In the Name Of Food
By Janet Riddle
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

Our habit requires that blood be shed
so to slaughter the cattle head
Men with prods and a whip
pack them in trucks for one last trip

Inside they struggle for fresh air
the horror is seen in their stare
Made to suffer in the cold or heat
just because we call them meat

The last stop, the slaughter grounds
where they'll be reduced to simple pounds
From their journey they are wore
but they must endure even more

Down the ramp they slip and slide
with no place for the injured to hide
Forced, they enter the winding coral
so large and wide they scrape the rail

They don't yet know where they are led
or what is waiting in the killing shed
Pushed along like a food machine
they follow each other until the death is seen

To look ahead at each who fell
the nearing doom a caustic smell
Moved along, the one ahead drops
in utter terror, he rears and stops

Racing heart, wide eyed with fright
the panic sets in at the sight
Now he knows the path to his fate
begins right here at this bloody gate

If only this were a mistake
but the final step he was forced to take
Behind him the gate will close
all because of the food we chose

A captive bolt placed on his head
stunned he falls but he's not dead
The assembly line begins here
where billions come every year

In this room of bloody stains
a single back hoof is attached to chains
Off the ground his body is flung
to await the knife he is hung

But he wakes up, this isn't rare
and he's too much for one leg to bare
Tendons tear and bones break
he swings and struggles for life's sake

Ghastly terror and unrelenting pain
his screams and bellows are in vain
Men unfeeling to his brutal strife
slice him open with a knife

His body quivers, blood pours
out a simple meal it's all about
One last gasp as he's bled
his anguish over, now he's dead