Did you know that millions perished because of Hurricane Katrina? The news reports do not share this devastating fact – they are overwhelmed focusing on the thousands of human victims and their dogs and cats. But millions did die – birds, pigs and cows who were trapped in factory farms. Although animal sanctuary volunteers were able to rescue approximately 1,000 chickens (some found alive in a mass grave at Tyson), millions more were abandoned by agribusiness to drown, starve in their heated sheds or be bulldozed into the trash during the cleanup (whether alive or dead).
Sadly, the blind eye the news has turned toward the largest loss of life in Katrina seems reflective of the public’s general disregard for farmed animals in everyday life. Despite being surrounded by animal products daily, our attention is not often called to their living conditions, so we may be unaware of the desperate need for humane farming reforms. This week we are asked to open our hearts and eyes to acknowledge their plight.
Oct. 2 is World Farm Animal Day, a date chosen to honor the birthday of Gandhi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning vegetarian who worked to protect all living beings. If you purchase animal products, consider informing yourself about the real conditions animals face at factory farms and slaughterhouses at www.meetyourmeat.com to see if it fits with your values, or (for a happier ending) learn more about the animals rescued at www.farmsanctuary.org.
Whether the media covers it or not, agribusiness will keep intensively confining and killing animals at rate of over a million an hour (and the number only increases as people switch from red meat to chicken). The misery of factory farming is an ongoing national tragedy that is happening on our watch – one that has developed behind a mega-corporate curtain – shielded from public scrutiny, with lobbyists who fight any humane legal protection. The time has come to put farmed animals on the public agenda. We can do so both as voting citizens who demand humane farming legislation and as conscientious consumers who choose to buy plant-based proteins instead of products gained at an animal’s expense.
The tragedy of hurricane Katrina has brought out the innate compassion in all of us. Why limit that compassion to just humans, cats and dogs? The animals trapped in factory farms deserve and need our support as well.
Carrie Packwood Freeman is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Communication
