#3: The nation that is me

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”

This quote is typically attributed to Gandhi. In fact there is some debate as to whether he actually said this or not.  But considering his view on animal consumption he's as good a person as any to hang the quote on. In the end it really matters little who said it but rather the truth value. Unfortunately I can't answer conclusively to that either.

So what of it?  Is it true or not?  Well let me put it this way: as it turns out more and more studies are showing that humans who are cruel to non-humans on a regular and consistent basis become more and more cruel. In other words animal cruelty leads to more animal cruelty.  But more than that, the same studies seem to leave little doubt that animal cruelty leads to human cruelty as well.

Does this mean that if you eat meat you will become a wife beater and child abuser?  No, of course not.  But it does mean that those who work in the culture of death we call slaughterhouses and factory farms are at a greater risk of becoming abusive towards those around them as well as themselves.

This is where the quote above is only partially true in a weird sort of way.  It would be absolutely true if the cruelty was obvious.  But ask yourself this: if over 35,000,000 cows,  117,000,000 pigs and over 9,000,000,000 chickens are killed each year...where are they?  I mean, how many pigs, cows or chickens have you actually seen raised and/or slaughtered?  It isn't like you drive down a road lined with huge farms full of animals or see slaughter houses everyday.  In fact most of us can say with honesty we've never seen these facilities and if we have we either didn't know what they were or they were set far enough back from the road we couldn't hear or smell what was in them.  Quite simply, for all intents and purposes, they are hidden.

It would be quite difficult to judge a nation by how they treat their animals when the actual treatment (not to mention the animals) are hidden from the view of the general public.  But it doesn't end there.  That is only part of the problem.  The other half of the problem is found in the fact that the general public doesn't want to know what goes on in these facilities.  The arrangement is mutual.  So few people want to know that what they are eating was, a very short time ago, a sentient being.  Perhaps this is where the quote begins to gain some traction.  You would think that once someone knew what it was they were eating they would stop eating it (and many do), but unfortunately this isn't the case.  Many are able to live with an astounding dichotomy in their hearts and minds.  A dichotomy that allows them to, in some way or another, justify the cruelty which is dinner.  Perhaps this is the indictment against us.  We came, we saw, we chose to pretend.

So why am I vegan (which is what this series is suppose to be answering)?  I wouldn't go so far as to say I am morally more progressive than my meat eating counterparts.  Rather, I have judged myself as wanting in kindness and love towards others and have found a direct correlation between how I treat animals and how I treat my fellow humans.  I saw, in myself, a huge inconsistency between reality and what I was choosing to believe and found I couldn't live that way any longer.  So I changed.  I am not qualified to judge a nation, but I am, at least in a small way, qualified to judge myself.