on waking nightmares
"I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect." -Temple Grandin
I finally got round to watching Temple Grandin. Claire Danes is really amazing in the titular role(no boob jokes, boys!). The thing is, though, that I missed some of the point. Instead of a story of her triumph through adversity, I saw the story of a woman who understood our responsibilities to domesticated animals, and sought to change the way that we treat them. I saw terrified cattle, and unnecessary cruelty. It boggles the mind that her more humane methods have not been adopted in every single feedlot, every single slaughterhouse.
And so I spent the evening trying to wipe the images of those poor cows from my mind. I’m not even a vegetarian anymore- I eat fish. I certainly eat dairy and eggs. I try to remember to buy those things from humane sources. I drink goats’ milk when I can afford it, when I can find it. I watch the good fish/bad fish lists. I’m not perfect. I sure as hell not disciplined enough to be vegan. I keep my mouth shut unless someone asks me directly, and even then, I’m pretty quiet about it, because I’m not a perfect model of how to be super nice to animals.
But every time that someone learns of my self-imposed dietary restrictions, they tease me. They remind me that meat tastes good.
Sure. I miss steak. But I cannot ever forget what I saw the first time I drove past a feedlot. I cannot ever forget the cattle limping through knee high piles of mud and shit. I cannot forget the cattle packed in so tightly that they did not have the choice to move. There isn’t a thing in the world that tastes that good.
So I couldn’t sleep, last night, until I cried out the anguish that bled over from the small screen in my living room, until somebody listened to how much it hurt.
I finally got round to watching Temple Grandin. Claire Danes is really amazing in the titular role(no boob jokes, boys!). The thing is, though, that I missed some of the point. Instead of a story of her triumph through adversity, I saw the story of a woman who understood our responsibilities to domesticated animals, and sought to change the way that we treat them. I saw terrified cattle, and unnecessary cruelty. It boggles the mind that her more humane methods have not been adopted in every single feedlot, every single slaughterhouse.
And so I spent the evening trying to wipe the images of those poor cows from my mind. I’m not even a vegetarian anymore- I eat fish. I certainly eat dairy and eggs. I try to remember to buy those things from humane sources. I drink goats’ milk when I can afford it, when I can find it. I watch the good fish/bad fish lists. I’m not perfect. I sure as hell not disciplined enough to be vegan. I keep my mouth shut unless someone asks me directly, and even then, I’m pretty quiet about it, because I’m not a perfect model of how to be super nice to animals.
But every time that someone learns of my self-imposed dietary restrictions, they tease me. They remind me that meat tastes good.
Sure. I miss steak. But I cannot ever forget what I saw the first time I drove past a feedlot. I cannot ever forget the cattle limping through knee high piles of mud and shit. I cannot forget the cattle packed in so tightly that they did not have the choice to move. There isn’t a thing in the world that tastes that good.
So I couldn’t sleep, last night, until I cried out the anguish that bled over from the small screen in my living room, until somebody listened to how much it hurt.