The argument is made that if cattle, for example, are no longer able to feel pain, perhaps there will be less ethical delimas related to factory-farming practices. (Think your meat purchases come from smaller farmers? “In the U.S., four companies produce 81 percent of cows, 73 percent of sheep, 57 percent of pigs and 50 percent of chickens.”) I would argue that even though one could eliminate the ability for an animal to feel pain, it does not mean that the animal should be treated in an inhumane way. This solution also does not address the significant impact factory farming has on the environment.

For some reason, we people tend to ignore pain and suffering by any organism that cannot speak for itself. Abortions are conducted where the only voice acknowledged is the voice of the mother; yet we know that a fetus can feel pain at least by 20 weeks. Even if you don’t buy the abortion argument, circumcision is something performed on infant males widely throughout the United States. However, rarely is any pain management used with infants due to the concerns this may have on development. Yet the idea of an adult male being circumcised without managing the pain seems torturous. Tests have been conducted to objectively measure a baby’s response to circumcision verses other early medical procedures. These tests indicate that infants do indeed feel a significant level of pain during this procedure. We debeak chickens and we cut the tails off of dogs, sheep, and other animals. We declaw cats. I’m sure there are other examples. Yet, we only perform these actions on animals/infants that cannot speak to the pain they are in.

Perhaps I am going off on a tangent. And, true, one could argue that genetically altering the livestock to feel less pain would take away some of the complaints. However, one must also consider the drawbacks. First, and foremost, how will not feeling pain affect an animal’s natural ability to learn from and avoid dangerous situations? Will there be pigs chewing their own legs out of boredom and no pain signals to tell them to stop? Will cows run through barbed wire without concern for being cut? There is actually a precedent. A family had six children who could not feel pain. A blessing in disguise? Not so. When the story was run, they had multiple injuries and one had accidentally killed himself by jumping from a roof. A real question that must be considered is, “what are the ramifications from such a genetic mutation?” Also, “what effect will this have on the human consumers of this mutated meat?”

Perhaps this idea of removing pain from animals will be a non-starter. I hope so. But it completely falls in line with other solutions the agricultural industry has created to address problems with factory-farming:

• Problem: Consumption of meat has increased dramatically with less available land and people raising animals.
• Solution: Crowd animals into small cages and process and butcher them as quickly as possible.
• Problem: Due to crowding, chickens are more aggressive and cannibalistic.
• Solution: Debeak the chickens to reduce mortality and damage to other birds.
• Problem: Piglets suck milk from the mother far too long before fattening them up for slaughter, affecting bottom line.
• Solution: Remove piglets from mother sooner and begin feeding solid food to increase growth.
• Problem: Pigs suck and chew on tails of other pigs because they were removed from sucking on the mother too soon.
• Solution Dock the tails of the pigs to keep them from chewing on each other.
• Problem: Animals are becoming sick due to the overcrowding.
• Solution: Pump them full of antibiotics.

So, the new problem and solution: Animals are experiencing discomfort and pain due to overcrowding, lack of effective care, and lack of supervision of slaughtering procedures. Solution? Genetically alter them to not experience pain!

One cool thing that happened this week is a coworker and friend gave me some “yard eggs.”  I had never heard of these before.  Well, she grew up on “the riverbanks” and we joke all the time about her country words and phrases.  This is another one, that means that the eggs come from chickens in the yard.  Her sister raises chickens (and I hope to get a couple from her at some point).  So, she gave me a dozen yard eggs.  I am going to feel ok eating these eggs.

yard-eggs

So, this is my attempt at explaining my own personal reasoning behind it. First, I respect the many people who do this, and have been for a much much longer period than myself. I only wish I had started sooner. I started thinking about doing it before I got off of work for the summer. My main reasoning behind it was that I didn’t like that I put all kinds of hormones and other products into my body that are not naturally found inside the meat. Also, I would prefer to know that animals were not dying just to feed my taste for chicken, pork, and beef. However, I was never able to really stop. I limited myself to chicken, but still did eat meat.

The youth group I work with took a mission trip to Heifer International, an organization that provides training and animals to people in poor nations. While there, the food service offered vegetarian options, which I took when available. I also learned more about animal and water management and how the way factory farming in the United States hurts our environment and could be considered cruel to the animals themselves. So, at the end of the trip, I made a commitment to myself to become vegetarian.

Although that setup my original reasoning, my reasons for continuing to not eat meat have changed based on research on the topic. I now believe my main reason for not eating meat is because of the poor living conditions of the animals. I have so far not been able to give up milk or cheese, and sometimes eggs. I know that even organic products can be mistreated and abused. For example, when egg-laying farms have male chicks, they suffocate them in bags or grind them up alive since they have no purpose. Eating chickens that have their beaks clipped, are caged in very small spaces, where the waste is so toxic they get skin burns… this is not right. Even food animals deserve to be treated well while they are alive.

I’m not some nutcase that wants everyone to live like I have been for the past couple months. Just want people to recognize where their food comes from; what the life is like for those animals before they are slaughtered. I think those are fair issues most people can get behind. And by having more education, perhaps people will start looking at other options.

For an idea of where your food comes from, look here and select an animal under the “meet the animals” section on the left.