Some thoughts about the Culture of Life

Today, someone told me about a mother cat and kitten who were living near a highway behind a restaurant. The people in the restaurant and the other nearby businesses were giving the kitten milk (guaranteed to aggravate any digestive problems caused by worms) and "looking out for it." No one had called the animal rescue organization. One adolescent had taken the kitten home--with no regard for the mother--but was told by her parents that she couldn't keep it, so she dumped it back in its spot by the highway.

I did what I could to facilitate a rescue, which I think will occur shortly, but what if I hadn't come along? People dump animals wherever they like. Our two cats, Roxie and Velma, were unwanted by the woman who fed their mother, and who didn't want to feed the kittens, but who never bothered to have the mother spayed. A few years ago, someone dumped a mother cat and two tiny kittens in front of my office. People dump kittens over the local bridge. A neighbor of mine told another neighbor that if his dog bothered him, to "just shoot it."

I recently read a letter to the editor of a major daily about how terrible a man was who wrote a letter supporting cockfighting. One of the points he made was that the roosters in cockfights have a better life than the chickens on people's plates. As much as I am opposed to cockfighting, I agree. The woman who wrote the letter said that chickens were put here by God for us to eat, so that was okay. I then wrote a letter, which was published, saying that if the woman was eating grocery store chicken, she was participating in more cruelty than cockfight enthusiasts could ever imagine.

I do not eat meat, but I understand that most people think it is okay to do so. Though I do not understand this choice--because it involves killing--I accept that it is the popular thing to do. But I do not accept eating meat that comes from animals who were severely tortured and then underwent painful deaths, and that is what factory farming is all about. And I do not accept the use of cosmetics and household products whose companies test on animals. I do everything I can to avoid medicines tested on animals, also, and look for the day when this practice will be abolished (the Clinton administration took a big step in doing this, but it was wiped out by former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman).

Recently, someone left a comment on this blog about how frustrated she gets that the same people who get so upset by pet abuse don't think twice about eating factory farm meat or using animal-tested cosmetics. Sentimentality about cute puppies and kittens is useful if it helps the puppies and kittens, but it is usually just a "bad feeling" that goes away before its bearer has to face the realities of our culture's use of non-human animals as garbage.

The non-humans feel pain. They feel loneliness. They feel confinement. They feel impending death. They hear the screams of those who go before them.