$JES 401 Jain Philosophy and Practice 2 Level 4 Book

Author(s): JAINA Education Committee
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 84

In poultry farms, chickens are considered no better than egg-producing machines. They are housed in small, congested cages known as chicken-havens. Due to the shortage of space, they naturally become violent, offensive, obsessed and quarrelsome. They attack one another in a barbarous manner. To prevent them from fighting and wounding one another, they are debeaked. Due to debeaking, they are unable to drink even water.
A fertilized egg is the pre-birth stage of a chicken. To eat a fertilized egg is to consume a chicken before its birth. Unfertilized eggs are the result of the sexual cycle of a chicken and are very unnatural. The egg produced without any contact with the male bird (and thus producing an infertile egg) is also animate because it is born out of the chicken's body with its blood and cells. No egg, fertile or infertile, is without life (inanimate). Both are non-vegetarian foods.
Animal Cruelty and Ecological Impact
The planet earth is suffering, the escalating loss of species, destruction of ancient rain forests to create pasturelands for livestock, loss of topsoil and the consequent increase of water impurities and air pollution have all been traced to the single fact of non-vegetarian food (meat, chicken, and dairy products) in the human diet. No single decision that we can make as individuals or as a race can have such a dramatic effect on the improvement of our planetary ecology as the decision to not eat non-vegetarian food. The choice of a vegetarian (absolutely no animal products) diet is an expression of a sincere consideration for reducing cruelty to animals as well as for the ecology of the planet. In addition, billions of starving people could be fed if only the raising of livestock was stopped.
Consider following facts:
Slaughtering of Animals in USA
Cattle
Calves
Hogs Chickens
Cruelty to Cows by Dairy Industries
Cows are kept pregnant continually
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•
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130,000 slaughtered per day 7,000 slaughtered per day 360,000 slaughtered per day 24,000,000 slaughtered per day
Slaughtering 70% to 80% of baby calves within six months by the Veal industry or within five years by the beef industry
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Slaughtering the mother cows five years after their fertile life (life expectancy is 15 years)
Everyday hormones or drugs are injected to increase milk yield.
Greenhouse Effect
World's 1.3 billion cows annually produce 100 million tons of methane a powerful greenhouse gas which traps 25 times as much solar heat as CO2
Water Consumption
Slaughtering animals requires hundreds of millions of gallons of water every day. The waste in these places, estimated at about two billion tons a year, mostly ends up in waterways that pollutes and kills thousands of fish, and creates a human health problem.
Livestock (Cattle, Calves, Hogs, and Pigs) production accounts for more than half of all the water consumed in USA.
Land Usage
JAIN PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE - 2