textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000516.txt

        A N I M A L S                          -by Will Kemp
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    Having been 'vegetarian' for the last 21 years and 'vegan' for 
the last 6, i'm well used to mockery and mild abuse over what people 
see as my 'diet' (In fact it's a lot more than a diet - i don't use 
leather, wool, commercial soap etc etc...) Fair enough, i suppose - 
i neither expect people to understand nor particularly care whether 
they do or not. However, when the hostility comes from people who 
consider themselves part of the anarchist movement, i find it a 
little more disturbing.
    For me, the decision not to subsidise the animal abuse industry 
was purely a political one. Any health benefits i may have gained 
(and i certainly have!) are purely fringe benefits.
    The refusal of certain elements of the anarchist movement to see 
the animal industry as an important issue reminds me very simply of 
the refusal of certain types of communists etc to see sexism as an 
issue ("we'll deal with that AFTER the revolution!") That attitude 
towards women is (at least publicly) unthinkable in the anarchist 
movement in australia and i'm certain that the recognition of the 
animal issue will go the same way before too long. Of course, there 
will still be the same small hardcore of reactionaries within the 
movement who continue to dismiss it but, as usual, they will be left 
behind and forgotten.
    So, why do i think it's important, and why particularly as an 
anarchist issue?
    Well, to start with, i can't see the dividing line between 
seeing ourselves as superior to animals and therefore justified in 
abusing them and seeing ourselves as superior to other people and 
exploiting and abusing them too. The refusal to respect other lives, 
setting ourselves up as superior to the whole of the rest of nature, 
is where the slow path to capitalism, slavery, environmental 
destruction and all the other evils we are opposed to begins. 
To put ourselves above animals is to begin constructing the 
hierarchy that anarchy is the opposite of.
    This attitude towards nature is the basis of colonialism. It is 
the european way. It is the way of the church and the ruling class. 
It shouldn't be the way of people who profess to believe in anarchy. 
I can't speak for aboriginal people, but to the best of my 
understanding, their traditional beliefs didn't include any kind of 
superiority over animals or nature. True, they killed animals for 
food, but generally this was done with respect. And they didn't 
imprison and torture them for years before eating them like we do.
    I've got no objection to eating meat - so long as the animal has 
lived their life in freedom in the wild and are killed cleanly and 
with respect (and by chance, as in hunting). This is just my 
personal view and i know a lot of other vegos and vegans would 
totally disagree with me here.

                                  *

    Apart from the exploitation of animals as a starting point for 
an oppressive social system, there are other important political 
points to be made on this subject.
    Everyone nowadays - almost down to the last redneck - feels that 
we must start to take some care of the environment. And most people 
believe we should save old forests and even grow some new ones. 
However, this belief doesn't fit with reliance on animal products.
    Millions and millions of acres of forest, in australia alone, 
have been cleared for grazing cattle and sheep. When forests are 
cleared for this purpose, the damage done by chopping down the trees 
is multiplied massively by having hoofed animals trampling all over 
it. Erosion from this cause has left billions of tons of excellent 
topsoil at the bottom of the ocean. And they're still clearing land 
for grazing. Bulldozers (pioneered by Joh Bjelke Petersen) make it 
faster and easier than ever before
    It's not only possible, but it's easy to live without using 
any animal products. And it would be much easier if more people did 
it. Eliminating dairy, eggs and meat from your diet, means you need 
only a small fraction of the ammount of land used for producing your 
food. I'm not sure the exact figures, but it's something in the 
region of 10% or less. So if all your protein etc came from 
vegetable sources, 90% of farm land could be reafforested.
    Then, of course, there would be a lot more places for wild 
animals to live and anyone who really wanted to could supplement 
their diet occasionally with a bit of wild meat (and it tastes a lot 
better than the commercial shit!)
    So, to say, "save the forests" while eating your cheese sandwich 
is not far short of hypocrisy. Where will the forests grow if you're 
using all the land to satisfy your crazy diet?

                                  *

    Crazy? Yes, certainly crazy, whatever way you look at it. Leave 
aside the animal abuse side again, if you can, and think about what 
you're actually eating.
    Milk - it's a good food for calves, but not very good 
nutritionally for humans. (Yes, i know that's not what the dairy 
marketing board advertising tells you. But if you believe all the 
propaganda, why are you an anarchist?) In fact a very significant
proportion of the population are actually allergic to it. Asthma, 
bronchitis, arthritis and numerous other common ailments can often 
be linked to the consumption of dairy products. Add to that the good 
whack of antibiotics you get every time you drink milk or eat cheese 
(they inject it directly into the udders to prevent mastitis) and 
the whole thing begins to look a little unsavoury!
    Eggs. If you saw the pale, sickly, malnourished, featherless (to 
say nothing of depressed) things they keep in cages in battery 
farms, you might wonder what possible goodness there could be in 
eggs that come out of them. And they feed them their own shit to 
avoid wastage! Free-range (if they genuinely are) - well, i don't 
fancy it personally, but i can't think of much to object to there.
    And as for meat, well it hardly bears thinking about! Again, you 
get a good whack of antibiotics with it (no wonder immune system 
diseases are getting big!). Not only that, but it comes with a good 
dose of growth hormones (i wonder if they help cancers grow...) and 
then of course all the wide range of preservatives and shit they 
stick in it after it's dead. To say nothing of the fact that the 
higher up a food is in the food chain (animals are higher than 
vegetables, for example) the more concentrated all the toxins from 
pollution, radiation etc become.
    And i wouldn't even dare take the lid off a meat pie!
    Fish? Mildly better, i guess - due to generally living in 
freedom. But working on a prawn trawler made me realise it's not 
much better than farming. Commercial fishing is not only appallingly 
destructive and wasteful (for every ton of prawns we got, we threw 
back a good ton of wasted dead fish), but also commercial fish is 
pretty rank by the time it gets to you. Sodium metabisulphite is the 
fisherman's friend. They soak everything in it to stop is showing 
how off it is. And generally if prawns start going black from lying 
in the hot sun too long, they whack them in a tank of ordinary 
household bleach to make them look fresh again before they freeze 
them!

                                  *

    Well, i'm afraid i've come to the point where i have to talk 
about the treatment of animals in the industry. So if you're about 
to eat, or if you're a bit squeamish maybe you'd better skip this 
bit!
    Whatever your views on food, animal rights and ecology, i can't 
see how you can justify paying people to torture animals for you.
    Chooks in cages, the same size as themselves, under artificial 
lighting and fed on their own shit. If you've ever been in prison, 
you might have an inkling of how they feel.
    Pigs in concrete pens, just long enough for them to stand in but 
not turn round. And stand is all they can do as their tails have 
been broken to stop them sitting in their own shit (saves cleaning 
out the pens, i guess!).
    And cows. How would you like it if they strapped you in a rack 
and a big macho bastard bull came along and raped you. Then, after 
going through the months of pregnancy, they took your baby off you 
(that goes off to become veal - another gruesome story). And cows 
really do get upset by the loss of their calves. Then, twice every 
day, they herd you into a concrete shed and stick a machine on your 
tits to suck out the milk that should have been your calf's. And so 
on and so on.
    When they kill chooks, they hang them up by their feet on a 
conveyor which takes them past a blade and supposedly cuts their 
heads off (alive and struggling, of course). But what happens to the 
ones that lift their head up a bit?
    Pigs are shot in the head with a captive bolt stun gun and then 
dropped into boiling water. Boiled alive - and often fully 
conscious, as the stun guns don't work very well.
    Some truck drivers won't drive animal transport because of the 
horrible suffering and death that goes on behind them when they are 
doing it.
    Well, i won't go on. I hope i've put you off your dinner!
                                * * *