The Pain For Plessure

When we are children our parents read us books with cute animals and we have children songs like Old McDonald Had A Farm. Animals become part of our childhood as cuddly furry friends. There are movies like Bambi, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book that teach us animals are our friends and we need to be kind to them. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood there is a fundamental change that takes place in our perceptions of animals. Animals no longer become our cute animal friends, they become our next meal we feed to our kids, that nice fur rug in our living room floor, that trophy on the wall, and those nice leather boots in our closet. We seemingly remove all awareness that all these products are made from animals. Like many Americans I was ignorant and frankly didn’t care when it came to how these things got from the slaughter house to my table. My eyes were opened about a year ago. The images and sounds of what happens to these innocent creatures will forever be burned into my psyche.

            Sometime last year, I was taking my friend Eric home from work. We live and work in the same apartment complex so it was quite convenient for the both of us. I could tell he was a bit off he was quieter than usual as if he was thinking quite hard about something. “Eric what is up with you, you are so quiet?” I asked. Eric Replied “Dude I saw the worst video I have ever seen in my life.” Now coming from a guy who watches some seriously gruesome stuff on the web, I knew it was bad. I asked “Well what was it?” “Chinese fur farms”, he replied. We talked briefly about the things he had seen. The one thing I remember very clearly about the conversation is when he said “the rabbits scream while the cut off their feet”. We arrived at the complex and said our goodbyes and I rushed upstairs to my apartment and flipped on my computer. I typed in Chinese fur farms into the search engine in YouTube and to my surprise hundreds of videos popped up. I found the video Eric was taking about and clicked the link. As the video uploaded. I was trying to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to see and trying to convince myself I had seen worse. I now know nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. The video starts with the beautiful Oliva Mun discussing what a fur farm is, their role in the fur distribution in the world, and who purchases these fur items. To my surprise the United States in one of the biggest clientele and funders. Furthermore, I was shocked to know that in China it is entirely legal to do this.

The video starts off with a clip of stray cats and dogs placed in small wire cages. These animals are not wild but someone’s pet that has gone missing and was picked up by the fur farms for slaughter. The animals are placed in small cages crammed in like sardines in a can. Ten to twenty dogs and cats are crammed in a single cage. The cages are the placed on top of on another the pure weight of all these cages begin to break the bones on the animals of the lower levels. The cages are then tossed off the trucks onto the ground, the impact of the cage hitting the ground instantly shatters the bones of the animals inside. Next was the skinning of the dogs they had caught.  In the next scene, a beautiful white husky, a dog that had been kept in a small cage for days with no food and water, he is then electrocuted and ripped out of his small wire cage. His head is the dragged by a leash, if the dog attempts to defend himself he will be beaten with wooden sticks into submission. He is then placed on a table and electrocuted again and hung upside down on a rack. Then one of the workers picks up a knife stabs it in the dog, removes his skin and then it is thrown into a pile of other skinned animals left to bleed to death. 

By this point, I’m in utter shock I think of all my dogs I’ve had and how could anyone do this to a living breathing creature. I’m in shock it was like watching a horror movie the only difference was I knew this was real and this was actually happening on the other side of the world. The next part of the video was something I’ll never forget. They show a whole bunch of rabbits all alive and hanging upside down. The rabbits are trying to break free from the tight clamps around there feet. The workers (or murders as I like to call them) take large knifes and saw off their feet. The rabbits let out high pitched screams out of pure pain. The noise of those screams filled my ears and my whole apartment it seemed. 

I remember shouting at the screen saying “Stop they can feel that stop!”  I thought back of all the times I was ever given a rabbit’s foot and was told it was good luck. I could remember always grossed out by the whole concept and the feel of a rabbit’s foot; but now I knew where that foot possibly came from, a fur farm. Finally, the video was over I was so angry and upset I kept thinking,” How could anyone be so cruel?” How could we kill an animal so inhumanly and for what so someone could have a nice fur coat? Why is this not talked about? Why is this not in the news so everyone knows? As I attempted to process what I had just seen, I happen to glance down a see in the related videos and saw one that was titled Meat Your Meat. Instantly, I clicked on the link telling myself America is different we care how animals are treated. We are the good guys! I could not been more wrong and farther from the truth.

The video starts with showing the treatment of cows. Most cows are injected with high amounts of hormones for the purpose of making them grow faster and fatter in a shorter amount of time. This often makes the cows joints painful and it’s hard for them to walk. It showed cows barely being able to walk due to joint problems. Female cows are repeatedly impregnated over and over again so they can produce milk. This has serious health effects on their bodies. They are placed in a small areas where they can barely move and are repeatedly milked. The lack of movement and the weight of their bodies deforms their hoofs making it hard for them to walk. Calves are removed from their mothers at a young age and placed in small cages unable to move and develop muscles for the European dish, veil. 

As I’m watching this I instantly become sick to my stomach. I replay all the moments of me eating a hamburger and beef. I think of how much dead cow I’ve consumed in my life and these animals died because I wanted a hamburger or roast beef on my sandwich!

Pigs were next to be shown in the video and I can barely watch any mre but I had to watch the rest. No more was I to live in this place of not knowing what happens to these creatures. The next is a scene of pigs all crammed into tiny stables. They can barely move I felt like looking at this scene the probably can’t breathe to well. With the pigs being in such tiny spaces with each other they will often fight or bite each other. These cuts and wounds often get infected due to the feces in the stables and often go untreated. If a pig becomes too ill or injured they are killed by having their head slammed down on concrete floors. I remember hearing the sound of their bodies being thrown into the floor. I remember my bones hurt and I thought how painful and scary that must be for them. Regardless, if a pig has an open wound that is infected it still gets sent to the slaughter house and possibly in someone’s breakfast omelet. The next scene was of newborn baby pigs they were all cute and huddled around their mother. The workers would snatch them up and with dull scissors castrate them without any form of analgesic. Then shave down their teeth or simply pull them out to prevent them biting each other. The squeals of the baby pigs rattled my brain and my whole body. All I could think was they are just babies! How could you do that to a baby animal? I instantly regretted ever eating bacon or ham. How many pigs were killed so I could have a ham sandwich! Why haven’t I cared enough to ask how were these pigs killed.

Turkeys and chickens popped on the screen I immediately became nauseous. The scene was of chickens in cages. If the chickens didn’t produce enough eggs the farmers would electrocute or starve the hens so their bodies would produce eggs faster. Turkeys are beaten to death with steel rods and wooden sticks to be shipped off to slaughter. When the slaughter house came up on the screen it was like I was looking at a house of horrors. Cows and pigs are strung up upside down this motion usually breaks or dislocates bones. The animal on this conveyer belt rack contraption are then placed in boiling hot water to remove all fur or feathers. Many animals survive this process if so have their throat cut to bleed to death. The video was finally over and I was at a loss for words. America was no better we were just as cruel and heartless as the people working in the fur farms.

Two videos and thirty minutes later, my entire view of the world had changed drastically. Animals were no longer beautiful majestic creatures they were dollar signs in the eyes of this greedy twisted world. Pain, torture, and execution were tools for making profit. My eyes were opened and I now realized just how cruel humans have become. Killing is now profitable and as long as the profit outweighs the daily massacres it is all justified. I began to try and think why I had not cared to know? Why did I not care how these animals were treated and how they get from the farm to on my dinner plate?

 That day I swore I’d never put animal meat in my mouth ever again! I ran to my fridge and freezer threw everything away that contained meat. I, no longer would contribute to the profits of murder and torture. After everything that contained a trace amount of meat was thrown out I knew I could never go back.

As I looked around my new meat free apartment, I felt a sudden sense of dread! I work in a deli at a grocery store!! The next day at work was horrible! I looked around the glass meat cases, and all I could think was flavored animal carcasses oh gross! Every piece of meat I picked up I nearly gaged. Every time a customer ate a sample of meat I wanted to be like say “Do you know how that animal you’re inhaling was killed!” I pronounced my new found knowledge to my fellow deli workers expecting them to be in utter shock and horror. To my surprise some didn’t want to hear it, or didn’t care enough to even inquire further. That night after work, I went home confused and in disbelief. How could anyone not care or not even want to know? Then as if someone turned on the lights in my brain! Everything made perfect sense! My coworkers didn’t care because they are not directly affected. They have more important things in life to worry about bills, family, and work. How your food is killed doesn’t matter as long as it gets to the dinner table. I became very sad when I realized this. Is that what we as the “superior” race of this world have become? We care only about one thing, ourselves and our happiness? Even if that happiness murders millions and millions of animals a year? That moment I swore I would no longer remain silent. I took to my Facebook and I professed my new found awareness. To my surprise, my cousin Pamela is huge into animal rights and is a huge activist. Now I take to my Facebook and post many things about animal rights and saving the natural world. I believe now more than ever we as humans have to stand up for the ones that have no voice. These creatures should not have to live a life or torment and anguish. We need to treat them like we treat each other with respect, kindness, and love.   

        

Bullied Twisted

So today on my break, I was scrolling on Facebook and happened to run across this post. As I read this, I was instantly filled with anger. For starters, I am shocked that there are people in this world who actually feel this is an acceptable ideology. This is absolutely disgusting that we have parents and adults who say a child being bullied should cope with someone deliberately inflicting emotional and possible physical harm on them. I’m all for standing up for yourself but, what about the kids who can’t. Tell me what a child is to do if a group of children are picking on them? How is one child supposed to stand up and fight a group of kids beating the shit out of him/her? Or what about a child with mental and/or physical disabilities; tell me how they are supposed to cope and stand up for themselves? The reality is we have anti- bullying laws because parents teach their children it’s okay to beat the crap out of someone because if they don’t stick up for themselves they deserve it, or as this post states, they are playing the victim card. How utterly disgusting that any adult/parent would feel it’s okay for a child to get beat up and if they don’t stick up for themselves they are just victims of a society! Here’s a grand thought: teach your children not to bully! Teach your children be respectful and accept everyone for who they are. 

Then we wouldn’t need anti-bullying laws because we would treat each other with dignity and respect. You want to know how children/ teens cope? They kill themselves! You hear about it time and time again, how bullying put them in such a deep depression it breaks them and they take their lives. This post is disrespectful to anyone who has ever been bullied or has lost a family member due to bullying/suicide. 

We send our children to school to learn and create positive social interactions with one another, not to have them ridiculed, attacked, beat up and physiologically broken. You want to know what’s wrong with this country? It’s the flawed logic that we teach our kids to be tougher and it’s okay to pick on someone and that child should just cope. NO CHILD EVER should have to dread going to school. No child should have to cope with another child attacking them! Then to turn around a say we are creating a society of victims! We wouldn’t have victims if we didn’t have bullies! Bullies make victims not the laws that protect the children who are being bullied!

 So instead of this post saying we are creating a society of victims, perhaps you should look at yourself, those who agree with this post, and understand that you are the people who are creating a society of bullies by believing in this ideology. For this ideology becomes truly flawed when your own child comes home, crying and under complete distress, dreading to go to school the next day, when they are the ones who have bruises on them and feel beat down. Are you really going to tell your child to simply cope, suck it up, be a man, stop playing the victim card? Or are you going to wish that other parents would have done their jobs by making their children have respect for others, and the school failing to protect your child when no one was there to protect them?

Proof The Truth

Does anyone have the “absolute” truth? Does anyone even know what the absolute truth is? This question has plagued religious experts and philosophers since the idea that there was something bigger than us popped into the minds of humans. Does this absolute one truth really exist or is this “absolute truth differ from person to person. Now let’s look at some major issues with this idea:

Ø  Proof:  Almost every major religion has claimed they are the one truth. The biggest problem with this is proof. None of them have concrete proof that they are right. Many will run to their nearest scripture or holy writings and claim that is proof. That is not evidence that you’re correct if you are all claiming truth and there can only be one who is right someone has to be wrong. You can’t use scripture as proof because all are claiming the truth and all have scripture and no one has proof beyond the scripture they are the correct truth.

Ø  Anyone can claim truth: This is the one of the major ones. Anyone can claim they have the truth. One person can claim they are the correct path and how do you know if they are the truth honestly you don’t. Scripture can be matched scripture when it comes down to it. Christians can whip out the Bible and Hindus can whip out The Gita or The Vedas so on so forth. Truth can be claimed by anyone but proving you have that truth is a different story.

Ø  What if you’re wrong? Say you go through your whole life believing you have it and you die and come to find out you were wrong? What if you live as Hindu find out you were supposed to be Muslim? What if you live as Christian and supposed to find out you were supposed to be Buddhist? What if your absolute truth was an absolute mistake then what?? Honestly the only ones you have to worry about if you’re wrong is Islam and Christianity (lol). All other religions you will probably just get reincarnated if you are wrong.

Let’s go on the basis that there is one truth an only one how could we possibly find out where to find this “truth”.  Many Christians use that Jesus was real and there is documents that support this therefore Christianity is the one true faith because its founder really lived. The Buddha was also real and yes there are documents (proving even in more detail than Jesus I believe) he lived. I’ve heard The Bible has been around for a long time and it’s survived throughout the ages so it’s more reliable. Christianity is one of the later religions Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism came long before Christianity so if the life span makes it more creditable Hinduism is the most (not saying it is just for argument sake).  The truth is we cannot find this truth because this “one truth” does no exist.

My closing thoughts: Honestly I think this “absolute truth” is different for every person. I believe they all have their own truths. Who’s to say their way is the right way? We all have our own truths and our own spiritual journeys. I believe God puts all on different spiritual journeys to experience a relationship with God itself that is personal and meaningful to us. I believe someone can be a Hindu and connect with God just as much as Christian praying in a church. God is everywhere; religions and different spiritual beliefs are God’s way of reaching out and having a relationship with us in our own special way.   

Under The Holy Fire

 I know this is a bit late but let’s talk about the war on Christianity and Christmas. In recent years, I have heard quite the buzz about this “war”. I was a bit confused who was waging war and why. I love Christmas and most Christians so who would attack these people/holiday. Well after doing a bit of research it became clear who these offenders were ……. no one. In fact there seemed to be no signs of war except for Fox News and some very pubic Bible thumpers claiming that the sinners of America have waged war. So I’ve decided to basically take this theory of war and basically debunk it completely. Let us begin J

1.       People are trying to take the Christ out of Christmas. Now I’ve heard this before and I never really understood what it all meant until recently. During the holiday season maybe unknown to you, you are actually celebrating two holidays Christmas and the pagan holiday Yule/ Winter solstice. Now you are probably a bit confused well what belongs to Christmas and what belongs Yule. I’ll break it down for you. Your Christmas tree is actually a Yule tree that act of decorating it is actually a pagan tradition. The colors red and green are colors of the Winter Solstice. The act of handing out presents and baking cookies, pies and other wonderful treats are also part of the Yule tradition. The 12 days of Christmas is, actually, the 12 days of Yule. Yule starts on the 20^th and ends on the 31^st hint that’s why we have the twelve days of Christmas. So now that we have what role Yule plays in the holidays. Now where does the birth of Christ play during this time, technically only the birth story everything else is pagan. You are probably wondering how all this happened how have the lines of these two very different religions get merged together? The answer is very simple when early Christian church leaders were attempting to eliminate the pagan faith the decided to put their holy days on the same days as pagan holy days. Over time the two religions somehow ended up merging together and forming this super holiday we now know as Christmas. The truth is Christ was not born on December 25^th that is entirely made up by the Church. Many scholars believe Jesus was born sometime in April or May during warmer months due to the whole being born outside and all. So technically, Christ has something to do with Christmas but they tree, presents, cookies, the colors and the get togethers are all Pagan. No one is removing Christ out of Christmas just removing Christ out of Yule. Honestly if people get mad because the government building took down its nativity set they really need to examine their priorities in life. If people get mad because their local court house put up a nativity set they took need to really reexamine what is really important.

2.      They took prayer/ God out of school, therefore, our schools are full of sex, drugs, and sin. For anyone who thinks this that is just plain sad. For starters, I send my kid to get educated not indoctrinated. I don’t want my kid coming home and saying they made him/her pray in school because if I ever have kids they will be aware of many faiths. If they decide not to believe then that’s their choice. As a parent, I send my kid to learn about the basics not to become Christian. On the flip side, if children decide to pray during school I’m more than okay with that. As for a teacher leading prayer I’m sorry you work for the state. There is a separation of church and state for a reason. Now for the whole thing of our schools would be better off if there was prayer that’s a big fat no. Even when there was prayer in school sex, drugs, and “sin” were all very much happening, it was just less talked about. That is reality those things happen in our schools and throwing religion in there is not going to change a thing.

3.     

 Evolution should not be taught in schools. I’m actually have a simple answer for this evolution or creationism should not be taught at all, unless parents put their child in a special program that teaches their personal preference. Honestly, I think kids should get both ideas and pick what they like but I doubt many parents would be okay with that. Creationism/ Evolution is not a central part of science class. I don’t even know if I ever learned about that in school ( This deserves its own blog).

4.       Christians/ Christian faith are attacked in the media today. Now this always amuses me every time I hear this. Now recently there was a huge uproar about what Duck Dynasty star said about homosexuals. When people said he was a bigot and hateful, Christians from all over jumped behind him and said it’s an attack on our faith. This is entirely not the case.  When someone is a public figure and they make comments like homosexuality is as bad as bestiality they are bound to piss off a lot of people. I don’t know how anyone can compare me and my boyfriend to me having sex with a goat but hey some of us actually think about what we say before we say it.  We live in a country where you can say whatever you want and that’s our right (even if it obviously lacks education and the understanding of the world).  Anyone can say anything they please about gays, blacks, Mexicans, whites, single moms and the list can really go on forever. Now when they decide to make these comments and people get mad and call them out on what they said they can’t complain. Honestly, what was he expecting was going to happen gay people around the world were going to be like yeah that sounds about right. We live in a country where people can say I refuse to stand by and say nothing.

5.       Christian faith is under attack in this country. This statement is constantly made by Fox News like almost on a daily basis, it is entirely not the case. Christianity is the largest religion in the world (come 2030 it’s estimated Islam will actually surpass it). We have an entire political party that revolves around it. Now when politicians try and make laws based off of their religion and want everyone to follow them religious or not anyone is bound to get push back. When someone decide I shouldn’t get married to the man I love because their religion dictates otherwise, well they and their religion are bound to come under fire. I doubt anyone is just going to shut up and agree because their religion says it so. (Mama don’t play that). When comments are made single moms should give up a child to a Christian mother and father because single moms are not as capable as two parents. Yeah I doubt many single moms are going to go along with that. The Bible makes some big statements and we live in a time where I can say I don’t agree with that and I reject your claims.

Now I think a lot of our problem would be solved if people minded their own business. Don’t worry about who I’m marrying worry about yourself, don’t be concerned that a court house decided not to put up a baby Jesus worry about your own yard, you want your kids to pray in school many schools have clubs for Christians but don’t expect me to say nothing when a teacher (paid by the state) is leading prayer when my kid is another faith/no faith and don’t be surprised when you compare me having a loving relationship with another adult  to me having sex with animal and I say you’re what is wrong with this country.