I used to really love ice cream. Like I ate it at least once a day if not twice. Throughout the day, I’d actually look forward to being able to eat it after dinner. But I don’t eat that kind of ice cream anymore, and I don’t crave it either. It actually really repulses me now. And that shift in my attitude has everything to do with learning about where the ice cream came from.
I’ve only been vegan for less than a year now, and it took me a long time to fully transition. During that period, I was reluctant to learn the truth. I didn’t want to know about what they do to animals on farms. I didn’t want to know about how dairy, eggs, and meat were brought to my dinner table. I just wanted to enjoy my food.
But it’s really important that we do know the truth about what happens, even though it is terribly unsettling. It’s important to know, because if we don’t know, billions of sentient beings will suffer, in agony, at the expense of our ignorance. We would be selfish to allow this to happen. It’s also important to know the truth for our own sake. It is truly a beautiful thing when one’s ethics & actions exist in harmony.
So what is the truth? The truth is every time we consume animal products, we are prioritizing our own taste buds over another being’s right to life. The truth is that every time we consume animal products, we are sponsoring animal cruelty in exchange for a few minutes of sensory pleasure.
That can be very difficult and inconvenient to believe. Because if you care about the fact that animals are subject to unimaginable acts of cruelty, then you also have to give up the many foods you love, the foods you crave, the foods you’ve eaten every day for your entire life.
This is the dilemma I faced for so long. And even though, on multiple occasions, I was confronted with evidence confirming the animal industry’s relentless brutality, I kept eating its products. I would lie to myself. I would push away uncomfortable thoughts. I would tell myself it’s not actually that bad, and that the vegans are just exaggerating how terrible everything is. I would tell myself “sure, there may be a few isolated incidents where animals are treated poorly, but assuredly this cruel treatment can’t be the norm.” I would do my best to construe every logical argument possible to try to justify my eating habits. None of those arguments were very good. Nevertheless, I believed in them, I made myself believe in them. Because if I didn’t believe in them, then I would be a hypocrite, and I would feel guilty and ashamed. And I was just trying to eat my food.
But the truth is, food is not just food. Embedded in our foods is the blood & agony & despair of other sentient beings. Embedded in our foods is the terrifying maltreatment of other species. Species that are complex and capable of experiencing a wide range of emotions, just as we do. Species that are capable of suffering deeply, just as we do.
Milk is not just milk. It’s not just a harmless beverage. Cows, like all mammals, only produce milk so that they can nurse their young after giving birth. So to maximize milk production, the dairy industry artificially inseminates female cows for the duration of their lives, so that they will continually lactate. The baby calves are stolen & separated from their mothers often on their first day into this world, so that we can take the mother’s milk for ourselves. Milk is the separation & psychological trauma endured by both mother and calf.
The dairy industry is male calves killed on sight, because for many farms, it’s not profitable enough to raise a cow that doesn’t produce milk. The male calves that are spared are sent to the veal industry, where they are raised in confinement and fed an iron deficient formula. This is all very intentional. The confinement and iron deficiency prohibit muscle development in the baby calves, which is what makes their flesh taste so tender. This torture goes on for a few short months, then the babies are slaughtered.
The dairy industry is responsible for unbelievable amounts of fucked up shit. Milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream, they’re not just tasty foods that upset your stomach. They are the product of an industry that torments millions of cows every single day.
Milk is “dehorned” baby calves, who painfully & routinely have their horn tissue removed by searing-hot irons, blades, and saws. Cheese is mother cows hooked up to milk machines, where they are forced to produce milk at up to 10 times their natural rate. Yogurt is the frequent udder infections borne by cows due to the overexertion of their reproductive systems. Butter is mother cows calling out for their babies, days after they’ve been separated. Ice cream is mother cows sent to the slaughterhouse after only a quarter of their natural lifespans, their bodies depleted from the constant impregnation, lactation, and abuse.
The egg industry is no different. Eggs are chickens crammed into cages so tight, they can’t even spread their wings. They remain in these cages for nearly their entire lives. Eggs are chickens with the tips of their beaks painfully burned off, so they don’t peck each other to death while trapped in claustrophobic cages. Eggs are the millions of male baby chicks tossed into incinerators to be grinded up alive, because why spend resources on raising a chicken that won’t lay eggs? Eggs are chickens forced to live within the fumes of their own urine & feces. Eggs are depleted hens, sent to slaughterhouses to be killed at only a fraction of their natural lifespans.
Chicken, ham, sausage, turkey, bacon, pork, and beef: all the flesh of dead animals who did not wish to die. Many of these animals suffered in their moments of slaughter, and assuredly all of them suffered in their moments leading up to slaughter: crammed into claustrophobic cages and pens, exploited in every way possible to maximize the production of dairy, eggs and meat. Animal welfare is consistently and utterly neglected so that the industry can optimize their efficiency and profitability.
It’s fucking terrifying and unacceptable that we’ve allowed this system of violence to become the norm. There are no words that I can write that will ever fully capture the brutality of the animal agriculture industry.
I wrote this because it hurts so bad knowing that this happens every single day. I don’t want this to keep happening. I am so angry & frustrated, so devastated & distraught. I so desperately want to do everything I can to stop these cruelties from occurring.
I really appreciate anyone who’s still reading this, and I really appreciate anyone who reconsiders their habits.
Please further educate yourselves. Please watch the videos of what goes on at factory farms, disturbing as they are. Please learn about how your foods get to the dinner table. Please learn the truth.
For the sake of the billions of individuals being needlessly tortured, factory farming must end.
Taj 