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Carrot Juice is Murder

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Carrot Juice is Murder


Giggler01
Times Writer

Since Merchant's article on Cruelty to Animals, I have noticed a lot of talk about why it is right to kill animals, or not to kill them. I feel, quite honestly, that a lot of people don't really understand, or are going about vegetarianism the wrong way, or for the wrong reasons. Let me explain.

One of the most frequent (and in my opinion, most ignorant) questions that I am asked is, "If you were stranded all alone somewhere, would you eat meat?" If you ask this question, you will probably get an answer that goes something like this....

"Firstly, I don't plan on being stranded anytime soon. But if I was, I would make the decision then." And then the person would look at me with one of these strange looks, because usually this is not what they are expecting, so I go a little more into detail.

"I don't feel that the worst thing is that we kill animals to eat them. It's survival methods. So it's mostly how we treat animals before we kill them."

And then of course I will be asked to go into more detail, and what I tell people, usually comes as a bit of a surprise to them. I won't bore you with my long conversations, though. Instead, I'll summarize it.

Nowadays, pretty much everything on farms is done by machinery. What the farmer used to do, can all be accomplished with little or no actual contact with the animals. A farm is not what you imagine it to be anymore.

Many animals are pumped up with steroids and drugs to make them bigger faster. They may not get the chance to build up much muscle before getting killed. Calves killed for veal are a good example of this.

Many of these animals are crowded onto warehouse floors. When Merchant says that R. MacDonald is the king of all animal evil, she means that each of his chickens are given less space then a piece of 8 1/2 by 11 paper. They can barely move!

Because of these space limitations, and lack of fresh air, many animals will start to go insane. Some farmers will de-beak fully conscious chickens using hot blades, so that they won't peck each other to death. Pigs may also have their teeth moved removed so that they don't bite each other's tails.

I don't have a problem with people who hunt reasonably. What does this mean. If someone hunts wild animals, without making them suffer and then uses their meat to eat, that's okay with me. As long as it doesn't go to waste. If a person hunts to hang heads on their walls, that is not okay by me.

And, just for the record, vegetarians don't only eat salad! I, for one, eat a lot of East Asian food, where a lot of the major religions support being vegetarian.

Anyway, my dad says I'm a bit of a hypocrite because a great song in my opinion is "Carrot Juice is Murder" by the Canadian comedy group The Arrogant Worms. Don't ask.

l8er gators,
Giggler01

 

 

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