A penning for the animals

It is a fact that most people would rather prefer to eat meat than non-animal foods. Meat dishes are veritably delectable at all fits, but by eating these, there’s one thing that could surely come about: one can acquire a heart disease and many other types of sickness from it. Worse, it also leads him to be four times more prone to heart attack or stroke. This phenomenon is very much evidenced in our present society wherein most children would not like to eat a meal if the dish is not meat. With this, more and more children even in their early age die because of heart related diseases.

Aside from the disadvantages that meat have brought to human beings, one of the most crucial drawback it has produced is the suffering to the animals themselves. Although animals don’t think and act the same way as we humans, they do value their lives and have feelings very much like us. That is, if we human beings don’t want to die, the animals, too, don’t want to die. If we feel pain, they, too, feel pain. If you burn them, they feel it; if you give them electric shocks, they feel it, very much.

If we feel fear, they, too, feel fear. They scream, their hairs stand on an end, they urinate on themselves, and they shake, just as we do when frightened out of our minds with the prospect of being hurt or killed. If we don’t want to see our family killed, the animals, too, don’t want to see their family slaughtered. Cows love their calves, sows love their piglets, and chickens love their chicks, and mourn for their loss, just as we do.

The animals also have the right to live, that’s why God created them to share this planet with us. I believe that “thou shall not kill” in the ten commandments is not only intended for human beings, but also to our dear animal friends. If God made it only for us, He may have said, “thou shall not murder or commit homicide.

Others may make a stand that there’s nothing wrong in eating animals because it is necessary to supply the protein needs of the body. This may sound reasonable, but, truth is, there are many plants readily available in the community, like beans, lentils, nuts, peas, seeds, greens, corn, etc., that can provide the protein. In fact, protein from non-animal sources is unquestionably safer to health, because they are not bombarded with fats and cholesterols, unlike those from animals.

Presumably another point why human beings kill and eat animals is because they have the power to do so. This practice is so unfair, because killing them is an act of exploitation and violence, and these poor creatures cannot do anything much to defend themselves. The huge animal mass-murdering industries, which suffice this practice, are very much alike to a slave trade, which we also believe to be wrong. In this system, although the consumers do not kill the animals themselves, they can’t still claim an escape, because they were the one who pays the butcher’s labor in slaughtering the animals.

In most U.S. states, if somebody had committed cruelty to a dog or a cat, authorities would most likely warrant him felony charges for his acts. But animals in today's factory farms have no legal protection against violent and gruesome slaughter, which would be illegal if inflicted on house pets. Yet, farmed animals that are basically consumed for food are no less intelligent and capable of feeling pain than the animals we cherish as companions. Most people are also horrified of some cultures that eat dogs or cats, but these animals suffer no more than the animals typically consumed by the people. Here, the difference is only cultural, not moral.

For myself, I chose to be a vegetarian because I believe that the souls of all living creatures are the same, although the body of each is different. Animals are made of flesh, bone and blood just as we are, so “meat” is just a euphemism for a decomposing corpse used as food. It felt good that no animals were slaughtered on my behalf, particularly for the satisfaction of my taste buds. I knew that I could never kill an animal myself, so it is not right to have others to do the dirty work for me, otherwise, I would be a hypocrite about it.

In our moral development as a species, we've reached the point where it's time for us to recognize that other species deserve consideration, just as we finally realized that slavery is wrong, that women deserved the vote, and that children should not be abused as a method of child rearing. Many animals have never done anything at all in their lives that they were born to do. Chickens, pigs, and other farmed animals never get to breathe fresh air, feel the sun on their backs, and nuzzle their young, because people kill them for food.

Common sense tell us, and we know in our hearts, that our fellow animals have the same kind of feelings and desires that we do, and that we should not kill and hurt others in order to eat them. If the humanity would not open their eyes, they will no see, and these poor animals will forever suffer.