After her ordeal under 80 men a day (160 on weekends) this prostitute will be ‘dead meat.’ And she’ll be worth a lot less than the dead pig since, typically, women ‘dishonored’ to this extent are marginalized and disposable.
I have written a long article on how brothels are identical to factory farms. I will share it with you at another time since my focus here is the misery of the animals who will be adorning your holiday table. I want to end this piece with another undercover video, this one shot by Mercy for Animals in a North Carolina turkey slaughterhouse. On the way to the killing blade, the animals are shackled upside down by their feet. We see workers using them as punching bags. One worker is ‘raping’ a line of turkeys by reaching into them, deeply, with his hands, and extracting eggs, which he throws playfully at his co-workers. He never seems to tire of this game as he rapes turkey after turkey after turkey—the birds writhe in pain as his hand ‘plays’ around inside them.
From the unbearable conditions under which they were raised, we see turkeys arriving at the slaughterhouse with bloody open wounds and huge infected tumors. Most don’t even look like turkeys, but like grotesque monsters since they have been genetically engineered to grow too fast. There is no resemblance to the beautiful bird with her golden brown plumage and impressive carriage that is the wild cousin of this pathetic Frankenstein bird we have created.
Some of the birds have broken feet and wings and they desperately try to crawl along the floor as they thrash around in the slippery blood. The workers ignore them, except when they step on them, and even stand on them, for long periods of time, for fun. Injured birds are the norm–since they are pulled so roughly from their cages, the workers break their bones. We see one worker ripping off a turkey’s head with a metal pole–for fun, I guess. The turkeys make sounds like screams; and when they are upside down, heading toward the blade that will slice off their heads, they struggle and struggle, for one last breath of life.
No where in the slaughterhouse is there a moment of kindness, or a gentle touch, for these birds who feel so much as they die.
Suki Falconberg, © 2007
What you can do to answer my prayer for mercy: First, become aware. Numerous groups on the internet carry information, videos, and activist suggestions for those who want to end the torture of animals: PETA, Humane Farming Association, Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Farm Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, and Viva! are just among a few that are out there.
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