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A N I M A L S -by Will Kemp
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Having been 'vegetarian' for the last 21 years and 'vegan' for
the last 6, i'm well used to mockery and mild abuse over what people
see as my 'diet' (In fact it's a lot more than a diet - i don't use
leather, wool, commercial soap etc etc...) Fair enough, i suppose -
i neither expect people to understand nor particularly care whether
they do or not. However, when the hostility comes from people who
consider themselves part of the anarchist movement, i find it a
little more disturbing.
For me, the decision not to subsidise the animal abuse industry
was purely a political one. Any health benefits i may have gained
(and i certainly have!) are purely fringe benefits.
The refusal of certain elements of the anarchist movement to see
the animal industry as an important issue reminds me very simply of
the refusal of certain types of communists etc to see sexism as an
issue ("we'll deal with that AFTER the revolution!") That attitude
towards women is (at least publicly) unthinkable in the anarchist
movement in australia and i'm certain that the recognition of the
animal issue will go the same way before too long. Of course, there
will still be the same small hardcore of reactionaries within the
movement who continue to dismiss it but, as usual, they will be left
behind and forgotten.
So, why do i think it's important, and why particularly as an
anarchist issue?
Well, to start with, i can't see the dividing line between
seeing ourselves as superior to animals and therefore justified in
abusing them and seeing ourselves as superior to other people and
exploiting and abusing them too. The refusal to respect other lives,
setting ourselves up as superior to the whole of the rest of nature,
is where the slow path to capitalism, slavery, environmental
destruction and all the other evils we are opposed to begins.
To put ourselves above animals is to begin constructing the
hierarchy that anarchy is the opposite of.
This attitude towards nature is the basis of colonialism. It is
the european way. It is the way of the church and the ruling class.
It shouldn't be the way of people who profess to believe in anarchy.
I can't speak for aboriginal people, but to the best of my
understanding, their traditional beliefs didn't include any kind of
superiority over animals or nature. True, they killed animals for
food, but generally this was done with respect. And they didn't
imprison and torture them for years before eating them like we do.
I've got no objection to eating meat - so long as the animal has
lived their life in freedom in the wild and are killed cleanly and
with respect (and by chance, as in hunting). This is just my
personal view and i know a lot of other vegos and vegans would
totally disagree with me here.
*
Apart from the exploitation of animals as a starting point for
an oppressive social system, there are other important political
points to be made on this subject.
Everyone nowadays - almost down to the last redneck - feels that
we must start to take some care of the environment. And most people
believe we should save old forests and even grow some new ones.
However, this belief doesn't fit with reliance on animal products.
Millions and millions of acres of forest, in australia alone,
have been cleared for grazing cattle and sheep. When forests are
cleared for this purpose, the damage done by chopping down the trees
is multiplied massively by having hoofed animals trampling all over
it. Erosion from this cause has left billions of tons of excellent
topsoil at the bottom of the ocean. And they're still clearing land
for grazing. Bulldozers (pioneered by Joh Bjelke Petersen) make it
faster and easier than ever before
It's not only possible, but it's easy to live without using
any animal products. And it would be much easier if more people did
it. Eliminating dairy, eggs and meat from your diet, means you need
only a small fraction of the ammount of land used for producing your
food. I'm not sure the exact figures, but it's something in the
region of 10% or less. So if all your protein etc came from
vegetable sources, 90% of farm land could be reafforested.
Then, of course, there would be a lot more places for wild
animals to live and anyone who really wanted to could supplement
their diet occasionally with a bit of wild meat (and it tastes a lot
better than the commercial shit!)
So, to say, "save the forests" while eating your cheese sandwich
is not far short of hypocrisy. Where will the forests grow if you're
using all the land to satisfy your crazy diet?
*
Crazy? Yes, certainly crazy, whatever way you look at it. Leave
aside the animal abuse side again, if you can, and think about what
you're actually eating.
Milk - it's a good food for calves, but not very good
nutritionally for humans. (Yes, i know that's not what the dairy
marketing board advertising tells you. But if you believe all the
propaganda, why are you an anarchist?) In fact a very significant
proportion of the population are actually allergic to it. Asthma,
bronchitis, arthritis and numerous other common ailments can often
be linked to the consumption of dairy products. Add to that the good
whack of antibiotics you get every time you drink milk or eat cheese
(they inject it directly into the udders to prevent mastitis) and
the whole thing begins to look a little unsavoury!
Eggs. If you saw the pale, sickly, malnourished, featherless (to
say nothing of depressed) things they keep in cages in battery
farms, you might wonder what possible goodness there could be in
eggs that come out of them. And they feed them their own shit to
avoid wastage! Free-range (if they genuinely are) - well, i don't
fancy it personally, but i can't think of much to object to there.
And as for meat, well it hardly bears thinking about! Again, you
get a good whack of antibiotics with it (no wonder immune system
diseases are getting big!). Not only that, but it comes with a good
dose of growth hormones (i wonder if they help cancers grow...) and
then of course all the wide range of preservatives and shit they
stick in it after it's dead. To say nothing of the fact that the
higher up a food is in the food chain (animals are higher than
vegetables, for example) the more concentrated all the toxins from
pollution, radiation etc become.
And i wouldn't even dare take the lid off a meat pie!
Fish? Mildly better, i guess - due to generally living in
freedom. But working on a prawn trawler made me realise it's not
much better than farming. Commercial fishing is not only appallingly
destructive and wasteful (for every ton of prawns we got, we threw
back a good ton of wasted dead fish), but also commercial fish is
pretty rank by the time it gets to you. Sodium metabisulphite is the
fisherman's friend. They soak everything in it to stop is showing
how off it is. And generally if prawns start going black from lying
in the hot sun too long, they whack them in a tank of ordinary
household bleach to make them look fresh again before they freeze
them!
*
Well, i'm afraid i've come to the point where i have to talk
about the treatment of animals in the industry. So if you're about
to eat, or if you're a bit squeamish maybe you'd better skip this
bit!
Whatever your views on food, animal rights and ecology, i can't
see how you can justify paying people to torture animals for you.
Chooks in cages, the same size as themselves, under artificial
lighting and fed on their own shit. If you've ever been in prison,
you might have an inkling of how they feel.
Pigs in concrete pens, just long enough for them to stand in but
not turn round. And stand is all they can do as their tails have
been broken to stop them sitting in their own shit (saves cleaning
out the pens, i guess!).
And cows. How would you like it if they strapped you in a rack
and a big macho bastard bull came along and raped you. Then, after
going through the months of pregnancy, they took your baby off you
(that goes off to become veal - another gruesome story). And cows
really do get upset by the loss of their calves. Then, twice every
day, they herd you into a concrete shed and stick a machine on your
tits to suck out the milk that should have been your calf's. And so
on and so on.
When they kill chooks, they hang them up by their feet on a
conveyor which takes them past a blade and supposedly cuts their
heads off (alive and struggling, of course). But what happens to the
ones that lift their head up a bit?
Pigs are shot in the head with a captive bolt stun gun and then
dropped into boiling water. Boiled alive - and often fully
conscious, as the stun guns don't work very well.
Some truck drivers won't drive animal transport because of the
horrible suffering and death that goes on behind them when they are
doing it.
Well, i won't go on. I hope i've put you off your dinner!
* * *