I love animals. Future plans of mine include living on a small farm, raising my own animals, and growing my own food. I loved animals so much in highschool I was vegetarian for two years, despite the health problems that arose due to a lack of protein.
In today’s culture there is a black and white answer in response to the cruelty animals endure within the meat packing industry: if you care, you’re vegetarian or vegan. If you eat meat, however, you must not care about what happens to animals before they end up on your plate. I bought into this way of thinking for years eating chicken with a guilty conscious, feeling a tug on my heart as I bit into a hamburger. It wasn’t until recently after watching a documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machines, that I realized that while God gave us animals to eat, He didn’t give us animals to mistreat.
The documentary aims to expose how horribly unjust the living conditions and the treatment of animals truly are within lab testing and industries such as meat packing, dairy farming, and fur trading. While it does indeed prove the horrific conditions and treatment of these it, also proves how much society needs these animals. Our society depends on these creatures, these God-given creatures, for nourishment and sustenance, yet we don’t bat an eye when they’re caged, beaten, and lined up for slaughter in a way that imitates the conveyor belt in the dining hall on which we line our used dishes. We treat these animals like dirty dishes. We objectify them.
Instead of seeing them as living, breathing creatures that are capable of feeling, we look at animals and see dinner. I’m not going to address the whole ‘do animals have a soul’ debate, but one thing is a given: animals feel. They feel physical pain just like you and I do. Pigs feel the pain in their legs from being caged and unable to move. Chickens feel the pain of fellow birds pecking them until they’re raw and bloody due to lack of space. Cows feel the pain of being branded with a hot iron, or metal clips in their ears. Animals feel pain.
My job at a small Christian camp this summer gave me the opportunity to care for domestic farm animals such as pigs, chickens, goats, calves, and even ducks. Caring for these animals every day for two months led me to form a bond with these creatures, along with a strengthened sense of love and respect for animals in general. At the end of the summer my pigs, Harry and Lewis, were slaughtered. They were three weeks old when they arrived at camp, still small and shy. I played with them, fed them, loved them, petted them, and watched them grow, all while knowing they’d soon die.
Morbid? Slightly, but these animals were given everything they needed and wanted. They were loved, respected, and adored. This is the way God intended us to treat animals, not in a way takes away any connect or bond, replacing it with a production line. We have domesticated farm animals. They are dependent on us to nurture them, care for them, and feed them. However, when they turn to us for help meeting these needs, we slaughter them without a second thought. Much like the planet, we are called to watch over and care for the animals God has placed before us. We can’t treat some animals we encounter (i.e. dogs and cats) with respect, and disregard the others. If we’re going to utilize them as a food source, which we have so readily done for centuries, we need to be able to respect and appreciate the role they play in life. People today care so much for the environment, and are actively taking steps to improve our way of living through creating and utilizing alternative energy sources. Aren’t animals part of this environment we care so much for? Shouldn’t we be fighting for both the humans and creatures of this planet?
I realize it’s difficult for us, as students, to afford farm raised ground beef, that’s not my challenge for you today, nor is it to stop eating meat all together. I’m challenging you to be aware. Do your research, know that cage free doesn’t mean cruelty free, know which companies are committed to the humane treatment of animals. Take one day of the week and abstain from eating meat in a way of honoring the sacrifice and the treatment of the animals that have given you sustenance. As you bite into that hamburger, drink a glass of milk, or nibble on an egg, think of the animal that gave their life for you to be able to eat. Say a prayer of thanks to God for providing us with ways to nourish ourselves, then pray that the senseless, inhumane killings of animals one day may cease. My wish is that one day you will be able to look at a cow and see, not a steak, but the beautiful, durable, complex creature that God gifted us with.