The images
in the following program
are highly sensitive
and may be
as disturbing to viewers
as they were to us.
However,
we have to show the truth
about cruelty to animals,
praying that
you will help to stop it.
I don’t know
how to scream it
from the rooftops that
people will actually
start to get it.
But we need to get it
because what we’re
doing to animals today is
absolutely unjustifiable.
And anyone that
gets to know any of these
animals as individuals,
as thinking,
feeling individuals could
never be comfortable
consuming these products.
In today’s
Stop Animal Cruelty
we examine the sickening
truth behind meat,
dairy and eggs
with registered dietitian,
nutritionist, author and
lecturer Brenda Davis
from Kelowna,
British Columbia, Canada.
Ms. Davis is a vegan,
and a past chair of
the Vegetarian Nutrition
Dietetic Practice Group
of the American
Dietetic Association.
She has co-authored
seven best-selling books
including:
“Becoming Vegan,”
“The New
Becoming Vegetarian,”
“Defeating Diabetes,”
“Dairy-free and Delicious”
and the newly released,
“Becoming Raw.”
I was your basic
conventional dietitian
30 years ago.
I was schooled
in traditional nutrition.
I’m Canadian.
I taught Canada’s
Food Guide,
with four food groups,
one of which is meat.
I became a vegan dietitian
because of
this very issue.
What would have ever
possessed me to go from
a basic registered
dietitian/ community
nutritionist teaching
Canada’s Food Guide
to a vegan activist?
I’ll tell you the story.
I lived in northern
Ontario at the time, and
one of my best friends
who was actually
the best man at my wedding
was on his way
deer hunting.
And he was going to stop
by for a little visit
on his way.
And I remember thinking
to myself, “How can I
make him feel so guilty
that he won’t shoot
that deer?”
When he arrived
I said to him,
“How can you feel good
about taking a weapon
like a gun and going and
shooting such a beautiful
innocent animal.
This animal has
no defense against you.
It’s not a sport.
Sports you have same
equipment for both teams.
(Competition)
There’s not the same
equipment here.”
And I said, “It’s not fair.
It’s not fair.”
And what he said to me
changed the course of
my career and my life.
The friend pointed out
that even though Brenda
did not shoot animals,
she was personally
responsible
for killing them
every time she went
to a grocery store and
bought the neatly packed
corpses covered in
cellophane for her meals.
And he silenced me.
And at that point
I decided that it was time
that I took responsibility
for the food that was
sitting on my plate.
And I started to learn
about what has happened
to our system
of animal agriculture.
What Brenda discovered
next was shocking
beyond belief.
Today 90% of
the animals we eat
in North America are
raised in what we call
a Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operation,
C-A-F-O’s .
And we are looking at
10 billion land animals
a year, 17 billion
sea animals a year
in North America alone.
We can’t even wrap
our brains around
those kind of numbers.
Cows, pigs, chickens
and other innocent and
gentle animals trapped
in these CAFOs
are caged up
or jammed together,
deprived of even the
most basic of necessities,
drugged, mutilated,
and violently abused
before they are hauled
to the slaughterhouse
and viciously killed.
According to
the Food and Agriculture
Organization
of the United Nations,
approximately 58 billion
animals were killed for
food worldwide in 2008.
This is a conservative
estimate, as it does not
take into account
the high death toll
of aquatic animals,
wild animals displaced
by animal agriculture,
and the staggering
number of animals
that were victims of the
factory farming system
that died for reasons
other than slaughter.
US government statistics
reflect that nationally
1 in 10 farm animals die
of stress-induced disease
or injury even before
they reach the abattoir.
How can human beings
justify enslaving
these animals
in the way that we do?
They are literally robbed
of everything
that they need to function
physically and mentally
to be the animals that
they are meant to be.
Animals used
for food production
are no different from us
or our beloved
dog or cat companions.
They too experience
profound emotions
like joy and sadness
and deeply desire to live
in peace and tranquility.
Pigs would live 10 to 15
years, much like dogs.
Their intelligence has
been rated as equivalent
to a three to five
year old child.
Dogs have been rated
about a two-and-a-half
year old child,
so (they are) even
smarter than dogs.
Our bright and
affectionate porcine
friends are callously
treated as mere tools of
production by the factory
farming system.
In Confined Animal
or Concentrated Animal
Feeding Operations
(there) are 100,000
animals in one building.
They never see
the light of day.
They have a stall so small
they can’t lay down
nor turn around.
They’re on slanted floors
so their excrement
goes out automatically.
The stench is so bad;
the dust and dander
and ammonia is so bad!
These animals have
smellers (noses) that are
200 times more sensitive
than ours.
We have to put a gas mask
just to go in the place
and manage it.
These animals
live four to six months.
They’re pumped with
hormones and antibiotics.
When they’re just
little tiny babies
their ears are docked,
their tails are cut off,
they’re castrated...
The pigs are forced to
live in obscene filth and
are in pain all their lives.
The journey
to the slaughterhouse
is yet another
ghastly nightmare for
these frightened souls.
We’re literally trying
to produce the greatest
amount of meat
for the least amount
of money, with
no consideration for
the animal whatsoever.
We treat them like
they’re an inanimate object.
And then at the time
of slaughter, they’re four
to six months of age.
We truck them off and
millions die being frozen
to the sides of these trucks.
They get to the
slaughterhouse and
50% of them have
crippling bone diseases
because of the condition
of the slanted floor.
Even as babies,
four to six months old,
70% have pneumonia
at the time of slaughter.
The (production) line
speeds are now so fast,
we put through about
1,100 of them per hour.
Ten to 30% of these
animals are improperly
stunned and skinned
and boiled alive.
Now how we
as human beings can
justify treating these
amazing creatures
this way…. If we raised
one of these animals
in our homes,
they’re like a family dog.
What differentiates
the dog from the pig?
Nothing!
Except that
we call them food.
Sir Paul McCartney,
a former member of
the Beatles,
famously once said,
“If slaughterhouses
had glass walls, everyone
would be vegetarian.”
Somehow whatever
is tradition in our culture
is somehow okay.
You know,
slavery was okay
when it was tradition.
It doesn’t make it okay.
Nothing will ever
make this okay.
This is not okay
and the only reason
our culture is thinking
it’s okay is because
we are so far removed
from that system.
You know, it’s all behind
locked doors.
If people actually could
see what’s going on,
I don’t know they’d be
willing to eat that meat.
And the thing
to remember is this:
that we are in a situation
in North America where
we have plenty of food,
plenty of food.
We’ve no need to be
consuming the dead
bodies of these animals,
who are tortured animals.
None!
What many people
do not realize is that
the horror and death
we see in the meat industry
is the fate of
every factory-farmed
dairy cow
and egg-laying hen.
Both of these industries,
the dairy industry
and the egg industry
are absolutely brutal
industries in my view.
They’re horrible.
Take a look at the way
that these animals
are treated.
Eggs, it’s just insane.
The egg layers have
space (in their cage)
about the size not even
as big as a piece of paper.
They need four times
that just to spread
their wings.
At hatcheries that supply
egg-laying and chicken
meat-producing factory
farms with birds,
male chicks are
considered to have
no value as they
neither can lay eggs
nor be profitably raised
for meat.
Chicks that are born,
if they’re female
they go on to
the egg laying industry.
If they’re male,
they are ground up alive
and go back into the feed
or they’re suffocated
in garbage bags.
They’re treated like
a piece of garbage.
It’s just beyond belief.
That’s from
an ethical perspective.
We slaughter one and
a half million little baby
male chicks every hour
because they’re useless
to the egg industry.
(Right.)
From an ecological
perspective, same thing,
it’s all bad news.
From a human health
perspective, it defies
rationality to assume
that any species
would require the milk of
another species
for their survival.
What a great blunder
of nature or of God
or whatever,
that would have been!
Imagine dogs
needing the milk of cats,
or we need cow’s milk
as much as
we need moose milk,
deer milk, dog milk,
or cat milk.
It just doesn’t make sense.
Cow’s milk is a good
source of calcium,
it’s a very rich source
of calcium; so is the milk
of every other mammal.
It doesn’t make it essential
for human health.
What can each
and every one of us do
to shut down
the barbarous production
of meat, dairy, and eggs
and save the precious
lives of billions of
animals worldwide?
Number one
is just absolutely
do not consume any
animal products and see
that you’re not depriving
yourself of anything.
Make a fabulous
vegan feast and share it
at work, bring it to work
and show people
how wonderful
vegan food can be.
Bring your family
to a vegan restaurant.
You know, just share
vegan in a loving,
respectful way
with the people
that you associate with.
And I think that’s
the very best thing any of us
can do for the animals
if we’re vegan,
is to be an amazing
example of vegan.
Be such an amazing example
of health that people say,
“What do you eat,
you look so healthy?”
Be fit, be joyful and
share wonderful food.
And I think that’s
the most powerful tool
any of us have is our
own personal example.
Indeed, as consumers,
we have the power
to make daily purchasing
decisions that prevent
or continue
cruelty to animals.
We can make a wise and
compassionate choice
each time we sit down
to eat; to live and let live.
Brenda Davis,
we applaud you advocacy
for the animals
imprisoned in CAFOs
and elsewhere and raising
public awareness through
your books and lectures
that kindness to animals
is what humanity needs
to practice right now
by adopting the loving
plant-based diet.
For more details
on Brenda Davis,
please visit
www.BrendaDavisRD.com
Books by Ms. Davis
are available at
www.Amazon.com
Thoughtful viewers,
this concludes
this week’s Stop
Animal Cruelty program.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May all beings
forever live in happiness
and peace.