The first essay I wrote my teacher on animal cruelty
- Lily Green
- Nov 22, 2015
- 5 min read
No more Old Macdonald’s Farm. When I came across this old screwed up piece of paper the other day I almost immediately tossed it with my old Girlfriend Magazines and Mary-Kate and Ashley novels to be recycled for my mum’s primary school. However, at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon what else was I meant to do? Study??
So in actual fact I re-read this old expository writing task I had done in year 9 about factory farms, intensive farming, and the animal cruelty involved in the process. It was around this time I had read “Skinny Bitch” by Freedman/Barnouin and for the first time seen the Food Inc. film that opened my eyes to the disgusting, cruel treatment of livestock animals as well as the unsustainable farming for both meat and soy/corn. Not long after, I was busy pounding away at my keyboard to finish an assignment that I was actually happy to do, and passionately pumped out my first piece on veganism… or at least what later led me to veganism.
As it is the dawn of a new year, I figured a flashback Friday suited the occasion just to see how far I’ve come as a vegan since– and I’m a strong believer in that education can change a person’s view in a heartbeat. Once I understood that yes, dairy manufacturing DOES harm the cows and the egg industry is not a peaceful one, I was ready to abandon animal products for the rest of my life. Learning about good health came much later.
(Keep in mind, this WAS written in year 9… I’ve never been the best at grammar….or writing) :P
Without further adieu, here is the essay I wrote on the dark side of modern-day farming:
No More Old Macdonald’s Farm Each and every one of us is raised and led to believe our agricultural system is a dreamy perception of smiling cows chewing buttercups on green hills, chickens clucking away as they pluck grass and lay eggs, and old farmers with a face shadowed in the shade of a straw hat wear an unprovoked smile as they drive tractors through cornfields, making as much money as there are checkers on his plaid shirt. More than a lawful misconception, those playing the cards and pulling the strings on farms have also legally kept consumers in the dark; do you really know where your meat comes from? Would you want to? Only farmers caught in the mass producing, economic crossfire have been sucked in and held captive by what is known as Intensive Farming, knowing all too well the tragically horrific definition behind its methods. Intensive farming is a cruel, inhumane world where the removal of beaks, the searing of cow skin with a hot iron, slitting the throats of baby cows to sell the mother’s milk and leaving animals by the thousands in small dark houses with no sunlight is nothing but normality. Forget Old Macdonald’s farm, when the farmers are only pawns in this disgusting game, whose placing the bets?
Further clarifying that these dainty, happy farms are rare (you’ll barely ever see one), it’s about time we demanded an end to living as if we are blindfolded. Each day we are manipulated by images and false interpretations of our meat and grain industries because the truth would most certainly result in a public outrage leaving the puppeteers: Monsanto, McDonalds (yes Mr McHappy) and other leading corporations out of pocket. So if you scrape away all the deception and falsification, you are left with nothing more than a repeated cycle in the form or farmers clinging to the insufficient funds they have, forcing thousands of animals into tiny areas where they trample over each other resulting in disease and death, pumping them up with hormones (leading to antibiotic resistance), and left bankrupt after fighting back against the companies who force these farming methods on them. In the end there is no way to challenge these companies, especially knowing that Monsanto’s board consists of politicians, celebrities and the highest court lawyers in the United States…go figure.
In all fairness there is explanation as to why farms are portrayed this way. If the torture and mutilation of baby pigs was promoted, beaten with a metal pole and being boiled alive to remove their hairs was in the back of everyone’s mind, would people have no hesitance toward buying pork for dinner? Meat consumption has become so popular that stating that consumers have the power to wield their choices like they would a sword is merely pointless and futile. Intensive Farming, in an attempt to produce meat and their bi-products quickly and cheaply, sets aside all morality and engages in all crimes of animal cruelty. It turns out consumers have fallen victim to the scheme though; diseases and superbugs have caught up with us. Cows herded into small areas by stabbing them with rods causing wounds stand for months in their own faeces and urine, unable to move and the cows in the centre of the herd usually die of starvation. The meat from these cows becomes contaminated with e-coli from the faeces and all of a sudden it ends up on our plate. Is lack of hand washing really the reason for flu epidemics?
It is a frustrating issue that of those 10 billion animals (and counting) slaughtered each year in the United States alone, over ¾ of these figures are in relation to Factory Farming. What is all the more daunting and sickening really, is that majority of consumers display no concern whatsoever, simply because they are entirely unaware. This is a result of the Agricultural System’s success. There is no superiority that holds more power than the public, the people who make the real choices that either prove beneficial or fatal to a company’s sales. Organic fare has boomed recently, and for good reason—organic farming is the beam of light that shines through the Intensive Farming tunnel, providing hope for the welfare of animals and consumers alike. Organic farms do anything but mimic the cruel methods of its evil twin farming, providing lush grass fields for chickens to roam, and never touch pesticides or inject their animals with hormones and anti-biotics. The animals live positive lives as they should before they are sent to slaughter on the premises, and are not thrown into crates and fed through a slaughter machine. Overall the end product proposes no danger to the humans who consume it, as the animals are grass fed and not fattened up with grains and hormones. The power to vote against cruelty and provide a thumbs-up to a healthy happy farm is in your hands and your wallet.
Through each season we are encouraged to turn a blind eye to the farms producing the food we put on our plates. Winter sighs in shame as cows feet freeze to the surfaces of their transportation crates, and are torn free by farmers who only have money on their minds. Spring is the season new baby chicks are born into a life of darkness; illness and watching their siblings die of dehydration. Summer bring chaos as heat turns soil to dust and pigs are rated by Agricultural critics according to profit, and those chosen to be slaughtered are sent into large containers and are drowned, held underwater by a rotating metal bar. Though the falling of leaves may symbolise change and renewal, the cycle continues, and it shows no sign of screeching to a sudden halt. Information as such isn’t available to the world though, and it rightfully should be, as people have the right to ask questions just as much as we deserve answers. The phrase “no pain, no gain” should not completely forsake our morality, and letting animals suffer in such inhumane ways should not be tolerated. This is not a campaign for veganism, or vegetarianism for that matter, but a plea for consumers of all ages and lifestyles to vote NO to this system just by choosing their products wisely. Don’t be the hypocrite crying for world peace as we watch man become a cruel murderer, because as through each season we watch humanity crumble, each day is a chance to vote NO.