EAT FOR LIFE.....
Some people ignore dietary advice to cut back on or cut out animal products, perhaps hoping that a “magic pill” will come along that will make their illnesses go away. Common sense tells us that prevention is the best medicine. More and more people are finding wonderful ways to tempt their taste buds without tempting fate.
Vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters. It’s never too late to change our habits for the better. Changing our diet isn’t nearly as inconvenient as enduring a heart bypass operation, suffering paralysis from a stroke, or facing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer! Going vegetarian is the single best thing we can do for our health.
Pigs, cows, and chickens are beings with feelings—they experience love, happiness, loneliness, and fear, just as dogs, cats, and people do. More than 25 billion animals are killed by the meat industry each year—in ways that would horrify any compassionate person.
What happens to chickens?
Chickens are
inquisitive and interesting animals who are thought to be as intelligent as
cats, dogs, and even primates. When in their natural surroundings—away from
factory farms—they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one
another and develop pecking orders, love and care for their young, and enjoy a
full life that includes dust-bathing, making nests, roosting in trees, and more.
The majority of “broiler chickens” and “laying hens” live in vast warehouses
where lighting and ventilation are controlled by machines and where a system
failure means mass death. To increase profits, farmers drug and genetically
manipulate broiler chickens; as a result, many birds suffer from painful,
crippling bone disorders and spinal defects. Laying hens are confined seven or
eight to a cage; their wings atrophy from disuse, and their legs and feet grow
twisted and deformed from standing on slanted wire cage bottoms.
What happens to pigs?
Pigs on factory farms are castrated and have hunks of flesh ripped from their ears, bits of their teeth torn out with wire cutters, and their tails chopped off—all without painkillers. Sometimes stalls are stacked, and excrement from pigs in the upper tiers falls on those below. The accumulation of filth, feces, and urine in the sheds causes more than one-quarter of pigs to suffer from agonizing mange, and three-fourths of pigs have pneumonia by the time that they reach the slaughterhouse. Drugs and genetic breeding cause pigs to become so weak that they can barely walk, and 400,000 a year are crippled when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. Once there, workers jab metal hooks into pigs’ eyes, mouths, or rectums to force them to move faster.
What Happens to
“Beef Cattle”?
“Beef cattle” spend most of their lives on overcrowded feedlots. Ranchers have
found that they can maximize profits by giving each steer less than 20 square
feet of living space—the equivalent of putting a dozen half-ton steers in a
typical American bedroom! Steers undergo painful procedures like branding,
castration, and dehorning without anesthetics. They often die of pneumonia,
dehydration, or heat exhaustion from spending long periods without food or water
in overcrowded trucks while being transported to feedlots or slaughterhouses.
How about fish?
Like other animals, fish feel pain and experience fear. Dr. Donald Broom, animal
welfare advisor to the British government, says, “Anatomically, physiologically,
and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and
mammals.”
When dragged from the ocean depths, fish undergo excruciating
decompression—often the intense internal pressure ruptures their swim bladders,
pops out their eyes, and pushes their stomachs through their mouths. Then
they’re tossed onboard, where many slowly suffocate or are crushed to death.
Others are still alive when their throats and bellies are cut open.
| From Ruthless to Merciful- The Transition | Indian Vegan Recipes |
Courtesy-PETA