After reading about Americans being “heartbroken” knowing that South Koreans eat dogs, I was angry. It does seem extremely barbaric and hard to image to us whose cultural story is different. The story we have been told and are perpetuating is that it is normal and somehow okay to control, kill and eat farm animals. It has been demonstrated that mammals and birds have a complex sensory and emotional make-up. They not only feel physical pain but also suffer from emotional distress.
Where is our compassion and humanity? We are the only species that drinks another species milk when we have other alternatives. What we eat is a learned behavior a story we keep telling ourselves. How can we be of two minds, we know the animal has to die for us to eat them. Die in horrible ways. Did you know that pigs are the fourth most intelligent behind chips, dolphins and elephants? They are smarter than dogs and can learn their name by 3 weeks old. Yet we confine female pigs to small crates where they cannot turn over, impregnate them over and over and then take their babies.
Change the story in your head. Sixteen million Americans are now vegetarian and evolving the compassion gene.
How can we turn a blind eye to what we are doing to farm animals? No one wants to know what really happens to these innocent animals in the farming industry so that they can have milk, eggs and meat. It is shocking and cruel.
Marilyn Gratz, Lima
