Chickens, cows, pigs, and lambs have been renamed by the industry so that we wont have to associate these dismembered parts as being animals. Chickens are called "broilers" if to be consumed, and "layers" if they are bred for their eggs. The body of a dead cow is called a "side of beef." A dead pig is called "pork" or "ham." The innards of baby lambs and calves are known as "sweetbreads." We have been systematically programmed from the time we were in elementary school that animals are our food and our friends.

The basic four food groups have always been promoted by the industry itself, the Livestock and Meat Board, the National Dairy Council, and the National Egg Board. It is very obvious that this was done not to educate us on good nutrition but to promote these industries. Why is it you never saw a live cow, pig, or chicken in the four food groups? Maybe it's because they don't want us to know we are devouring dead bodies!

The people who have the horrifying task of killing these animals are not much happier then the the animals themselves. The employee turn over rate at slaughterhouses is higher then any occupation in the United States. In some cases a slaughterhouse will go through it's entire work force in only a period of two months. This type of environment takes a large toll on the human spirit, so much so that the psychological impact often resembles what is seen in war veterens. However, the psychological pain people go through to turn these animals into bite size pieces could never match the pain the animals themselves endure. If a baby chick is born a male it is usually suffocated by being tossed into plastic bags only after moments of birth, in fact over half a million baby chicks are killed in this fashion everyday in America.

All baby chicks that are raised for food have their beaks cut off so they won't peck each other to death in the over crowded cages they are forced to spend their entire lives in. Pigs being confined and frightened in small cages will often bite off each other's tails, sometimes killing each other. The pork producers don't care if this happens as long as the swine have been fattened up enough for slaughter, but to not risk the loss of the profitable dead pig's body, the industry again responds not by putting the animals in open fields where they belong, but by once again dismembering the pigs by cutting off their tails.

All animals go through tremendous pain when killed, but the animals killed for kosher meat undoubtedly go through the worst pain imaginable. Animals being ritually slaughtered in the United States are shackled around a rear leg, hoisted into the air, and then hang fully conscious upside down on the conveyer belt with broken limbs and cuts for up to five minutes before the butcherer makes the final fatal cut. It is totally unbelievable that this cruel action is a result of a religious belief! Orthodox Jewish and Moslem dietary laws forbid consumption of meat from animals which are not "healthy and moving" when killed. Most animals are usually stunned before being killed. This still doesn't make it much easier on the animal and most of the time they are still conscious and moving when their throats are sliced open.

Even if you are not bothered by eating the flesh of a dead animal you might be disturbed to know that even though less then 5% of the animal flesh sold in the United States is bought kosher, as much as 50% of the animals are slaughtered in this fashion. What does that mean? That means that hamburger you had for lunch could have come from an animal that was killed in total horror and now it's inside you, not just the animal's flesh but the horror and pain that animal felt when it was killed, kosher or not.

This brings on the question of greed and survival. Is all this killing a matter of survival, a question of greed or just simply a matter of ignorance. As a human race we have come a long way since the so-called cave man days when killing was survival in some cases. We no longer have to kill to eat , and eat well. It must be then we are the way we are because of a repetition of habit and programming that continues to be taught to us since birth. It is my hope that someday this world will develop a compassion for all forms of life, to understand that all life is sacred, that everything has a purpose, and that purpose is not necessarily to end up on someone's plate.