Red-winged Blackbird
It is because we are hoping to find the government to blame for the wildlife deaths, all the time KNOWING that WE are to blame for millions upon millions of domestic AND wild animal deaths each and every year. Need some statistics? Very few of you were willing to read the book I could not stop talking about last year, Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Why is that? You have time to spend hours online for blackbirds, but not an hour or two for this book, which tells story after story of how the cows and pigs we eat are quite often still alive as the hide is being pulled from their bodies? Chickens and turkeys still alive, throats partially slit, as they are lowered into boiling water? Too much reality when WE are the cause, isn't it? Too hard to look in the mirror--much easier to look towards the Pentagon.
Don't get me wrong--I'm no Pentagon lover, I just think we REALLY need to step back and take a good, hard look at ourselves before we spend any more time lamenting birds we usually just swear at for shitting on our cars.
Here are some statistics for you:
USDA slaughter stats 2008
Cattle: 35,507,500
Pigs: 116,558,900
Chickens: 9,075,261,000
Layer hens: 69,683,000
Broiler chickens: 9,005,578,000
Turkeys: 271,245,000
Source: The Farm Report (a publication of the Farm Animal Reform Movement)
Taken from the website for the Animal Liberation Front. Doubt the organization if you choose, but the USDA numbers speak for themselves.
What about hunting? How many wild birds do we shoot each year? And that's okay?
Thank you if you read this, whether you agree or not.
Read more!
I woke up very upset this morning, and had to wait a while before I could determine the source. Anger is a mask for other emotons--usually fear or sadness, and in my case, is was sadness. You can't work through an emotion if you don't know how or why it got there--or what it really is. (Go to enough shrinks, you learn a few tricks.)
It's about the birds. You know the ones--some 5000 Red-winged Blackbirds that fell out of the sky--most dead, some still staggering--on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. Then 100,000 Drum fish wash up dead 125 miles away. And now more reports coming from other states AND other countries.
Conspiracy-lovers (and the media) are ready to declare a National Holiday, they're so excited. I am deeply concerned, but not excited, and not altogether mystified. Whatever the cause, humans were most likely behind it. That just saddens me, but in no way surprises me.
What actually makes me sadder is that while all these people are spending hours online researching the cause of these die-offs, no one says a word about mass killings at factory farms when they go grocery shopping. So now we care about Red-winged Blackbirds but don't give a damn about the treatment of domestic animals? Ones that follow us, trust us, take care of us... Animals we condone the torture and killing of on a daily basis so we can enjoy our cheeseburgers? Why do we turn a blind eye to these practices but not the recent wildlife deaths?
It's about the birds. You know the ones--some 5000 Red-winged Blackbirds that fell out of the sky--most dead, some still staggering--on New Year's Eve in Arkansas. Then 100,000 Drum fish wash up dead 125 miles away. And now more reports coming from other states AND other countries.
Conspiracy-lovers (and the media) are ready to declare a National Holiday, they're so excited. I am deeply concerned, but not excited, and not altogether mystified. Whatever the cause, humans were most likely behind it. That just saddens me, but in no way surprises me.
What actually makes me sadder is that while all these people are spending hours online researching the cause of these die-offs, no one says a word about mass killings at factory farms when they go grocery shopping. So now we care about Red-winged Blackbirds but don't give a damn about the treatment of domestic animals? Ones that follow us, trust us, take care of us... Animals we condone the torture and killing of on a daily basis so we can enjoy our cheeseburgers? Why do we turn a blind eye to these practices but not the recent wildlife deaths?
Jersey cows
It is because we are hoping to find the government to blame for the wildlife deaths, all the time KNOWING that WE are to blame for millions upon millions of domestic AND wild animal deaths each and every year. Need some statistics? Very few of you were willing to read the book I could not stop talking about last year, Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Why is that? You have time to spend hours online for blackbirds, but not an hour or two for this book, which tells story after story of how the cows and pigs we eat are quite often still alive as the hide is being pulled from their bodies? Chickens and turkeys still alive, throats partially slit, as they are lowered into boiling water? Too much reality when WE are the cause, isn't it? Too hard to look in the mirror--much easier to look towards the Pentagon.
Don't get me wrong--I'm no Pentagon lover, I just think we REALLY need to step back and take a good, hard look at ourselves before we spend any more time lamenting birds we usually just swear at for shitting on our cars.
Here are some statistics for you:
USDA slaughter stats 2008
Cattle: 35,507,500
Pigs: 116,558,900
Chickens: 9,075,261,000
Layer hens: 69,683,000
Broiler chickens: 9,005,578,000
Turkeys: 271,245,000
Source: The Farm Report (a publication of the Farm Animal Reform Movement)
Taken from the website for the Animal Liberation Front. Doubt the organization if you choose, but the USDA numbers speak for themselves.
Pigs in a factory farm. They live their entire--albeit short--lives in these pens.
What about hunting? How many wild birds do we shoot each year? And that's okay?
Canada Goose
From the website for In Defense of Animals:
"With an arsenal of rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, bows and arrows, hunters kill more than 200 million animals yearly - crippling, orphaning, and harassing millions more. The annual death toll in the U.S. includes 42 million mourning doves, 30 million squirrels, 28 million quail, 25 million rabbits, 20 million pheasants, 14 million ducks, 6 million deer, and thousands of geese, bears, moose, elk, antelope, swans, cougars, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, and other woodland creatures. (Compiled by The Fund for Animals with data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies.)"
Specific page for this quote found here.
"With an arsenal of rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, bows and arrows, hunters kill more than 200 million animals yearly - crippling, orphaning, and harassing millions more. The annual death toll in the U.S. includes 42 million mourning doves, 30 million squirrels, 28 million quail, 25 million rabbits, 20 million pheasants, 14 million ducks, 6 million deer, and thousands of geese, bears, moose, elk, antelope, swans, cougars, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, and other woodland creatures. (Compiled by The Fund for Animals with data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies.)"
Specific page for this quote found here.
White-tailed Deer
The word we are looking for here, I think, is hypocrisy. We are on very thin ice right now. If you want to care about blackbirds, then I'm afraid you have to care about ALL the animals. We don't get to pick and choose. They all have brains and beating hearts.
The word we are looking for here, I think, is hypocrisy. We are on very thin ice right now. If you want to care about blackbirds, then I'm afraid you have to care about ALL the animals. We don't get to pick and choose. They all have brains and beating hearts.
Where have ours gone?
Piglets in a factory farm
Thank you if you read this, whether you agree or not.
