Bad Day for Animal Welfare

This past Sunday was a little rough. We woke up, made pancakes, slowly got ready to go to Plosk's Grams' 85th birthday party. I figured there would be tons of food there as there always is. In fact I haven't been to a party with zero vegetarian options in well- I can't remember the last time. Of course there was potato salad, fruit salad and desert, but there was no sort of pasta or anything resembling a main dish without something animal that had gone the way of dead. They did the sandwich thing but they were all meat. A roast vegetable sandwich or a cheese sandwich works just fine. And it's not like the omnivorous don't eat veggie food because lots of time, it's one of the first things to go. In any case, I left the party to go to cafe 68 for a lovely roast veggie wrap. I brought my bag back to the party and ate it there.

So, that by itself doesn't make it a bad day for animal welfare. A good friend of mine and I had a discussion. It was on where our food comes from- namely factory farming. The conversation started after she said that she saw like 12 baby dead shaven stiff lambs being brought into a Greek restaurant and it made her not want to eat lamb. Understandable. She also said that she won't eat veal. Now that's great. I'm glad veal has a bad name as far as meat goes. I'm glad that many don't want to eat it. I think the reasoning is a little insane. But whatever, it's a score for animal welfare. However what people don't get is that veal calves are treated the same way as all other farm animals. It is not worse torture. It is simply torturing a baby which is what people really have a problem with. But perhaps that veal calf got off easy. He didn't have to spend his whole life being tortured, just a few weeks. Questions of ethics.

Now, why was my convo with my friend disheartening to me? Well, she said she didn't care if a chicken was tortured so she could eat a cheap egg. Well, that is the first time someone ever said that they blatantly don't care. Sure I've heard, "I don't want to know" or they care but not enough to change their habits, but never, "I don't care at all." So, I tried a different angle. I spoke about how crappy factory farmed food is for people- how you can be served a downed cow or a diseased animal. Lets get into hormones that are bad. Nope, didn't work. So, then we move onto environmental concerns: ground water being polluted. Wasted resources. Still no bite. Then big business driving the small farmer into oblivion. That got a small bite but still not enough. Ok, human concerns: The amount of food it takes to feed one cow up until it's the proper size and weight to be slaughtered could feed so many more people than one cut up cow. If we're just talking about curing world hunger, lets feed some of our plants to humans instead of to tortured cows. How is that as an idea. She then said she doesn't have the knowledge to argue with me so she didn't. But, she also just didn't care. A cheap egg was more important than all of those concerns. Perhaps she thought I was a crazy animal rights activist and that I was spinning truths. I said to Plosk later that the beauty of being an animal welfare advocate is that no lying is involved. There is no need to exaggerate. IT'S ALL TRUE!!!! So, yes, I found my conversation truly saddening. We all live in this world. Human, animal, plant, whatever- we all have the same goal and that is to procreate and drive the species forward. By giving ourselves cheap meat, we are killing much of what surrounds us which honestly will eventually come back to bite us in the ass.

So, that's my rant on my sad conversation. Am I a bleeding heart. Perhaps. But I can feel good that I help limit the suffering that takes place in this world. That is something that I have and I take pride in it. I'm not arguing the world become vegetarian or vegan(although I would love it). I'm simply saying, lets do what is best for everyone instead of looking at the small picture. A cheap carton of eggs or eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken...Is it really worth all that suffering/environmental hazards/human starvation and dangerous labor?