12/07/2020
*GRAPHIC WARNING:
I stood at the gates of hell Friday, watching helplessly as truckloads of cows were driven to their imminent death. Each truck loaded with 45 cows. The cows on the bottom tier of the truck were covered in urine and manure from the cows above. The ride for some of the cows was days long without food or water. In the winter the cows can freeze to the sides of the trucks and in the summer many collapses from the heat.
I was thankful it was a warm day and the cows weren’t covered in ice like so many winter days. I held back my tears and sang mantras to the cows in hopes my song would soothe them. Once ushed out of the trucks they were led into the slaughterhouse where their skulls were fractured before they were hung by one leg upside down to have their throats slit. They die hanging by one leg as their blood rushes out of their bodies many still alive and in excruciating pain making sounds and looking around for up to 10 minutes. The slaughter lines never stop, even when a cow is conscious as it dies because the factory makes money from each kill.
I could see the cows coming off the trucks and being held in a corral before being led into the factory of death. I had seen videos of the hell of animal agriculture before, but it was different bearing witness with my own eyes. My heart broke to a million pieces. My deep motherly love for the cows and all animals has ignited a fury inside of me that will not cease until all slaughterhouses no longer exist.
In the past, I would turn my mind away from the brutal truth in fear it might break me. Now, I am turning towards the truth that hell exists here on earth. This hell is hidden behind closed doors and fed to us in packages in our grocery stores, in clothing, in almost every shoe on the market, in colorful packages of candies that we feed to our children.
If only the children knew the truth, they would choose a world without this brutality. They would end this nightmare. But instead, we protect the children from the truth and teach them to become loyal consumers who do not ask where food, clothes, shoes, and beauty products come from. All the years I chose not to educate myself, left me with blood on my hands. I will work toward the eradication of such extreme suffering until the meat industry closes its doors or the day I die, whichever comes first.
Perhaps this slaughterhouse will be the first place the Global Peace Train lands on Earth... It certainly would be an epic landing. I'm praying it will be so!
For those of you who want to contribute to solving this vast problem, I urge you to take action. Even going vegan one day a week will give you almost two months free of meat and dairy each year. If there is no demand for meat, the industry will have no option but to shift towards more humane and sustainable sources of protein like plant-based meats* that are unrecognizable from traditional meat or lab-grown meat which will be available on the market beginning in 2021.
If you’re looking for some incredible vegan recipes that I’ve created over the years, reach out and I’ll send you some of my favorites! Go to PETA’s website and educate yourself about factory farming and make a choice that will change our world for the better.
*Plant-based meats like Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat are some of my favorites
