Dear Editor:
Our national media have had a field day reporting on allegations that
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick ran a brutal dog fighting operation
and personally slaughtered eight dogs. Yet, no one ever reports on the
brutal slaughter every hour of every day of every year of a million cows,
pigs, and other innocent, sentient animals who are just as deserving of our
respect and compassion as Vick’s dogs.
There is no life before death for these animals. In today’s factory farms,
cows’ babies are torn from their mothers at birth and chained by the neck
for 16 weeks in tiny wood crates to produce veal. Breeding sows are
impregnated artificially and confined in similarly tight metal cages. As
many as seven laying hens are stuffed for months in a metal cage the size of
a folded newspaper.
Following this unconscionable abuse, the animals are trucked for hours
without food or water and exposed to extreme cold or heat. Many never make
it. At the slaughterhouse, they are frequently dismembered, skinned,
scalded or drowned while fully conscious.
Every dollar we spend for meat or dairy products at the checkout counter is
our direct subsidy for animal cruelty. Let’s remember our own responsibility
whenever we get upset over the latest report on Michael Vick’s cruel
treatment of his dogs.
Sincerely,
Hugh Reilly