5. Factory Farming and Food Production

Humane Society and Compassion over Killing

During this class session, we had two guest speaker come in and talk to us about factory farming and food production. Ashley Rhinehart was from Humane Society of the United States and Liz Hallinan from Compassion over Killing. While both have the same goal in mind the way they go about spreading their message is very different. 

In this blog post, I will talk about what I learned about factory farming and food production and also how they would differ in both organization.

Humane Society of the United States 

(HSUS)

The humane society of the United States is known for helping advocate for the welfare of animals across all industries. While the Humane Society does  support veganism there main project is to educate the people of better ways to co-live with animals. This being from passing laws to better the living situation of farm animals to informing hunters of better alternative when hunting. 

Ashley from the HS, talked to our class about food production and where our food comes from. I already knew about 99.9% of the information she shared as I did the research myself when I was thinking of becoming vegan. 

Compassion over Killing

(COK)

Liz Hallinan from COK, shared with us the steps her organization takes to liberating all animals. COK is an organization that believes in the use of no animal products. They also are known to be more direct when it comes to addressing issues on animal rights. Liz talked to the class on factory farm animals as well as sharing the legal work she has done to help pass laws and regulations to better help the conditions of animals.

What I Got From Both Presentations

As I already knew what both organization did in terms of animal rights and how their organizations differed, I was very intrigued on the conversation about how woman are exploited just like animals and the suffering female animals go through, that if this was happening to female humans there would be an out poor of anger.

For example,  SEX SELLS.

While the message might be trying to end injustice...why use objectify woman for your cause? Have we become a society that will only pay attention to a cause if a woman is showing her breast and bum?

(PETA)

Another example is how woman (and men!) can relate to the instant bond that is formed when a mother has a child. While most woman never have to go through the pain of having their newborn baby ripped from them, female animals go through this pain EVERYDAY!

If we look at dairy cows, they are simply impregnated to continue their production of milk. Once they give birth they are almost instantly ripped away from their newborn. Can you image going through this agony, YEAR AFTER YEAR?

A cow whose baby is taken from her screaming at his direction with longing and pain.

Also, can we talk about the forced insemination of these dairy cows...I do not know about you but I can find many way to argue that this is rape.

Looking at it in this light and being able to personally feel the pain these cow mothers must go through makes me want to completely cut out all dairy from my life again. I will come back in the next weeks to inform you if I was successful or not.