Hemchandracharya Diwakar Chitrakatha 040

Author(s): Nityanandsuri, Chidanandmuni, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Mahavir Seva Trust Mumbai

Page 36

chain to their slaughter. The tragedy is that an animal can legally be kept in agony, sick or with broken bones, simply because alive it will fetch a higher price for a rancher. 45. Fifteen million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal production every year. In 1988, animal drug sales came to $2.5 billion. 46. Meat industry apologists claim that livestock do not compete with humans for edible food because they live on forage humans cannot eat. In fact, 70% of all the grain produced in the U.S. is fed to livestock.
47. Animal health in the farm of old came from exercise, sunlight and freedom to pack or root in the soil. Today, animals are packed indoors and barely kept alive with drugs and vitamin injections. The battle against bacteria in the factory farm shed is a constant concern. Misting the animals with insecticides has become routine. In the chicken house, the birds are fed chemicals to control flies which stay active in their droppings, able to kill larvae.
48. The great Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies the nation's bread basket with water, is being pumped dry, primarily due to agribusiness growing grain to feed livestock. Spanning over 8 midwestern states with an area three times the size of the state of New York, this natural blessing from the last Ice Age may be gone in 30 years.
49. Meat contains approximately 14 times more pesticides than plant foods; dairy products contain 5-1/2 times more pesticides than plant foods.
50. There are 20-30 thousand animal drugs currently in use. As many as 90% have not been approved by the FDA.
51. The Physicians Committee for Responsible
To be contd.........
Content Courtesy: Pamela Teisler
Medicine, a group of 3,000 physicians, came out in 1991 with the "New Four Food Groups". They are: fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Meat, poultry, fish, nuts, seeds and oils have been termed "optional" foods, not considered necessary for health.
52. With every one of their natural instincts restricted and unfulfilled, pigs in today's factories will take to "tail-biting". Insane, bored and frustrated, these naturally intelligent and playful creatures may be driven to gnawing neurotically on one another's pig tails and hind ends. If not prevented, a mauled pig may die from an attack and then be eaten by his attackers. Mauled pigs cannot be sold, so they become a problem to the produce. The answer? Pig tails are routinely amputated and pigs are kept in total darkness except for feeding time.
53. The Bureau of Labor has listed poultry
processing as one of the most hazardous occupations, as workers can easily contract diseases from the sick animals in their midst. Workers in the meat packing industry suffer injuries in the workplace at 10 times the national average, primarily due to damage to tendons and nerves from repeating the same motion up to 8,000 times an hour. 54. In egg factories all over the country, male chicks are weeded out and disposed of by "chick-pullers". A half a million chicks a day are literally thrown en masse into plastic bags where they are crushed and suffocated. Or they may be ground up while still alive. 55. Author and scientific director for Earth Save Foundation Michael Klapper, M.D. writes, "The price tag on the supermarket chuck steak does not include the loss of irreplaceable topsoil; yet future generations will pay dearly."
Jai Jinendra
Pramoda Chitrabhanu