grow far more food to feed the animals we eat, than to feed ourselves. Farm animals consume 80% of the corn, 80% of the grain, and 95% of the oats grown in the US. 87% of our total agricultural land is dedicated to raising the animals we eat. That’s almost half of the entire land mass in the US. Almost 90% of deforestation is due to our appetite for beef. To date, over 260 million acres of forest have been destroyed to provide cattle with grazing land, and another acre disappears every 8 seconds. The massive amount of crops grown to feed livestock in water pastures consumes over half the fresh water supply in the US. It takes 12,000 gallons of fresh water to produce just 1 pound of beef, vs. 60 gallons to produce a pound of potatoes. 12 miles of the San Joaquin river in California is completely dry because water has been diverted to grow crops for farm animals. In some areas, so much water has been diverted from hydroelectric dams that nuclear power plants have had to be constructed to make up for the loss of power. The average American uses just 106 gallons of water a day for domestic needs. However, if they eat a quarter pound hamburger, their daily consumption of water increases by 3,000 gallons. In the year 2000, the average American consumed 69 pounds of beef and a total of 255 pounds of meat. By giving up meat, you’d be saving over a million gallons of fresh water every year. If you added to the cost of beef just the water subsidies alone, hamburger would cost $35 a pound. Instead of turning off your lights, recycling paper and taking showers, reducing meat consumption is the best way to conserve our fresh water supplies. Our diet is not only using huge amounts of water, but it’s actually depleting our fresh water supplies. The largest source of fresh water in the world, Ogallala Aquifer, will be completely dry in less than 50 years. Once it dries up, the bread basket of the US will turn into a dustland. That’s the legacy our diet will leave to our children.
Eating animals not only consumes half our fresh water, but their excrement pollutes the other half. In fact, farm animals produce 130 times more waste than people do. And yet, not one feedlot or farm in America is required to have a proper sewage system. It’s become so bad that animal waste on the Mississippi River has made an area the size of New Jersey totally uninhabitable to marine life. It’s called the Dead Zone. E-coli, salmonella, listeria, etc, all boil down to the same thing for the consumer... there’s animal excrement in your food. It’s become so bad that e-coli is now the leading cause of kidney failure in among American children. Modern meat is so burden with animal waste that you could actually clean it in your toilet. It’s safer eating a carrot anywhere but in your kitchen, if meat has been there. American packaged meat now carries a warning label telling consumers to wash everything that’s even come into contact with it. The reason you have to cook it so long is to make sure the animal excrement is safe for you to eat. It’s no longer a question of whether there’s manure in your meat, it’s a question of how to deal with it. The meat industry’s answer is not to get rid of it, but to nuke the whole package with radiation. 80% of the meat produced and “sanitized” in the US is bathed in carbon monoxide to keep it looking pink and “fresh” for up to two weeks after it should look brown and rotten. Meat is merely dead muscle, mind you, and flesh begins to decompose the moment it dies. Now all you have to worry about is getting used to the taste of a mouthful of bacteria from fried farm animal faeces... unless, of course, the hamburger you eat from McDonalds isn’t cooked properly.
We’re also depleting our oceans of marine life, and setting a trend that some say will end in the result of the wholescale collapse of marine ecosystems within 40 years. It’s said by these researchers that unless something extravagant and very large-scale is done very soon, there will be no “edible” fish left in the sea by 2048. Using sophisticated technology to sweet the oceans with massive nets, we’re now taking more fish from the ocean than can reproduce, and wreaking havoc on the very foundation of life on Earth. The irony is that farm animals eat far more fish than people do. In fact, half of the world’s fish catch is fed to livestock. As it turns out, therefore, the best first step you can take to help save the ocean is to stop eating farm animals. On top of all this, we’re also eating up biological diversity because of our appetite for beef. For decades, the US government had a program designed to totally exterminate wolves in order to protect cattle. Currently the US government slaughters 1 and a half million wild animals every year for corporate interests... to protect the cows that will soon end up in our cheeseburgers. This is yet another government subsidy that benefits a few large corporations. Badgers, beavers, black bears, bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, opossums, porcupines, striped skunks, and timber wolves are just some of the victims.
In summary, an animal based diet:
- Consumes 1/3 of raw materials and fossil fuels.
- Wastes half of fresh water and pollutes the other half.
- Depletes fresh water.
- Poisons food supply.
- Destroys topsoil.
- Destroys forests. 80% of the land cut down in the Amazon rainforest is done so to clear land for cattle pasture.
- Destroys biodiversity.
- Destroys species.
- Destroys the lives of 140 billion “food” animals and fish a year. 98% of all animals abused and killed are those we eat.
“... the less the consumer knows about what’s happening before the meat hits the plate, the better.”
- Peter R. Cheeke, Professor of Animal Science.
“Based on my experience in Los Angeles, my advice to the public is to not eat meat”.
- Gregorio Natavidad, Meat Inspector.
“I don’t eat chicken anymore. I won’t eat it. I won’t allow it in my house.”
- Rodney Leonard, US Poultry Inspector.
“Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory.”
- Hog Farm Management.
Further reading:
ADAPTT :: Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow >> The Animal Kill Counter
