Butterball's Shame... My Tears... Your Choice

>>  Thursday, December 29, 2011

Oh shucks, darn! Just when I was starting to get all Kumbaya and all, Mercy for Animals released yet another investigation.  This time on a Butterball turkey facility in North Carolina.  I didn't need to see the footage - And I know my kind readers here either already have or have no desire to see it either.


I can tell you the still photos are brutal though... Beautiful white feathers are soaked in blood. Crippled and broken bodies are unable to stand... That the workers could take further measures to make their miserable lives worse is beyond me.  But they did... And with unspeakable malice.

So I took myself into my yard and settled on the grass with a flock of curious hens around me... The sun did it's part to knock the shiver out of us all.  And yet --- Try as I did to forget what I saw I couldn't and can't let go of those images... And the questions they raise:


How can the kind people that I know accept this as part of how they nourish themselves?  How can they turn away with the fanciful thought that the birds they consume aren't subject to this same brutality?  Why does this not bother them enough for appropriate change?  How can they think they have the right to someone else's body and life - simply because money can buy them?  What is it that I see... That they don't?
Of course these are questions everyone who's had the courage to lead an ethical life has asked themselves repeatedly too... And I'm probably not unlike you in that sometimes the tears just don't end for all the sorrow and shame that my human-kind has reduced me to.  All I can think to say is that I'm so, so sorry gentle birds... I know and I see - And I weep for your pain. :(


Photos from the book Bright Barnyard by Dahlov Ipcar
(if only...)

2 comments :

CQ December 30, 2011 at 4:29 PM  

Nobody says it better.

Nobody finds better pictures to illustrate eloquent words.

I so wish I could pose these questions of everyone I know who has learned the truth but remains a carnist by choice (I'm paraphrasing now):

"How can you, a kind people, accept this as part of how you nourish yourself?"

"How can you turn away with the fanciful thought that the birds you consume aren't subject to this same brutality?"

"Why does this not bother you enough for appropriate change?"

"How can you think you have the right to someone else's body and life - simply because money can buy them?"

"What is it that I see ... that you don't?"

'Tis surely a mystery.

Bea Elliott January 4, 2012 at 5:52 AM  

Appreciate your empathy too CQ. I wonder sometimes if it's a chemical imbalance... Something in our personal experience... Maybe even something in the water (like bagels) that makes a noticeable difference?

A mystery beyond words how some folks naturally grasp another's bad situation and others turn such an ignorant blind eye away.

A disease of apathy for sure. For the victim's sake - I certainly hope we someday find a cure. :/

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