We cannot imagine Jesus entering a factory farm today and saying 'blessed are the people who torture animals for food, they shall enjoy a juicy steak in peace'. St. John Henry Newman once compared Jesus’ suffering to the suffering of innocent and defenseless animals. Animals and Jesus are victims of our 'cowardice and tyranny', a situation worsened by the unnecessity of it all. In a stunning indictment of our apathy, Newman points out that 'there is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who never have harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offense nor defense, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it.'
DANIEL MASCARENHAS: “You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson while musing on our ignorance of the realities of the meat industry. Saying “we did not kill the animals” or shrugging our shoulders because such is the “system” that leaves us no other choice are futile attempts to wash our hands of any guilt…
Many of us know almost nothing about the horrific realities of factory farming. That we do not want to know how the sausage is made betrays a latent awareness of the horrors of factory farming. I once surprised a friend by pointing out that cows need to give birth before they can produce milk. One would think that much would be obvious. Do we wonder about the fate of the calves? And does the mother cow not want to nurse the calf? To prevent nursing, the young calf is either kept in tiny crates for a few short weeks and then slaughtered for veal, or is fitted with a spiked nose ring such that the mother starts kicking the calf each time it tries to suckle at its mother’s teat. Ingenious and cruel…
Factory farming is cruel by design because its sole aim is cheap meat. Unfortunately for the animals, low-cost correlates with brutal treatment. Kindness costs. It always does.
Catholics ought to include animals in their moral consideration… Saint John Henry Newman once compared Jesus’ suffering to the suffering of innocent and defenseless animals. He suggested that because scripture compares Jesus to a lamb, we may use our horror at animal cruelty to generate anger and sadness towards Jesus crucified. Further along, he reasons that we can make this comparison because Jesus and the animals have done no harm and have no power of resistance.
Animals and Jesus are victims of our “cowardice and tyranny”, a situation worsened by the unnecessity of it all. In a stunning indictment of our apathy, Newman points out that “there is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who never have harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offense nor defense, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it.”
Whether Jesus ate lamb or not, we cannot imagine Jesus entering a factory farm today and saying “blessed are the people who torture animals for food, they shall enjoy a juicy steak in peace.” Instead, he is the “good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) I believe our God of love and compassion weeps over the cruelty inflicted on His little ones. And when we solemnly pray the grace before dinner, one might wonder like Malcolm Muggeridge “how is it possible to look for God and sing his praises while insulting and degrading his creatures?”
We may deflect our complicity and console ourselves by blaming the “system”. “Woe to those factory farm workers and corporate executives who run these cruel operations, they have blood on their hands.” Have we wondered about the blood on our forks as we dig into steaks?
By consuming factory-farmed meat, dairy, and eggs, we are formally cooperating with evil. John Berkman, a moral theologian at Regis College in Toronto, defines formal cooperation as “when one shares the object of the wrongdoer’s activity.” 6 Berkman compares consuming factory-farmed meat to participating in dog fighting where cruelty is the essence of the enterprise. Like in dog-fighting, the cruelty to animals is inherent in factory farming. Like how one cannot claim that patronizing dog fighting is merely “attending a sporting event for leisure”, one cannot argue that eating factory-farmed meat is merely “consuming protein for nutrition”…
Nicholas Kristoff wonders likewise by drawing a comparison with slave owners. “Just as today, we wonder how people like Thomas Jefferson could have been so morally obtuse as to own and abuse slaves, our own descendants will look back at us and puzzle over how 21st-century humans could have tolerated factory farming and the systematic abuse of intelligent mammals.” While not necessarily equating the abuse of humans with the abuse of animals, Kristoff’s comparison is a salient reminder of how society can willingly ignore the suffering of multitudes…
There is no wishing away factory farming. Instead, reflect on what motivates our consent with the evil of factory farming. To battle apathy, reflect on the reality of the suffering of animals at the hands of humans. To battle ignorance, think about what you already know and ask why you are so hesitant to dig deeper. And finally, to overcome inaction, pray about your way of life as a disciple of Christ. SOURCE…
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