Galfreaka

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I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and I grew up in East London, South Africa on the east coast. I am a proud South African and I love Africa so very much! Not a day goes by that I am not at least a little homesick. I went to university in Port Elizabeth at the Port Elizabeth Technicon (now The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)but didn't finish my photography degree as I was distracted by a beautiful southern man and followed him to New Orleans in 1999 for what was supposed to be a holiday. I never left and have been here ever since. The rest as they say is history... I love the USA and just recently became a US citizen (now I am African- American- with blonde hair and blue eyes!) but South Africa will always be home in my heart...I am interested in living a socially responsible & compassionate life with respect for all living creatures and I hope that in my lifetime I will live to see a world in which all sentient creatures are afforded the basic rights to a dignified, natural and pain free life and death.I would also like to see a world in which we shun war as a solution and move towards non-violence and peace. Brute force is such a stupid and ineffective manner to solve problems really.
I have been a vegetarian my whole life(27 years) and I am currently in the process of becoming a Vegan as I now realise that there is no such thing as an "ethical vegetarian" when the dairy industry is so flawed and cruel and it supoorts the meat industry in many ways....(See my blog on this for more if you are interested.)( I have given up eggs and milk but cheese is the final frontier- I am pleased to announce I only slip a few times a month now and my taste for cheese is definitely decreasing which is a miracle as I used to call myself a "cheesatarian"- also losing weight and feeling great certainly keeps me motivated also!).I probably eat vegan 6 days a week now so I am on a journey towards a more compassionate life.
Traditionally, we have held human life to be of the utmost comparitive worth. I am asking you today to consider that that stance is not correct nor is it the most productive idea for the future of our planet. We need to progress in our ideas about ethics and extend those ethics to non-human life as well for to go the other way is to go backwards in our own moral progress and intelligence and evolution. The modern factory farming system is absolutely despicable and few people pause to make the connection between the cow and the hamburger on their plates nor do they care what kind of torture, mutilation and inhumanity that animal suffered before becoming dinner. This is outrageous! I want to live in a world where more people open their eyes to the truth and reality of the misery we inflict upon the wonderful animals we share this planet with.
And yes farm animals are beautiful and worthy of a natural and pain free life. I challenge you to spend some time with a pig or cow on a farm and then come back to me and tell me they aren't just as intelligent, diverse in their personalities and loving as your dog or cat.Ask anyone who has ever had a pet pig how smart they are and then tell me how you merely disregard that information each time you sit down and eat bacon for breakfast?!
Chickens are also far more intelligent than any KFC munching person will dare to admit. A total of eight billion birds every year are killed , approximately one million every hour.The number of broiler chickens killed for food is almost beyond comprehension. These birds are exploited in greater numbers than any other animal on the planet. Yet, they have virtually no legal protection whatsoever from abuses that would horrify nearly anyone, were they not kept hidden behind the walls of factory farms and slaughter plants.The most common welfare problems for these birds include:Genetic selection for rapid growth which causes high rates of leg disorders, heart failure, and respiratory problems Overcrowding in filthy sheds. High ammonia levels in the air they’re forced to breathe Violent catching, transport, and slaughter methods. Baby male chicks in the battery egg farm industry are useless to the industry and thus often suffocated on birth or gassed, crushed or even ground up alive. Now I know not too many normal feeling human beings would be able to watch baby chickens being fed alive into a wood chipper without feeling sick,right? So don't eat chicken or eggs! You are supporting this cruelty!
The way farm animals are treated would be grounds for animal abuse in 50 states if they were dogs or cats but because they are farm animals we don't help them or protect their rights. Does this make any sense at all? Why love one and torture, abuse and mutilate the other? Many people say "I think its cruel to kill an animal and thats why I strongly disapprove of hunting."or they tell me they are "huge animal lovers" whilst they continue to eat meat. Well how do you distinguish which animals deserve to have a dignified and natural life and death and which do not? Is a pig or cow or chicken not an animal too? A deer or duck doesn't deserve to be shot but a cow or pig can be treated like an object instead of a living sentient being- is that it? A dog is better than a pig? You are not an animal lover if you eat animals -period-. You are parading under very cloudy skies with huge holes in your logic and argument.Sorry but that is the harsh truth of the matter. If you care about the welfare of animals you cannot pick or choose which animals you care about!In that way the fact that they eat dogs and cats in the Far East makes them more sensible and less hypocrital than Western society - they don't see the difference between a dog and a pig because there isn't one! They are both intelligent sentient beings. .
The majority of the population has become brainwashed by billion dollar advertising campaigns by the beef and dairy industries. Most people are just so desentitized to the whole process or they don't make the connection. Those packaged hunks of meat don't look like living creatures so most people don't care or try to go out of their way to find out how they got there or what kind of horrific life & death they had to endure before becoming dinner.Just because you aren't the one directly doing the killing doesn't mean you aren't implicated or I could just go & hire a hit man to kill off some of my enemies and not concern myself with doing life in prison since I didn't directly committ the act, right? Think about it.
Over 95% of animals born and raised for food live and die in disgusting conditions. Dairy, veal and pig “farms” are the worst. Consumers naively believe that animals live a natural life on farms where they are only moderately inconvenienced by a swift death. These “factory farms” are hellholes and a million miles away from the pretty picture most people ignorantly believe them to be.
Ignorance is indeed bliss. Conditions the 9 billion (yes- BILLION) animals killed yearly in America for food live under are not regulated enough as it seems most people care far more about making money than about animal welfare.
Go to these websites as for lack of space here I cannot do justice to the true horror of factory farming:
www.farmsanctuary.org
www.cok.net
www.peta.com
www.goveg.com
or watch the videos of your food production like:
Meet Your Meat (www.peta.org)
Life behind bars-the sad truth about factory farming ( www.farmsanctuary.org)
Inside the egg industry ( www.Cok.net )
If you can’t watch it, you shouldn’t eat it!
The most simple of human daily routines: the meal can be a very powerful tool for changing the world.Every time you sit down to eat, you make choices which can have a significant impact on our planet and on the beautiful creatures that share this earth with us. I believe deeply in Karma. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. To say that your meat and dairy consumption is not important in the grand scheme of things, is to say that you are totally disconnected from this planet. It is like saying "Your end of the boat is sinking...!" Even if your response to all of this is, "I dont give a damm about animals." then you still have to wake up and realise the environmental impact that your meat consumption has on the planet.
If you cannot see that vegetarianism and veganism is better for the planet then you are missing the big picture. Meat farming is terribly wasteful.The resources that a meat based diet usurps versus one that's plant based is undeniable:
SOIL:it takes 22 times the acres of land to meet the food energy needs of one person eating meat than it does for one person eating potatoes
WATER: It takes more than 13 times the water to produce one day's food supply for an omnivore than it does for a carnivore.
FOSSIL FUELS: It takes 27 times the petroleum to produce a hamburger than it does a soy burger.
GREENHOUSE GAS OMISSIONS: According to U.N., animals raised as food stock create more greenhouse gas then all the vehicles combined.
OTHER WASTE AND POLLUTION: Land animals confined and killed each year excrete 130 times the feces and urine produced by humans.
So whether you care about animals or not you have to care about the impact your meat and dairy consumption has on the survival of the human race on this planet! We can not continue in the way we have been without serious implications for future generations and that is something every carnivore needs to wake up to. Albert Einstein said " Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival on planet earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. " Einstein! Someone told me he was quite a smart man!
I have heard from so many critics that there are many worthier causes than animal rights - well firstly who do you think you are telling me what my cause should be?Secondly, I agree there are many worthy causes and that the world has many serious problems but since I cannot take on ALL the problems of the world , why shouldn't I choose a cause that is close to my heart and something I feel passionately about? Is it better to be complacent and fight for nothing at all ?Although I wish for a world where the mere unveiling of knowledge of the true cruelty we inflict upon farm animals suddenly caused everyone to reel with shock and become overwhelmed with compassion ,I have to accept that some people simply couldn't give a damm about animal cruelty. Well, you have to give a damm about the self preservation of the human race and continuing to eat as much meat as you do now, my carnivorous friends is not going to end well for this planet or your health. Some food for thought....
Now I do just want to say that I do believe a lot of Vegans and Vegetarians are too self righteous and preachy towards meat eaters and that, in my opinion, is the wrong approach. I am very happy to hear a meat eater even acknowledge that the modern meat industry is cruel or tell me that they are trying to eat less meat. Everyone is on their own personal journey towards living an environmentally friendly and compassionate life and I am not here to judge them. A lot of Vegans will be rude to Vegetarians and a lot of Vegetarians will be rude to Pescetarians- this is not the right approach, folks! Everyone has to take their own journey and we cannot force enlightenment on someone- they have to come to that point on their own. Anyone who is doing their best to REDUCE animal suffering and increase their knowledge of modern factory farming and food production is alright by me. Just remember the true essence of Veganism/Vegetarianism is REDUCING ANIMAL SUFFERING, NOT self-purity or self-righteousness.I just want us as a planet to move in the right direction. I don't expect the whole world to go Vegan or Vegetarian although of course that would be ideal and a fantasy come true. Everyone CAN reduce their meat intake and eat more vegetarian meals(better for your health),everyone CAN think more about how their food reached their plate and work to ensure that we have natural, humane conditions for farm animals and that more regulations are put in place to protect farm/food animals though, surely?If you are unwilling or not ready to give up meat and dairy, then do your research, be a selective consumer and fight to ensure you support small family farms that do raise and kill animals humanely or produce dairy humanely.(- they do exist but unfortunately in a very small minority.) And meat eaters or not,join in the fight against speciesm and animal cruelty -animals are not objects and shouldn't be treated as such- they are living, breathing, sentient beings deserving of rights.
Some of my favourite quotes:
"The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies." - Albert Schweitzer
"The question is not, can they reason? Nor can they talk? but can they suffer?" -Jeremy Bentham- Philosopher
"Animals were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men. " Alice Walker
"The time will come when people such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of people." Leonardo da Vinci
" It is a fundamental misperception to think human life has more value than any other life form." -Roger Fouts , comparative psychologist at Central Washington University
"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
.."Smart people consider all apects of their life very, very carefully. People who think about the ethics of killing animals will naturally choose vegetarianism, and variations of that,more often." Trish Kennett, chief executive of Mensa in Australia.
"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
"The moral progress of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Ghandi
"You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car." ~Harvey Diamond"
"It is the fate of every truth to be the object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed. It was once considered foolish to suppose that black men were really human beings and ought to be treated as such. What once was foolish has now become a recognized truth. Today it is considered an exageration to proclaim constant respect for every form of life as being the serious demand of a rational ethic. But the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics. Ethics in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life." -Albert Schweitzer
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the opressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." Bishop Desmond Tutu
"Animals are my friends- and I don't eat my friends." - George Bernard Shaw
"May all that have life be delivered from suffering." - Buddha