Livestock and slaves
A man in my community was recently convicted on animal cruelty charges after strangling a cat to death. This was an awful thing for someone to do, and I hate what happened to the kitty.
I commented on a local news story, about the double-standard we have for animal cruelty - that we have no issue with it in factory farming of animals, but we punish and criminalize it with animals we deem worthy: pets.
A woman replied:
It's totally different when someone kills animals to feed the masses
I didn't reply, but I've considered that comment for a couple weeks.
I thought about America's agricultural history, and what dignity we've granted in the past. For a long time, we enslaved black humans for agricultural work, in part, to feed the masses.
Is enslaving and whipping a black person better when you do it for agricultural purposes? Is it worse if you do it just for fun, out of hate, or for some other non-productive reason?
And why did we extend compassion and respect to black people?
Because they are conscious beings deserving of freedom and respect. (and because a lot of people fought for this change to happen)
Slavery is a dark stain on human history, one that began LONG before America. It is a dark stain on American history, which brought it to new forms of cruelty and thoroughly resisted progressing forward, as many other countries did without war.
It was dark times when we saw living, breathing people as property, as tools, as things to do with as we please, as things to serve our wants and needs.
Now is a dark time in human history, where we see living breathing creatures as property, as tools, as things to do with as we please, as things to serve our wants and needs.
Most of us today are appalled at the indignity of slavery, at how slave owners and racist masses could be so uncaring, so cruel, so righteous.
And yet most of us turn a blind eye and refuse to look at the cruelty of animal subjugation. Many of us who do look at the horrors shrug it off, shield our hearts from it, accept it, and even value it. Many of these same people are outraged by "kids in cages", but will stand by, unmoved by thousands of animals packed shoulder to shoulder, or crammed in cages so small they cannot stand.
Many of these same people extend love and compassion and some degree of freedom to their pets, and staunchly oppose any form of cruelty toward the small selection of animals deemed worthy.
For years, I was one of these people, but I have been moved in the last year by essays written by those whose compassion had grown and extended farther than mine. I have been moved by people who not only saw White Supremacy as a stain on the soul of humanity, but also saw Human Supremacy as the evil that it is. I have begun to be outraged by the evil our society stands upon, and by the lack of interest others have in addressing or even seeing it.
In these times, I must remind myself that I am no better, that I also shrugged it off for years. I must forgive myself and I must forgive others. I must give grace and kindness. But so too must I be an advocate for change, an advocate for the end of the evil so many of us enjoy.
Lastly, I wish to talk of "feeding the masses", as modern animal agriculture is entirely unnecessary for this purpose. We can get all our proteins from plants, and many other nutrients are better acquired through plant-centric diets. And for my climate-concerned friends, plant agriculture is many times more efficient than animal (especially cow) subjugation and torture.
I hope you are moved to learn more, and to change your behavior, to learn how to cook with plants. It starts with small steps. Throw tofu in your beans & rice instead of cow. Use an extra can of beans in your chili instead of cow. Buy plant-based milks and cheeses (there's many options, try them all!) instead of cow or goat milk (dairy is no better than meat, as the subjugation in cow milking is cruel and extensive).
If nothing else, dear reader, next time you sit down to have a meal, take a moment to be grateful for the animal that lived in a cage and suffered and died so that you may enjoy the pleasure of its flesh. At the very least, express this gratitude.