The Killing Fields

by Patricia Collier

Like all horrors of humanity, it's a cycle.

We eat sick farm animals to whom we have fed tainted feed made from other sick animals. We eat sick wild animals too.

Then we kill the animals who ate the tainted feed (Mad Cow, you know!). And then we kill the wild animals we ate because we too can become ill (SARS, of course)!

The world has become one big killing field.

Humans excuse it all by citing concerns for public safety. But such concern for fellow humans doesn't dawn on anyone until someone gets sick. Or until herds of animals become incapacitated and the financial bottom line of "agribusiness" is threatened. It's disheartening how concern for the animals gets lost in the maze of panic, excuses, trading blame and greed.

And when the sicknesses rear up and bite us, we act amazed.

For the first time, millions of people throughout the world are learning that downed animals on farms, those too sick or injured even to walk, are literally dragged to slaughter by their hooves to be sold for human food.

For the first time, millions of people throughout the world are learning that weasel-like animals called palm civets, long considered a delicacy by the Chinese who love them for their "yewei" - or "wild taste", are trapped and killed for the "refined" dinner plate, despite the risk of their carrying potentially deadly viruses.

Like prejudice and child abuse, whose repetitive cycles are well documented, this cycle of lack of care and compassion towards animals must end. Twenty-first century humankind must call for change.

Gandhi said, "A nation's progress can be judged by how they treat their animals." He wasn't just speaking about lap dogs.

Because officials can't determine which calf was born to America's first cow diagnosed with mad cow disease, a herd of 450 calves, most just months old, are facing slaughter.

"This should just continue to instill additional confidence among consumers," said Mary Beth Lang, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture. "This is an abundance of caution."

On the other side of the globe, authorities have begun their own "abundance of caution" by killing 10,000 civets in response to a single recent case of SARS. Chinese media said the civets and other animals were being lowered in cages into vats of water to drown, while others were being electrocuted and their bodies burned.

Such inhumane treatment of animals by any country does indeed show a lack of progress.

At least one positive thing has come from the recent mad cow catastrophe. The USDA has issued a ban on the slaughter and marketing of downed animals for human food.

It's been estimated that more than 200,000 animals become "downed" every year in our country alone. Perhaps this ban will persuade farmers to care for their charges more humanely so they don't fall ill in the first place.

While many would like to blame "the dumb cows," the evidence shows it's the "dumb humans," who manufacture and supply the tainted feed, who should shoulder the blame.

Turning to the torturous deaths of the civet cats, it's important to note China had banned trade in these animals but lifted the prohibition in August - succumbing to demands from consumers willing to pay high prices for the "wild taste."

We do seem to ask for trouble, don't we?

It seems Mad Cow and SARS could have been avoided - but at what cost to the almighty dollar?

"If laws are ever passed, it will be done to protect the 'food supply,' not the animals themselves," Michael Mountain, President and Editor of Best Friends Magazine, said in a recent newsletter.

"Even so," he said, "it will be a tiny step in the right direction."

Hopefully, the "right direction" will maintain a forward motion. Maybe one day we won't be killing ANY animals, for food, for sport, for apparel, for kicks, for lack of space in animal shelters, or as "an overabundance of caution" against spread of disease.

We won't be killing animals because we'll evolve to become respectful guardians of them in the first place.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.