Hope Bohanec,
Compassionate Living
[Author of The
Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat? and Project Manager,
United Poultry Concerns
(UPC)]
August 2018
What the owners and managers of this business are implying by scrawling “Mindful Meats” on the slaughterhouse is that there is something different happening inside this building now, that they are being “mindful” when they are slitting the throats of adolescent animals.
I live in ag country. When you drive around Sonoma County, especially
getting out of any city just by a couple of miles, there are signs of animal
agriculture everywhere. I often drive by dairy operations with signs posted
that say “Real California Milk” and “Certified Organic Dairy,” as if
appeasing the people driving by implying that “only good things are
happening on this farm.” Yet if you look closer you may see rows and rows of
white plastic calf hutches, like uniformed cartons of milk, each containing
a tiny baby calf who was taking from her mother at birth, chained to the
plastic hutch in all weather extremes–alone, frightened, and miserable. For
each of these calves there is a grieving mother who will never know her
baby, traumatize with each calf dragged from her after birth.
My Neighborhood Slaughterhouse
Most people have no clue what is truly going on inside animal agriculture,
especially the slaughterhouse–that ominous place that ends all tomorrows for
farmed animals. There is a slaughterhouse down the street from where I live
in Petaluma on a major road just outside of downtown. For many years it was
called Rancho Veal. Of course, veal has been exposed to be the poster-child
of cruelty and most people now agree that confining a baby cow so tight that
he can’t even turn around, then slaughtering him when he is just weeks old,
is callous and cruel. But what people don’t realize is that most animals who
are slaughtered for meat are just weeks or months old when they take their
portentous journey to the abattoir.
Rancho Veal was recently acquired by Marin Sun Farms and received a fresh
coat of bright white paint complete with their logo, looming two stories
high, on the front of the building. On the west wall, facing the oncoming
traffic heading to downtown, they added huge letters spelling out the name
of a producer they are in partnership with, “Mindful Meats.” When I first
drove by this new sizable marketing endeavor, I had to pull over and take a
moment for a figurative face-palm. Shaking my head, I pondered what I was
seeing. It’s truly appalling and as a spiritual person, I am deeply
disturbed.
The Implications of Being Mindful
The term “mindful” has recently come into the ethos of the west from Eastern
religions and philosophies such as Buddha, Jain, and Hindu dharma-s (dharma
can be thought of as “religion” or “tradition” although these traditions are
different than Euro-American religious traditions). There are now books and
podcasts and workshops on “mindfulness” generally stemming from the
teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism around meditation and awareness of one’s
self and one’s actions. These traditions tell us that to be “mindful” is to
be aware of the present moment and sensitive that your thoughts and actions
have reactions, for yourself and others. There is an implication of
thoughtfulness, kindness, and gentleness that comes with the use of this
term, for ourselves and our relationships.
Furthering the teachings of mindfulness, other ideas associated with Eastern
religions are ahimsa and karma. Ahimsa literally means “non-violence” and
conceptually may be understood as a positive principle of “dynamic
compassion.” For many Eastern religions, ahimsa is the highest principle of
ethical conduct and universal harmony and above all, one should not take the
life of any sentient being. It is believed that all life is sacred and we
have no right to take this precious gift.
Karma is also connected to being mindful as our actions have repercussions
on ourselves, others, and the planet. Whether you are a spiritual person or
not, many believe in some form of the adage, “what you do comes back to
you.” Eating meat, dairy, and eggs has negative impacts on our health and
producing these products is devastating the environment. A recent study
found that meat and dairy surpasses fossil fuel production as the biggest
polluter on the planet[Meat
and dairy companies to surpass oil industry as world’s biggest polluters,
report finds]
Vegans can have a clear conscious that we are doing what we can to ease
the suffering of animals. In the ancient traditions of the East, there
really is no act associated with more negative karma than killing another
sentient being. Our actions have consequences and killing conscious animals
is not just considered wrong in Dahrma traditions, it’s one of the worst
actions someone can take, and will have devastating effects for a person’s
spiritual development and cause significant suffering to the perpetrator.
But more importantly, these teachings show that animals have the same
spiritual composition as us. In other words, our differences are material
and not as definitive of our true nature as our spiritual equality.
Therefore, all sentient beings have the same right and desire to live, and
we should respect and protect them insofar as we are able. Being vegan is
the least we can do.
Twisting A Term
What the owners and managers of this business are implying by scrawling
“Mindful Meats” on the slaughterhouse is that there is something different
happening inside this building now, that they are being “mindful” when they
are slitting the throats of adolescent animals. It is flagrant
humane-washing. To imply that those who are killing animals for financial
gain are being “thoughtful” or somehow “kind” or “careful” in that
institution of hopeless horror is a vicious, insidious falsehood.
For more, visit
HumaneFacts.org
Unfortunately, this is emblematic of a novel narrative strategy of
propaganda attempting to put a new spin on a wretched practice. A fresh coat
of white paint cannot cover the deep stain of barbarism and merciless
violence that cowers beneath this bogus declaration of principled bloodshed.
The internet has given us a glimpse inside the slaughterhouse and if you
have the stomach to search YouTube for “undercover investigations,
slaughterhouse” this dark world is revealed with animals struggling to free
themselves from the shackles that drag them to their death. Awaiting
slaughter, their eyes are wide with terror as they hear and smell what is
ahead for them. Workers kick, prod, punch, throw, and push animals, grabbing
them and breaking tails and wings. The animals clamber on top of one another
in panic, to try to get away, but there is no escape. After witnessing this,
I cannot imagine what a nightmare this would be to experience and pray that
a day will come where no animal suffers at the slaughterhouse.
To pretend that there is anything going on for animals in that grisly
place of death other than fear, panic, anxiety, pain, and distress is
nonsense, and it’s insolent to the concept of “mindfulness” and those who
embrace this tenant as a guiding influence of spiritual awareness in their
life. Indeed, to ignore, endorse, benefit from, or participate in the
anguish of the slaughterhouse is quite the opposite of “mindfulness.” It is
truly insulting and deeply troubling that this term would be appropriated by
the animal agriculture industry.
Some may argue that what we see in videos is not the norm, that it’s only a
few “bad apples.” Yet every time an undercover investigator goes into one of
these facilities, hours of footage of abuse comes out. It’s not a few bad
apples, the entire barrel is rotten–that’s because it’s meat being produced,
not apples. There is no humane way to take the life of an animal who doesn’t
want to die. The “norm” is a culture of violence that begins with babies
being dragged from their mother’s love and comfort, beaks seared off with a
hot blade and other painful body mutilations without pain relief, stress,
boredom, misery and then ends in the slaughterhouse with the same brutality
in which their life began.
New Marketing, Same Suffering
Meat marketers have always used words to sell flesh like “young” and
“natural” and “fresh.” But the savagery of their industry has been
repeatedly exposed so they are scrambling to find new words that ease
apprehensions. Words like “mindful,” “humane,” and “happy” are simply new
marketing strategies to appease concerned consumers, but as I reveal in my
book, “The Ultimate Betrayal”, no matter the label, the industry standard is
suffering, the customary is cruelty.
I long for the day when slaughterhouses are relics of a violent past.
I day were we could never imagine the sick ritual of killing animal after
animal, day after day, second after second. A day when we confront this
industry with awareness, with mindfulness, of what the true cost of their
bottom-line is, exposing the shadow of their euphemisms. A day when no human
has to suffer the terrible trauma of working endless hours covered in
innocent blood. A day when we see the awful irony of putting the word
“humane” on a package of an animal’s severed body parts. When we are truly
mindful we will come to realize the full consequences of consumer actions
and see that all animals deserve to live free of human commodification and
killing.
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
0 marine animals
0 chickens
0 ducks
0 pigs
0 rabbits
0 turkeys
0 geese
0 sheep
0 goats
0 cows / calves
0 rodents
0 pigeons/other birds
0 buffaloes
0 dogs
0 cats
0 horses
0 donkeys and mules
0 camels / camelids