By Robert Cohen - [email protected]
www.notmilk.com
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is dead, and
his gruesome murder was recorded on videotape.
Pearl's grisly death was carefully planned. The Federal
Bureau of Investigation is analyzing the actual tape of his murder.
Pearl's last words were:
"I am a Jew, my mother is a Jew."
Pearl was then killed by a man holding a large knife.
The man slashed Pearl's throat, and the expression on Pearl's face and
the pleading look in his eyes will be forever replayed in the nightmares
of the horrified investigators who have reviewed the taped evidence.
Pearls last thoughts must have included a very confused
"Why are you doing this to me?"
As Pearl was bleeding to death, his executioner
completely decapitated him. The final slash of the knife severed a
spinal cord that delivered no further signals of pain. Fifteen to thirty
seconds later, all of the oxygen-sustaining blood had dripped from
Pearl's brain, and the final thought processes delivered Pearl into his
gentle oblivion.
I have seen that same look many times before. I turned
away from the animals I killed. Some lives were ended in the name of
science. As a researcher, I once recognized that brain chemistry changes
with anesthesia, so I decapitated animals while holding them in my hands
without administering pain killers.
As a fisherman, I cut off the heads of living breathing
creatures. As a hunter, I saw that "look" as animals took their last
breath, then exhaled what I believed was their soul. As one who once
raised ducks and geese for food, I felt the struggle for life, as I
brought about death.
Twenty-seven million, four hundred thousand animals die
every single day in America so that people can be fed. Each one of these
gentle creatures experiences final thoughts. Each cow or sheep or pig or
bird feels the pain of a knife. In other nations, the cat or dog that
would be a family companion in the United States experiences that same
pain. Each head is severed from a protesting body.
Every human pet owner who has ever lived with companion
animals knows that these creatures have emotions, give and receive love,
and have the ability to feel pain. There can be no denying these truths.
Each creature lived a gentler life before man's final
solution, a plan that brought a moment or two of extreme terror to a
living life force. Every animal killed for food in America shares one
undeniable common element: Every living creature possesses the innate
abilities to feel pain and confusion.
There is one man more than any other who attempts to
negate the insanity by becomming the savior. One man, who for eighteen
years has tried to communicate their pain to his often clueless fellow
humans. His name is Alex Hershaft, and each year, just for a few
moments, Alex asks all citizens of the world to join in the Great
American Meat-Out. For one day, Hershaft asks meat eaters to take pity
on the animals who suffer the violent acts of life-ending cruelty of the
slaughterhouse.
JOIN THE PROTEST ON MARCH 20TH
On the first day of spring, celebrate the abundance of
fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts. Do not eat animals
on that day, for in doing so, you must take responsibility for the
knife, and the fear, and the pain, and the death. Alex lives this life
of his 365 days per year, and hopes that you will join him.
Governors from 37 states have issued statements
supporting Alex Hershaft's Great American Meat-Out. Celebrities have
participated in publicizing and attending this event. They include:
Ed Asner, Bob Barker, Dirk Benedict, James Cromwell,
Doris Day, Peter Falk, Frances Fisher, Jennie Garth, Sara Gilbert,
Chrissie Hynde, Casey Kasem, Rue McClanahan, Bill Maher, Hayley Mills,
Mary Tyler Moore, Kevin Nealon, Cassandra 'Elvira' Peterson, Joaquin
Phoenix, and Ally Sheedy.
Also sports figures Tony LaRussa, Mark Levy, and Al
Oerter, and authors and educators Berke Breathed, Michael Jacobson,
Frances Moore Lappe, John McDougall and Jeremy Rifkin.
Alex's program has become more than just an American
event. You can join the protest by accessing a list of American states
and nations of the world participating in this enormously successul
grassroots movement:
http://www.meatout.org/html/meatout_events.html
Visit Alex Hershaft's website:
http://www.farmusa.org
This summer, there will be 1,000 people attending Alex
Hershaft's annual animal
rights conference. I will be there, and so will my three children, for
our future
health and happiness includes a world in which there is no more abuse
for any living creature. Should you wish to attend the June 28-July 3
conference, visit:
http://www.animalrights2002.org
Go on to A Tip From
EnglandGal
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