My mission statement~

I intend on "trying" to live a life that is about: not putting in my mouth things that are bad for me or have come from an animal that was treated cruely while alive on this earth and during slaughter, creating lasting fond memories for my children and grandchildren, adventure, challenging myself, respect others regardless of species, race, color or creed, taking risks, having fun, being grateful, respecting myself & my body, being authentically myself, taking responsibility for my actions, being proactive, being a problem solver, taking action, introspection, transition, change, honesty, growth, loving & helping others, having integrity, doing my best, being easy on myself, enjoying this world, becoming well read, seeing the wonder of it all and never allowing fear to hold me back!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

My first serious post-

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated"-Mohandas K. Gandhi

I hope all my new bloggy friends still love me after this. I'm just trying to stay true to myself. I see this displayed on other popular blogs so I hope I am not burned at the stake??? Smile???




Disclaimer-While this post is passionate, it is not meant to offend anyone-For those of you that raise animals for food and are kind, compassionate and humane to your animals, this is not about you:)

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes

In response to a recent article about KFC and cruelty:
You can Google it, look it up on youtube and read this article in the NYTimes

It's easy not to think about where your meat comes from when visiting modern grocery stores where the meat is clean and neatly wrapped or when ordering at your favorite restaurant. People for the "ethical treatment" of animals and myself are not necessarily promoting not eating meat! Although many choose not to eat meat as a sacrifice and statement for all the animals that are so cruelly treated while being raised for food, they are just lobbying for these poor animals to be treated with respect and dignity while alive on this earth. Think about the differences:

A. (Common practices today on large farms) Animals are born in confined, overcrowded buildings, where they never touch grass with their feet or roam free in a pasture. When they are still little tiny babies wanting their mommies, they are shipped in scary, overcrowded semi's to other farms. Then they live their entire life in an overcrowded and stinky building. They can barely move in a complete circle when full grown. As demonstrated in the pic above. They never roam free in pastures. They are then shipped once again in over crowded and scary semi's to the slaughter house. When they get to the slaughter house, watch out! This is the cruelest of all. They can sense their impending doom and become panicky. There are several cruel and unnecessary way's they slaughter these animals. Just Google it or visit a slaughter house sometime. They can slit their throat while they are alive, electrocute them alive, and many other horrendously painful ways. (This is the extremely watered down version)

B. (Easily attainable new (old) ways)Raise the animals on farms with lots of grazing in fields. Gather up the animals when the time comes and gas them. It is safe, pain free and non threatening to the animals. Just like humans get when getting surgery. This is called producing animals for food in a non-cruel way. Easy! So why not? The last paragraph is why so many people, who learn the facts and then take a step to care about animals, get so upset and frustrated.......because it's not hard to treat these innocent creatures with kindness during their lives on this earth! Plain and simple. The main argument against a more humane way of production states "it takes more money to do it that way"! We have become a society in which it cares more about the dollar then it does about the treatment of innocent creatures who feel pain, anxiety and sadness. You can also hear long arguments about how it is more complicated then how it is described in B. It doesn't matter how complicated it is. These harmless and innocent animals have to be treated with kindness while being raised for human consumption. Period!

Many quote Genesis 1:26: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Many claim this gives them the right to do whatever they want to animals.

The Book: Dominion makes the most profound arguments and logical statements I have ever read before. I try at living by this statement taken out of that book: "When a man’s love of finery clouds his moral judgment, that is vanity. When he lets a demanding palate make his moral choices, that is gluttony. When he ascribes the divine will to his own whims, that is pride. And when he gets angry at being reminded of animal suffering that his own daily choices might help avoid, that is moral cowardice"-MATTHEW SCULLY Am I perfect? Do I achieve my goal 100% of the time? Of course not. "Try" is the operative word here:)

I have had an overwhelming sensitivity for the treatment of animals since I was a little girl! I have lived on a ranch, been to many farms and seen this first hand! I was raised in and still live in a farm community.

This post is not intended to condemn people who eat meat. It is simply meant to be thought provoking to many loving and bright people. "It is just about being kind and thoughtful to creatures that cannot speak or stand up for themselves my friends"


Spread the love! Peace!

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To lighten your mood-read yesterday's post:)

8 comments:

Mental P Mama said...

I couldn't agree more, and am doing my part to support free range and grass fed organizations. It is hard, though, and harder to think about it. Thoughtful post....

Adventure girl said...

Thank you mental p mama-
I tried my best to get the "right" point across:)
Your nice comment means alot!

Anonymous said...

My husband's half brother has a confinement hog operation. Frankly it is not smelly or over crowded. But I do agree that free range is much better, it just means of course that your meat will be much more expensive as well. Many cannot afford that. Those that can, should.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I hear ya on this post. I don't know what to say about it all... I was raised a vegetarian, although I am not now... but could be. I eat very little meat now and I don't care if I ever ate meat again... but my husbands LOVES it and his uncle has a meat market... and so I understand that their livelihood depends on meat, and folks eating it.
I would love to only buy free range meat, but sadly, I can't afford to feed a family of six on it.
I am a animal lover and don't want any animals mistreated. Ever. So... I have to agree that when they are cared for in those kinds of conditions, it makes me mad.
It was a good post. More people should be this deep!
Thanks for your insight.

Adventure girl said...

afeatheradrift-Thanks for stopping by and commenting. It's good to know your brother in law runs a confinement that doesn't have the normal conditions of most.

haffnewie-Wow! I cannot believe our continued similarities (spelling?)

I understand the cost thing. That is too bad. I am just hoping for people at least to speak up and be informed about animal cruelty. There is just no sense in it!

Anonymous said...

Did you also know that thousands of horses are sent to slaughter each day for meat that they ship off to countries to be sold for consumption? Even babies? That is were most race horses go when the owners are finished with them. There are lots of articals about this on horse rescue sites. :(

Adventure girl said...

Sarah-I know! Isn't it the saddest, most deplorable thing you can imagine?! I don't know how these people have a soul or sleep at night!

My nervous system is so sensetive that I can barely think of it but force my to for the sack of all the poor animals tortured.

Thank you for commenting!

Paula said...

Amen, sister!!
I can always tell what kind of person anyone is just by seeing how they treat their animals...
it says alot about someone if they try hard make their animals as happy and as comfortable as possible!