The Oppression of Animals
Alex Caplin
The modern day meat industry exploits animals, and infringes on their rights through torture and unjust treatment, purely to accommodate human indulgence. Not only do people abuse livestock’s inherent right to life and liberty, but they promote and abuse the privilege of eating meat as well.
In the past, meat consumption was limited, but today it’s showing up everywhere. United States citizens consume the 2nd most amount of meat in the world next to citizens of Luxembourg (google). It’s become a societal norm for U.S. citizens to consume meat during every meal while other countries generally do not. According to records from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Americans ate an average of 279.1 pounds of meat per person in 2005—154.1 pounds more than the USDA recommended annual maximum of 125 pounds” (vegetarian.procon), meaning that people do not only consume meat as an energy resource, but they indulge in it often.
Not succumbing to this stigma means conserving life and leaving less of a global footprint by simply not consuming animal products. When animals are killed, their lives are terminated permanently, but human consumption of the animal is only temporary. It is unethical to superfluously end lives rather than live in harmony. Humans can live without meat, and obviously animals can live without human interference, yet when the species mix homicidal behavior occurs, and needs to stop.
Each death should mean something or be respected on some level. It’s sadistic that humans are killing livestock on such a large scale purely for temporary indulgence. If more people made the conscious decision to cut animal products out of their diets, countless murders would be prevented. The meat industry is corrupt in the sense that animals are raised purely for their end result, meat. Each animal is basically born into the industry, and is forced to endure horrible treatment in unfit environments until they are killed off, simply to generate profit. It is sick how much this industry degrades the value of life. Surely murder is wrong, and illegal, yet society condones the murder of animals purely because they are nonhuman.
The meat industry often markets using rhetoric that the public doesn’t understand to trick them into purchasing. Vegan advocate Gary Yourofsky says, “We like to use euphemisms., That’s why these atrocities take place, you say [beef], when its cow [flesh]”, he continued to say “That cow flesh belonged to another living being. Where do humans get off owning and controlling other living beings”(Yourofsky). Humans are incapable of treating animals with the respect they deserve, yet most humans are also unable to murder animals themselves. If people had to gather their own meat by physically slicing off a chunk of an animal, rather than buying it nice and packaged up at the store, many people would be hesitant to consume meat due to its inhumanity.
The meat industry works hand in hand with American households to eliminate all sense of empathy, liberty and equality towards animals. Why do we open our homes to kittens, and puppies, but choose to slaughter animals such as piglets and ducklings? Where do we draw the line between those animals we deem fair to eat and those we do not? Treating animals unjustly violates the ideas of philosopher John Rawls, the author of Justice as Fairness. If we were to apply John Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance to this circumstance, we would determine that we should not kill animals because as a blind party, it would be unreasonable to love an animal such as a dog, while killing other animals such as cows or chickens. Rawls denotes, “Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of a whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the form of life of which animals are capable clearly impose duties of compassion and humanity in their case”. Clearly, our species is incapable of extending compassion and humanity towards members of other species.
Human logic with meat production is extremely skewed; animals are cruelly forced to live in disgusting conditions where they contract diseases, infections and are either fattened up to the point where they are unable to move, or starved them until they are driven to cannibalism. This is torture, and should be outlawed immediately.
Even slaughter houses have regulation, yet they are often ignored. Slaughter houses kill the animals with methods such as stunning (shooting them in a head with a metal bolt), bleeding (slicing the major blood vessels in the necks of livestock causing them to bleed out), decapitation, or anal electrocution. In kosher slaughter houses, cows are forced into a very crammed cage, while a machine approaches and rips out their tracheas causing them to lose brain function, and bleed out (Earthlings Doc). Vegan activist Gary Yourofsky states, “If you went to the nearest cow or chicken slaughterhouse, and removed the animals and replaced them with Jews, you’ve recreated Auschwitz, you have a building created to dismantle, torture, and murder innocent beings”(Yourofsky). If more people were aware of the inhumane practices used to murder animals, they might be more in support of animal rights.
Humans should have the decency to honor the lives of animals, as they would other humans. Wikipedia defines animal rights as the belief that, “non-human animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives, and that their most basic interests – such as an interest in not suffering – should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings”(“Animal Rights”). As humans we ethically have no right to control the lives of other beings, yet we act unaccordingly.
Bottom line is, animals do not receive even their most basic rights to life, liberty, and comfort. These creatures deserve outstanding rights, or to simply regain the rights stolen from them by the human species. Animals need liberty, and we need to be their advocates. The meat industry treats animals corruptly and we need to be the ones to put a stop on the entire practice.
Alex Caplin
The modern day meat industry exploits animals, and infringes on their rights through torture and unjust treatment, purely to accommodate human indulgence. Not only do people abuse livestock’s inherent right to life and liberty, but they promote and abuse the privilege of eating meat as well.
In the past, meat consumption was limited, but today it’s showing up everywhere. United States citizens consume the 2nd most amount of meat in the world next to citizens of Luxembourg (google). It’s become a societal norm for U.S. citizens to consume meat during every meal while other countries generally do not. According to records from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Americans ate an average of 279.1 pounds of meat per person in 2005—154.1 pounds more than the USDA recommended annual maximum of 125 pounds” (vegetarian.procon), meaning that people do not only consume meat as an energy resource, but they indulge in it often.
Not succumbing to this stigma means conserving life and leaving less of a global footprint by simply not consuming animal products. When animals are killed, their lives are terminated permanently, but human consumption of the animal is only temporary. It is unethical to superfluously end lives rather than live in harmony. Humans can live without meat, and obviously animals can live without human interference, yet when the species mix homicidal behavior occurs, and needs to stop.
Each death should mean something or be respected on some level. It’s sadistic that humans are killing livestock on such a large scale purely for temporary indulgence. If more people made the conscious decision to cut animal products out of their diets, countless murders would be prevented. The meat industry is corrupt in the sense that animals are raised purely for their end result, meat. Each animal is basically born into the industry, and is forced to endure horrible treatment in unfit environments until they are killed off, simply to generate profit. It is sick how much this industry degrades the value of life. Surely murder is wrong, and illegal, yet society condones the murder of animals purely because they are nonhuman.
The meat industry often markets using rhetoric that the public doesn’t understand to trick them into purchasing. Vegan advocate Gary Yourofsky says, “We like to use euphemisms., That’s why these atrocities take place, you say [beef], when its cow [flesh]”, he continued to say “That cow flesh belonged to another living being. Where do humans get off owning and controlling other living beings”(Yourofsky). Humans are incapable of treating animals with the respect they deserve, yet most humans are also unable to murder animals themselves. If people had to gather their own meat by physically slicing off a chunk of an animal, rather than buying it nice and packaged up at the store, many people would be hesitant to consume meat due to its inhumanity.
The meat industry works hand in hand with American households to eliminate all sense of empathy, liberty and equality towards animals. Why do we open our homes to kittens, and puppies, but choose to slaughter animals such as piglets and ducklings? Where do we draw the line between those animals we deem fair to eat and those we do not? Treating animals unjustly violates the ideas of philosopher John Rawls, the author of Justice as Fairness. If we were to apply John Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance to this circumstance, we would determine that we should not kill animals because as a blind party, it would be unreasonable to love an animal such as a dog, while killing other animals such as cows or chickens. Rawls denotes, “Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of a whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the form of life of which animals are capable clearly impose duties of compassion and humanity in their case”. Clearly, our species is incapable of extending compassion and humanity towards members of other species.
Human logic with meat production is extremely skewed; animals are cruelly forced to live in disgusting conditions where they contract diseases, infections and are either fattened up to the point where they are unable to move, or starved them until they are driven to cannibalism. This is torture, and should be outlawed immediately.
Even slaughter houses have regulation, yet they are often ignored. Slaughter houses kill the animals with methods such as stunning (shooting them in a head with a metal bolt), bleeding (slicing the major blood vessels in the necks of livestock causing them to bleed out), decapitation, or anal electrocution. In kosher slaughter houses, cows are forced into a very crammed cage, while a machine approaches and rips out their tracheas causing them to lose brain function, and bleed out (Earthlings Doc). Vegan activist Gary Yourofsky states, “If you went to the nearest cow or chicken slaughterhouse, and removed the animals and replaced them with Jews, you’ve recreated Auschwitz, you have a building created to dismantle, torture, and murder innocent beings”(Yourofsky). If more people were aware of the inhumane practices used to murder animals, they might be more in support of animal rights.
Humans should have the decency to honor the lives of animals, as they would other humans. Wikipedia defines animal rights as the belief that, “non-human animals are entitled to the possession of their own lives, and that their most basic interests – such as an interest in not suffering – should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings”(“Animal Rights”). As humans we ethically have no right to control the lives of other beings, yet we act unaccordingly.
Bottom line is, animals do not receive even their most basic rights to life, liberty, and comfort. These creatures deserve outstanding rights, or to simply regain the rights stolen from them by the human species. Animals need liberty, and we need to be their advocates. The meat industry treats animals corruptly and we need to be the ones to put a stop on the entire practice.