________________
12 - Alternatives to Animal Abuse
Pramoda Chitrabhanu Jain Meditation International Center, New York
12 - Alternatives to Animal Abuse
The information in this article will help you minimize the daily suffering and exploitation of living creatures. Most people increase their intake of eggs and milk when they start a vegetarian diet. Many vegetarians do not realize the gross exploitation involved in supporting the dairy industry, as well as the wool, leather goods and fur industries. Here are some of the facts and alternatives for you to consider.
Facts about Violence: Factory Farming is the method of intensive breeding used today which employs high production assembly line technology and reduces mammals and birds to production units confined under the most inhumane conditions. Stress, disease, pain and suffering for the animals are the inevitable results.
Cows: The cow, a naturally domicile animal, has been turned into a flesh and milk machine, drugged and injected with hormones and antibiotics. She ultimately suffers the horrors of the slaughterhouse when she is no longer profitable as a producer of milk and veal. Cows are artificially forced into a continuous state of pregnancy and made to produce 400 times their normal amount of milk. This results in widespread infectious diseases unknown to them under natural conditions and necessitates the use of various antibiotics.
Newborn calves are taken from their mothers so that we can drink the milk intended for them. They are placed in dark wooden crates, fed an anemia inducing liquid diet, all to produce white veal.
Rennet, used to curdle most cheeses, is obtained from the stomach of a freshly killed very young calf.
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
