Such cruelty!

The Straits Times, Singapore 1 June 2011

This picture and news made me sick! A poor cow was viciously abused while being pulled into an abattoir box for slaughter in Indonesia. It caused an outrage and actually prompted the Australian government to suspend live cattle export to Indonesia at that time. Some of the cruel treatment cited and as quoted in the papers were: 

1) Abattoir workers break a bull's tail and gouge its eyes and nostrils repeatedly in failed attempts to get the animal on its feet despite a broken leg.
2) cattle are seen tied and trembling as they watch other cattle slaughtered and skinned in front of them.
3) workers hack animals' head off with blunt knives causing a lot of distress and pain. 

Such cruelty! Even if we have to have its meat for human consumption, animals should be treated humanely and more compassionate methods should be used for slaughtering in abattoirs. I sometime wonder if animals produce a certain hormone or a chemical reaction that may alter the composition and hence the quality of its meat in such distressing condition of agitation and pain?  Hmm..food for thought.

This reminds me of my friend Sushila, when she related what she saw in Colombo, Sri Lanka when she was 15 years old. A couple of men were trying to get a cow to slaughter and oh, how the cow resisted, refusing to budge, mooing and grunting loudly. "It was as though it knew that they were going to kill it!" Sushila said. Her detailed description of the cruelty imposed on that cow was the same; its tail was bent over and broken, it was beaten harshly with a stick, tugged roughly at the strings that was strung round its nostrils, kicked, pulled and shoved until it was down on its side. One of the men then took a big blunt knife and started to saw at its neck, amid a loud cry from the cow. "Blood was flowing all around., and the poor animal  was twitching," Sushila said sadly, adding "and I will never forget that cry from the cow!". At this point, she could not go on and I could not bear to listen anymore...but from that day on, Sushila became a Vegetarian and still is, 50 years on. 

Just to share my thoughts here. I feel cows are such gentle animals; they don't hurt us and they eat only grass. They give us dairy products and in many countries, they are used as draft animals for pulling carts and plows. Even their dung are used as manure and fuel! Then when they die, their skin can be used for leather goods. For these reasons, I don't see a need to eat them. Besides beef is red meat, high in cholesterol. 

I am not advocating that we all be vegetarians, but perhaps we can buy less, consume less, avoid excesses and consciously play our part in sustaining our ecological system with all our animals. They too have their roles to play in it.   

It is worth reading Nik Taylor's research, Distanced from death: animal cruelty at the abattoir  http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4588016.httml.  Something that we try not to think about, but is an everyday reality. 

                 
                  All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter 
                  this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals. 

                                                                          -Pete Singer-
             



                

.