Complacency and Denial....The Meat Industry Counts on it!
Proposition 2, the Standards for Confining Farm Animals, is a California ballot proposition in the state's general election on November 4, 2008. The proposition would add a chapter to Division 20 of California's Health and Safety Code to prohibit the confinement of certain farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to tum around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs. The measure would deal with three types of confinement: veal crates, battery cages, and sow gestation crates.
In this mornings "Letters to the Editor", letter writer Colleen Cecil of Oroville speaks out against proposition 2 citing the fact that the cost of certain animal products will most certainly rise. She's right in saying that eggs will probably end up being shipped in from other states. However, if this were a national issue, as it should be, then the playing field would be leveled.
Animals are not plants. They are higher on the evolutionary scale because they have mobility and they feel things....like pain. So why does the industry treat them like they are stationary plants? You guessed it....profit margins. And we allow it because it keeps our cost down. But to what degree should we abandon our humanity to save money?
The industries that produce our meat depend on our complacency in this area, and we are more than willing to give it to them. We practice our mass denial because we want our meat and we want it as cheap as possible. If we saw, if we were better educated, if we knew, and if we dealt with the reality of what is going on, we might be willing to pay more for our meat in order for the animals to have better living conditions. Or better yet, many of us might quit eating animals altogether. Denial is bliss. Knowledge....well sometimes it's just a bitch.