Vantressa Brown: Who should have Rights?

Throughout history, people have tried to withhold rights from one group or another on the basis of race, gender, class, religion, or sexual orientation. Many arguments are used to justify animals, often based on the fact that humans are more intelligent than animals. However, many nonhuman animals are more intelligent than human infants and even some human adults who suffer from severe mental retardation. If someone can feel pain, does it matter how smart she or he is? We would never claim that infants or severely mentally retarded adults should be used in painful experiments, have their skin worn as clothing, hunted for sport, used for our entertainment, or eaten merely because they are less rational than we are. When it comes to experiencing pain, other animals are our equals.

God did give us dominion over Animals. When he gave us dominion over these animals did He also give us the right to deny animals, we raise, for food and everything that is natural to them. Most have little freedom of movement and are confined in spaces so small they can’t even turn around, let alone access sunlight and fresh air, or socialize normally. They are tormented in ways that would horrify any humane person, and almost always for purposes that are unnecessary. Most religious and spiritual people agree animal cruelty is wrong. If we agree that God is against animal cruelty, then we should end our support of industries that mistreat animals for profit.

Like dogs and cats, the animals we eat are intelligent individuals who can feel pain, experience joy, and suffer from sadness. And like dogs and cats, they value their lives. Why, then, are they treated so abusively that similar treatment of dogs or cats would be grounds for animal cruelty charges in all 50 states.

For us to have their meat, milk, and eggs, animals raised for food are denied nearly every basic need. Most never feel sunlight on their backs or grass beneath their feet. These farmed animals are confined so intensively that many will never be able to freely stretch their limbs or even turn around, let alone exercise or roam. Even more, they suffer from physical abuses that would revolt us were we forced to participate.

The book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry is a good book to read if you want to know what really goes on in order for you to eat meat.
One slaughterhouse employee explained: "One time the knocking gun was broke all day; they were taking a knife and cutting the back of the cow’s neck open while he’s still standing up. They would just fall down and be a-shaking. And they stab cows in the butt to make ’em move. Break their tails. They beat them so bad. I’ve drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner, and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs pulling them in. And the cow is crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop."

Another slaughterhouse employee explained: "Dragging cattle with a chain and forklift is standard practice at the plant," explained a long-term inspector at a large beef operation in Nebraska. "And that's even after the forklift operator rolled over and crushed the head of one downer while dragging another." … "They'll go through the skinning process alive. I saw that myself, a bunch of times. I've found them alive clear over to the rump stand." … "And that happens in every plant. I've worked in four large ones and a bunch of small ones. They're all the same." … "Everybody gets so used to it that it doesn't mean anything."… "Workers drag cripples with a garden tractor and a chain …"

By making informed choices about what we buy and eat and how we look after our health, we can all help to improve the way animals are treated. By choosing to become vegetarians, we show food producers that we want no part of a system that breed, kill, abuse and torture hundreds of millions of innocent animals for food every year. We can also help to influence how manufacturers test their products by only buying those which have not involved any animal experiments.

PETA and COK