BUT YOU TRY NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT
Unfortunately as we get older, we are methodically drawn away from our connection to other animals, and conditioned to turn a blind eye to their suffering. Living in an anthropocentric world, we are trained to find various excuses for the exploitation of animals and are constantly assured of our inherent superiority to all other beings. As a result of this problematic mentality, most wild animals have been hunted to extinction and those that remain, are doomed to suffer the horrific consequences of the Anthropocene.
Though it is true that the ever – growing presence of humans has affected the lives of all living beings, those suffering the most devastating consequences of our greed are farmed animals, who are raised and kept in frightening conditions for the sole purpose of becoming someone’s supper.
However, as much as we try to ignore the ugly truth of our consumer choices, or how desperate we are to convince ourselves of our inherent superiority and the subsequent right it gives us to erase the value of the lives of other animals, the truth remains that we are directly responsible for the suffering of trillions of sentient animals who are tortured through every life stage and eventually brutally killed while their loved – ones watch in terror, waiting for their turn to enter the kill – floor.
It is time we take a look at the life of the victims…
Cows
Approximately 302,150,000 slaughtered worldwide per year, 825,000 per day
Source/2018 https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/animals-slaughtered-for-meat
The average lifespan of a cow is 20-25 years. This number changes significantly in the case of farmed cows, who rarely get to live past their 4th birthday. This is because the milk quantities we demand of them is much higher than what they would naturally produce, thus resulting in exhaustion.
Under normal circumstances, a cow’s body would produce less than 1,000 liters of milk in a year, but since they are milked all year round by milking machines, this number can rise to 6,000 – 10,000 liters.
Cows intended to provide us with milk are repeatedly and artificially inseminated and very often suffer while giving birth. In addition, their bodies are prone to calcium and magnesium deficiencies, as they do not receive enough nutrients to support excessive milk production. As a result, they often collapse from exhaustion.
More shocking still, in order to ensure year – round milk production, cows are repeatedly impregnated and forced to give birth to calves whose fates are unfortunately predetermined. Only hours after birth, the babies are taken away from their mothers and fed with milk substitute, while their own milk is stolen for human consumption. The shock of separation is extreme for the mothers and their young, since cows’ maternal instincts are especially strong.
As the milking process continues, most cows develop symptoms of mastitis, which causes them indescribable pain. Once their bodies are no longer able to endure this repetitive process, the cows become unproductive and therefore useless to the dairy industry. As a result, they are sent to the slaughterhouse, where their bodies are butchered and sold as second-class, or minced meat.
As for the calves, approximately half of them end up in the slaughterhouse by the age of 18 months. For their meat to stay tender, they are placed in cramped cages where they are unable to move. The rest, are sold to the veal industry and killed while they are still babies, due to the popularity of their pale meat, which is actually a sign of serious nutrient deficiencies.