Monday 21 January 2013

30 Days of Vegetarian: Day 6 - The Ugly Truth


Not sure why pic has come out like that!
So not the greatest breakfast and lunch today. Breakfast was two pieces of toast with honey, a banana and an oats slice. Lunch was rice crackers with avocado which I sneakily made at work. I'm having a bit of trouble finding a healthy and filling breakfast. If anyone has any quick and easy vegetarian friendly breakfast ideas that would be fantastic!

I was seriously disturbed by Earthlings, a documentary that looks at animal welfare and cruelty in relation to animal shelters, factory farms, leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, medical and scientific professions and slaughterhouses. It was absolutely horrific in its depictions of how animals are killed for our taste buds. And it is for this reason I urge everyone to watch this, and if you are unable to watch it or choose not to, you need to ask yourself why. Because ignorance is not an acceptable reason for choosing to eat meat.

I'd like to think that the footage they showed us was sensationalistic and just a small percentage of slaughterhouses and so forth treat animals like that but there were so many different examples shown. Even kosher meat, which states is merciful and quick is not and if anything, seemed more horrific and terrifying for the animal. Seeing pigs having their tails, eats, teeth cut off and being castrated with no anaesthetic was almost unbearable to watch. 

But it wasn't just the killing for food I found disturbing, but the way animals are treated for entertainment such as zoos and circus' and medical experiments. It did look like a lot of footage was dated so I would like to hope that in this day and age it is happening less and less and standards are rising but I guess that is something I will need to look into.

What I do know however, is that the more I read and hear such things the more I feel like I will not return to eating meat once the challenge is over and not because I choose not to but because I don't think I would be able to eat it. I don't understand how we can condone such behaviour and I feel that if we had to kill our own meat almost everyone would be a vegetarian. As humans, we must learn empathy for these animals. At a minimum, we should all be ensuring that animal welfare in any environment for any purpose is at its highest possible standards and that should be something everyone agrees on. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

This video was posted on a mate's Facebook, and if you can't watch Earthlings, at least see this. It is only 3 minutes of your life.


Well, I am off to have the leftover of my awesome pizza from last night! Been looking forward to this all day!


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