Like any animal lover I despise the idea of these gifts from God to mankind being hurt in any way.
Despite living in a society packed with individuals who make a stand against cruel animal slaughter through not eating them, I admire the cause, but I admittedly love eating meat and feel confused about whether this form of protest is necessary.
I am sure that I am not educated enough on the matter to formulate my own opinion on whether the meat we eat had really been produced in a cruel manner, because I have not been to a slaughter house, nor seen the conditions in which animals are bred.
I have only read some gruesome stories, which did send chills down my spine, online, of which some were proven to be hoaxes.
I am convinced that some of these are true, especially during mass-production processes, which are completely unacceptable, but how can we know?
According to my religion, animals were provided to us as a source of food, and as long as you are going to eat them, it is acceptable to execute them, in a humane way.
A colleague also raised the question, if we just leave animals to breed on, won’t they overpopulate, leaving a lack of resources for both man and animal to survive?
What if there are not enough fruit, vegetables and wheat left to feed both of our species and the animals die of starvation, which in my opinion, is a worse and longer form of suffering?
Perhaps what we really need to encourage is regular monitoring of animal breeding, and the meat-production processes, by officials?
Perhaps I need to brush up my knowledge about the processes of producing meat, which would help me make my decision on whether being a vegetarian is truly an effective way of combating animal cruelty, and join the veggie rank.
It is a personal decision after all.
The scary thought is that it is not just the production of meat that may entail animal cruelty; are we even aware of the substances included in our shampoos, facial creams, other beauty enhancers and household products?
I recently read an article, supplied by WorldTruth.TV, stating that due to the massive international demand for palm oil, palm oil plantations are rapidly replacing the rain-forest habitat of the critically endangered orangutan; with over 90 per cent of their habitat already destroyed in the past 20 years.
So where do we draw the line of abstinence?
I suppose the only method of taking protest action is through reading labels of product contents, eating free-range meat, making an effort to become aware and spreading it, but make sure it is the truth.
Until proven otherwise, I believe it is okay to eat meat, but if it actually means gradually ceasing cruelty to animals, I would strongly consider sacrificing it and becoming “a veggie”.TB
