Comfortably Unaware

by Dr. Richard Oppenlander

  Regarding food choices, continue to enlighten yourself; open up and enhance your level of consciousness. Break away from those cultural and media marketing constraints. Do the right thing and commit. Be absolutely consistent with following through, and then feel great about what you are doing. Your body, mind, and spirit will be in a better place—and so will our planet.

  CHAPTER XI

  Not-to-Read Chapter

  A closer look at the animals

  “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress

  can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

  —Mahatma Gandhi

  OF COURSE, THE TITLE OF THIS chapter is facetious; this chapter desperately needs to be read. And this is why: although I have presented the impact our current food choices have on global depletion, somewhere in the mix it would not be right to exclude the reality of animal management. Why? Because it is real. Similar to global depletion, the manner in which we treat animals raised for food is “out of sight, out of mind.” Please understand: this book is not about animal rights, although that is a very noble concern. It is about truth, so some mention of the way animals raised for food are treated behind the scenes is in order. I do not want to expound heavily on this topic, however, because, frankly, you might not view the entire contents of this book properly otherwise. Animal rights has inappropriately become a stigma in some venues. The vast majority of humans would rather not hear about their food origins, particularly if it involves inhumane treatment, torture, abominable living conditions, or the pain and suffering of living things. It is much easier to simply turn the other way.

  All meat and fish items are products that are derived from animals that are very capable of carrying out thought processes and feeling emotion. So, unfortunately, whenever you eat meat, dairy products, fish, or any part of any animal, more likely than not, you are contributing to abuse of another living thing. Regardless of what you choose to call that part you are consuming (bacon, hot dog, ham, pork chop, sausage, burger, steak, etc.), it is still an animal.

  Let’s propose that you had a choice of purchasing two different shirts: one was made in a sweatshop overseas by children who live in substandard conditions and are forced against their will to make that shirt. The second shirt was made legally by a reputable company that cares for and pays its employees respectably. No abuse was involved. This shirt was also better for you and our environment, as it is free of dyes, made with organic cotton, and is softer and hypoallergenic. It is economically similar in cost, and in some cases, this second shirt is actually less expensive to you and is always less expensive to our environment. Most of us would choose the second shirt. The same circumstances and choices exist with the food you eat. Animal products can be chosen, all of which come from abusive, inhumane, or unnecessary origins, and eating them will be unhealthy for you and our environment. Or you can choose a plant-based food that has no such baggage attached. Your choice.

  As consumers, it is time that we have a conscience; it is long overdue. Ask questions, increase your awareness, and become more savvy in the decision-making process, based on what is in the planet’s best interest. In the case of food, that choice is in your best interest as well. One of the greatest injustices our culture has created is the imposition of masking the reality of food origins. For instance, when a child asks where an apple comes from, mothers and fathers provide a fairly accurate and—most important—truthful answer: from a tree. Or where does this broccoli come from? It comes from a garden, and it was grown as a plant in the ground. But when the child asks where a hot dog comes from, parents likely do not respond, “Well, honey, it started with that cute pig that was killed, and parts of its back leg and buttocks were cut and ground up. And before that, the pig was made to live in conditions and treated in a horrible way, prodded and shocked, throat slit, and hung upside down to bleed and to be processed in a meat-packing plant, many times when it is still alive and squirming with pain.” Of course you would not tell your child that, and yet it is the truth. There is no exaggeration or falsification to that statement. If children knew this, they—or anyone of sound mind—would certainly choose not to eat meat. But parents continue to play the game of avoidance, misinforming their children of the “health benefits” of eating protein, and fabricating names of dead animal parts that are easier for them to deal with. Do yourself a favor, and visit a factory farm and meat-packing plant sometime, and learn firsthand the reality of what you are eating. Then, knowing that this process and end result actually makes you much more likely to develop heart disease, diabetes, etc., and that it is unhealthy for our planet, make the commitment to choose plant-based foods. It is the right thing to do.

  Once children make the connection between wonderfully sensitive, docile, and devoted pigs and the bacon they eat, these more enlightened children will unanimously choose not to continue eating animals—much as they would not eat their dog. The thought would be repulsive, and it would never even cross their minds.

  Quite unfortunately, though, children are often redirected to believe that meat really comes from the grocer, that animals are put on earth for us to eat, and that meat is good for them and that they need it to get protein. When they reach an age where parental influence lessens, however, and more questions are raised about life in general, truths work their way back to the surface, especially where once a seed was placed.

  Sustainability has become a critical topic, now and for future generations, regarding all aspects of our life, and throughout this book I have provided clarification of just how our food choices are related. As we have seen, the impetus toward grass-fed livestock is growing in momentum. I have also pointed out that this is a natural path for many to take because it is simply too difficult to let go of the false sense of “needing” versus the reality of “wanting” to eat meat. As I have demonstrated earlier, raising animals on pasture for us to eat is not sustainable, despite the fact that nearly all current well-known and influential authors and lecturers are stating the contrary. Subsequently, this type of food production places the animals themselves and how we view their lives in an interesting position conceptually—and here’s why: Those who raise grass-fed animals and all the consumers who eat such animals have convinced themselves that they are doing the right thing for our planet and their own health. After all, they are now “growing food” in a “sustainable” manner and doing great things for the world, right? So, the animals themselves, their lives, and their deaths become almost a symbol of this act—ultimate food sustainability—instead of recognition of the individual living things that they are. As a symbol, they can live and be killed without our giving any real thought to what they experience. There is now a higher positioning for moral and even ethical justification in the act of killing them. In fact, though, this becomes almost more of an oversight than what they currently experience in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations, or factory farms). In other words, the farmer raises an animal in a pastured situation, rather than being confined, allowing it to live, breathe, experience emotions, develop a thought process, and even a dependency (not strictly for food) with various aspects of its life and relationships. This animal feels things, thinks things, learns, and makes decisions about its actions. Surely some animals do this more than others, but make no mistake—all animals raised for us to eat experience these things. If they had their choice, I am quite sure none of these grass-fed animals would choose to die. Moreover, none of them would want us to kill them. Yet we do.

  Then, there is the slaughtering process. There is an eerie paradox that occurs when a farmer raises animals year after year, even calling them by name, and then somehow justifies leading them to slaughter, or killing them himself, and then eating them. On local family-owned farms, such as the type many of us feel we should support, smaller animals such as chickens can be killed on site. Larger animals, such as cows and pigs, still have to be rounded up, transported, and killed in conventional slaughterhouses. The most common method of killing
chickens on these small farms is by jamming the bird’s body into a cone with its head protruding, essentially confining it so the farmer is allowed to more easily slice its throat. The goal is to have the bird to bleed until it dies before moving it into the scalding/defeathering process. It turns out, then, that all grass-fed large animals are still slaughtered in quite inhumane and conventional, painful ways, and all grass-fed small animals are slaughtered in inhumane and painful ways but closer to home. Knowing this, as well as the fact that we simply do not need to eat animals and that it is not sustainable, one must ask: how can this be considered a step in the right direction?

  It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide the details of what occurs behind the scenes to raise an animal and process it for eating purposes, but a glimpse of this process is appropriate.

  PIGS

  Pigs have the cognitive abilities to be quite sophisticated—more so than dogs, and more so than three-year-olds, as observed by many people, including Dr. Donald Broom, Cambridge University professor and former scientific advisor to the Council of Europe.177 Pigs can play video games, have temperature preferences, and display sensitivities, and they are fond of walking distances of one to three miles per day.178 In the United States alone, there are over 100 million pigs, with nearly 70 million of these living in factory-farm settings.179 Each pig living in factory farms is forced to live in an eight-square-foot area for most of its life (which is one to two years).180 Mother pigs live in a seven-by-two-foot gestation crate, which allows them to give birth and nurse their young but which is too small for them to even turn around.181 Typical slaughterhouses kill one thousand pigs per hour, making humane death impossible.182 Many are literally boiled alive or bled to death, with squeals of pain “with numbers squealing reaching 100 percent of those killed during the process in many slaughterhouses.”183

  CHICKENS

  As with many animals, there are many misconceptions about chickens. They are inquisitive, have intelligence, and can solve problems.184 In nature, they form social ladders and friendships, recognize each other, and love and care for their young.185 There are 10 billion chickens raised and killed for meat in the United States every year.186 Genetic manipulation and growth-promoting drugs are commonly used to produce fast-growing and larger birds. Because of this, they suffer from skeletal difficulties and heart failure because their hearts and lungs cannot keep up with the forced rapid growth rate.187 Hens are kept in semi-darkness in battery cages, confining seven to eight to a cage, without the ability to move or spread their wings. Their beaks are cut off, and most suffer from broken bones and eventually are slaughtered after two years of this type of life, although they can live for more than ten years with a more natural life.188 The process of killing these chickens is gruesome. There is a “catching” stage, where up to six thousand birds are caught per hour and crowded, as many as possible, into crates.189 A recent industry study concluded that the number of broken bones is unacceptably high. These chickens are then hung upside down in shackles, throats slit, and then immersed in scalding water for feather removal. Many are conscious during the entire process.190

  TURKEYS

  Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be the national bird of the United States; Mr. Franklin was a very insightful and intelligent individual. He called the turkey “a bird of courage” and had great respect for its agility, beauty, and resourcefulness. A number of studies have found that turkeys display personality, emotion, and thought process, and can even show a preference for different kinds of music.191, 192, 193 Turkeys are very gentle birds that enjoy open spaces, can fly up to 55 mph, run at speeds of up to 25 mph, and live ten or more years.194

  The turkeys that you eat are some of the more than 270 million raised and killed each year that are genetically manipulated animals who have very brief, painful lives.195 Most spend six months in factory farms, where thousands are packed into dark sheds with no more than 3.5 square feet of space per bird.196 Handlers cut off portions of the turkeys’ toes and beaks with hot blades to keep the crowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death. With genetic manipulation and large amount of antibiotics, farmers can grow unnaturally large birds in a short period of time, creating turkeys with little room for internal organs, improper bone development, and a number of physical difficulties.197 Many usually die from organ failure or have broken legs because their bones are unable to support their disproportional weight. Most can hardly walk two steps without falling over, and millions do not even make it past their first few weeks before they die from heart attacks or “starve out,” a stress-induced condition that causes them to stop eating.198 The ones that make it to the slaughterhouses are hung upside down by their weak and crippled legs before their heads are dragged through an electrified “stunning tank,” which renders them immobilized but not killed.199 They then have their throats slit (some are missed) and are then scalded to death in hot defeathering tanks.200 Many investigations have found turkeys were punched, kicked, beaten with metal rods, and had skulls crushed at Butterball plants and elsewhere, before they make their way to the slaughterhouse.201

  Following the miserable life and killing process, turkeys eventually—and I find this most ironic—end up as centerpieces for holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter—that represent peace, kindness, and hope. Not exactly what I would consider good karma.

  COWS

  Cows are inquisitive, clever, and peaceful animals.202 They show emotion and prefer to spend their time together or with another peaceful animal or human friend, with whom they form a strong bond.203 Cows form complex social relationships, very much like dogs, licking their companion (animal or human) with their tongues out of love and comfort. Like all animals, cows form very strong maternal bonds with their children and therefore, on dairy farms and cattle ranches, mother cows can be heard crying out for their calves for days after they are separated. They would live normally for more than ten years. The lives we have forced upon them is much different than we would ever inflict upon our dogs.

  Cows that survive their short lives in feedlots, dairy sheds, and veal farms face the abominable trip to their eventual death for us to eat. The trip can be days, all without food or water, in open trailers during freezing temperatures, where body parts become frozen against the rails or in their own defecation and urination.204 In summer months, many collapse from heat exhaustion, so they arrive at the slaughterhouse weak, scared, or downed. The Journal of Animal Science reports that 38 percent of all cows that arrive for slaughter show signs of lameness and crippling.205 None of the cows want to leave the truck, so they are struck with electric prods or dragged off with chains and forklifts. A former USDA inspector relates that “uncooperative animals are beaten and have prods poked in their faces and up their rectums.”206 They then are forced down a chute and shot in the head with a bolt gun meant to stun them, although the lines move quickly and the workers are poorly trained, so many cows are still fully conscious when their throats are cut and limbs are sawed off.207 As a report in the Washington Post describes it: “Within twelve seconds of entering the chamber, the fallen steer is shackled to a moving chain to be bled and butchered by … workers in a fast-moving production line.”208 Ramon Moreno, who has worked in slaughterhouses for twenty years, explained to the Washington Post that his job is to cut the legs off the animals, and he “frequently had to cut the legs off fully conscious cows. They blink, make noises … heads moving and eyes wide open and looking around, but the line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive.”209 Martin Fuentes, another slaughterhouse worker, told the Post that slowing down the line to ensure that animals are properly killed is unheard of, and workers who alert officials to abuses at their slaughterhouse are at risk of losing their jobs.210 The meat industry employs many impoverished immigrants who can never complain about poor conditions or cruelty to animals out of fear of losing their jobs and being deported.

  The meat and dairy industry is very large and powerful, and they h
ave a great deal of money and lobbying force. They certainly would not want you to know everything about your food choices because you then would stop eating their food. Parents and school systems are equally at fault for not telling the truth to children about their food choices. Again, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

  These are the realities of your food choices. With every burger, steak, pot roast, turkey sandwich, fried chicken, rib, barbecue, pork chop, bacon, ham, or whatever you want to call it or however you want to cook it, you are perpetuating the demand, which furthers the business of raising animals and then slaughtering them for you to eat. You can turn your head the other way, but the process continues. It continues at the detriment and ill fortune for the animals, for our health, and for the health of our planet. Until this moment, most of you have been comfortably unaware with regard food responsibility and global depletion. What you decide to eat is killing our planet, but it does not have to be that way—if the right choices are made.

  A Final Word

  “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

  —Albert Einstein

  I WANT TO EXPRESS MY SINCERE gratitude to my readers for allowing me to challenge you with a new way to look at the food you choose to eat, to challenge many cultural doctrines, and to challenge you to understand and be responsible for the decisions you make regarding food. Much, much more important than expressing my own appreciation, however, is that … our planet thanks you.

  END NOTES