Are You A Vegetarian?

There are some people who believe that The Buddha was against eating meat. Others believe he would allow it as long as the animal wasn't purposely killed just for that person's consumption. It seems as thought it is a widely debated aspect of Buddhism.

I, myself, do eat meat. It's never really been an issue to me. I've been on farms, I've raised hogs myself. I've seen the individual personality that each animal possesses. I can assure you, no livestock animal is a mindless hunk of meat. In terms of non-violence, though I can see where some people would shy away from eating meat.

In recent years, many farm-related animal abuse cases have been brought to light. When you are trying to live your life by not doing harm finding out your morning omelet can from a farm where they keep chickens in cages next to rotting corpses can be a real turn-off. It's hard to get that to mesh with non-violence.

We'd all like to think our meat and animal products come from some farm where it's always sunny and the grass is the greenest, most nutritious thing ever. Sadly, the reality is that we can't be sure that what we eat comes from a farm that treats the animals with kindness and respect. While these animals may be bred for food, the do deserve a good quality of life while they are alive and a quick and as painless as possible death.

Now on to what brought this blog on today. I read an article this morning about activist who make covert tapes to expose farms for cruelty. As hard as these videos are to watch I believe they are a very important tool. Not only do they bring animal abusers to justice, they make the public aware of the horrors that can happen while bringing them their New York Strip Steak. There are several places trying to pass legislation that actually makes it illegal to covertly tape animal abuse.

Let me get this straight, we want to waste time and money, in an already bloated legal system, to criminalize the good guys?

Some people are saying that some of the things on the tapes, while shocking, are little more than typical farm practice. I cannot think of one single farm where it is common practice to burn baby chicks and break off their heads and I've been involved in farming since I was knee high. I understand that they are probably trying to keep from having farmers vilified because not all farmers abuse animals. We need farms. They make much more than food.

So when you are trying to walk a path of non-violence how do you reconcile the fact that your food may very well be brought to you by abuse?

Here's the article if you'd like to read it. New York Times


I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Angry Girl

Moving!

Ok, guys, bear with me! We are moving and when the dust settles I will be able to post more!

Thanks!
Angry Girl