#72: What’s Morals? (PART 4)

【Truth About Our Kills】
When we picture in our mind of our favorite meat dishes, we must admit that we don’t want to think about the details of how they get to our dinner table. So why do we choose to shut off our brain like that? To be blunt, it’s because those appetizing dishes get to our table by killing the animals.
 
So then, how many animals do we kill for us to eat?
 
In 2017 alone, roughly 72 billion land animals including chicken, pig, and cattle were killed for us to eat, worldwide.
 
To put this in context, the human population is nearly 7.8 billion today, which means that an average person kills roughly 10 land animals every year to eat. As our life expectancy is approximately 80 years, each person kills on average 800 land animals to eat during our lifetime.
 
And in most cases, these adorable animals are raised in horrible conditions from birth to the day of slaughter.
 
Separated from their moms when as young as a few days old, they’re forced to live mostly in small, dark pens. Occasionally they’re let outdoors, but grown big enough, these gentle animals are shackled upside down and killed. If we dare call them “lucky,” as they cry in fear, they’re knocked unconscious by electrical or gas stunning before getting slaughtered. But in the worst case, their throat is cut while screaming in pain.
 
So then, we ask the question: Is our meat-eating custom morally wrong?
 
That’s equivalent to asking if It would be perfectly acceptable for me, you, our loved ones, and everyone else to be separated from our moms when as young as a few days old; forced to live mostly in small, dark pens; shackled upside down; knocked unconscious by electrical or gas stunning; and then killed.
 
In our right mind and all fairness, no one wishes to live or die like that.
 
And that’s not all.
 
Slaughterhouses across the world commonly employ those who are in less-fortunate situations through no fault of their own, including those born into poverty or immigrants/refugees who had no choice but to flee from danger. The US and Japan are no exception, and especially so when it comes to terrifying work environment.
 
Listening to the constant screams and cries of animals being killed, the slaughterhouse workers are hired to kill animals who are mostly gentle and adorable. When people are required to work in such environment daily, it often leads to psychological trauma and PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
 
Physical danger is often elevated for these workers who are at high risk of severing a finger or limb due to the heavy machinery operated at an excessive speed. What’s more, despite the pandemic, the slaughterhouse workers are required to work in closed and crowded factory, rendering them highly susceptible to contracting the coronavirus.
 
And these workers are routinely denied bathroom breaks, forcing some to wear adult diapers and others to urinate on themselves in order to avoid retribution from supervisors.
 
Without a doubt, we absolutely oppose to conclude that It would be perfectly acceptable for me, you, our loved ones, and everyone else to be put in that situation.
 
Consequently, despite how wonderfully appetizing our favorite meat dishes may be, our meat-eating custom is morally wrong.
 
Yet, just as we have for other customs and norms, there’s a good reason to why we eat meat. And that reason may perhaps be the rich protein/nutritious value and great taste.
 
Nevertheless, that doesn’t make it morally correct. As we discussed of slavery in the prior post #70, Having a reason for certain action and the Moral correctness of that action are separate and unrelated. They have nothing to do with each other.
 
To put it bluntly, we have reasons to eat meat, but our meat-eating custom is morally wrong.

Read Next: What’s Morals? (5)【Our Responsibility】
Read Previous: What’s Morals? (3)【Meat-Eating Custom】
 
Complete Series: What’s Morals? (1)～(8)
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Read Theme: Morality