Got Milk?
Where'd ya get it?
I have a lot of problems with some animal welfare organizations that are almost like Basque terrorists or something when it comes to their highly aggressive means. But you know, their photos don't lie. They capture a side of our society that you just can't escape. Where, and how, we get our food. What are you eating? What are you drinking? Well perhaps you should hope you didn't get it from Conklin Dairy Farms.
Jane sent me this NY Times article while I was traveling the other day and I couldn't blog it properly. The article reports that workers at Conklin grossly maltreat their calves and cows. It was all caught on video by the folks from Mercy for Animals. Viewers are STRONGLY CAUTIONED. From the opening moments of this video you will be simply horrified. I couldn't even embed the video here on this post because I knew that it would genuinely traumatize a number of my gentle readers who are great animal lovers. But you know, people need to see this, even if they can only watch that first 20 seconds. This may be what we eat and drink really costs. If we're not going to be vegan, we owe it to the animals that we rely on to know what it costs them to fill our bellies. Really we do.
MfA reports (from their link above):
During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA's investigator documented farm workers:
• Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
• Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
• Kicking "downed" cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck – abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm's owner
• Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars – some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
• Twisting cows' tails until the bones snapped
• Punching cows' udders
• Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death
The issue of food is, as I’ve said before, one that is so complex that it is simply daunting. Sustainable food and farming, of any kind (animal or vegetable/fruit) is something that every citizen of the world needs to spend more time thinking about. When so many people who farm go hungry themselves, you have to question what we do to properly source our food. But one thing is without any questions whatsoever in my mind.
I don’t want to eat or drink anything that was got from maltreatment and cruelty. And I’m betting you don’t want to either.
