The Nature of the Beast
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Robert Cohen, NotMilk.com
October 2010

"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?"
- Confucius

Animal slaughter. That is the beast. Transporting animals to slaughter. That is the beast. Not taking responsibility. That is the beast.

Yesterday (Thursday, October 28, 2010), I read this article on page A-4 of my hometown New Jersey newspaper, The Record.

Associated Press

An Ohio man who drove a livestock truck that crashed on a northwest New Jersey interstate, killing 80 animals, has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.

At a court hearing Wednesday in Knowltown Township, Marvin Dale Rabner of Apple Creek, Ohio, was fined $750. He also pleaded guilty of careless driving.

Authorities said 195 sheep, goats and calves were packed into a 20-foot trailer when the crash occurred Aug. 26 on Interstate 80, spilling animals onto the highway.

After the hearing, Raber told the Express Times of Easton, Pa., that he would never intentionally harm an animal. He said he was driving a truck to a slaughterhouse as a favor to a friend and didn't know the animals were improperly packed into the trailer.

Factor in gas and tolls and truck driver salary. If one animal is on the truck the cost for that creature is $1,000. If ten creatures are packed into the truck, each one's transportation cost is $100. If 100 animals are cramped for space and forced into every square inch of the truck, the cost per 'agricultural unit' is just $10 each.

In this case, almost 200 animals were forcefully crammed into a tiny truck. Had there not have been an accident, many still would have suffered shattered bones upon delivery. The executioner's blade would have been an act of compassion to put them out of the miserable suffering caused by men...and this is the rule and not the exception to the meat industry meal appearing on your dinner plate.

That is the nature of the beast.

Every animal part packaged and sold in your supermarket case was once an arm or a leg or a rib belonging to a living, breathing, sentient creature who took a fearful final ride and died a horribly painful death so that you might dine upon its flesh.

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