"With Jane In Catland" is my blog about my handmade paintings, crafts, and other artworks of mine, posts about my Etsy shop, my love for cats and other animals, artist friends of mine, artists who inspire me, animal charities I work for and support, animal rights, various videos, and other random things in my life. Hope you enjoy my on-line Catland!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Hello everyone! It's been quite awhile since I last wrote here in my blog. Mostly due to personal reasons and being so busy in many aspects of my life.

But now that things are starting to feel a little less overwhelming, I wanted to post my thoughts about animal rights relating to Thanksgiving....
 

 With Thanksgiving approaching, I find myself thinking about what I am thankful and grateful for. And I'm looking forward to a home cooked meal and being with my family and friends.
However, I can't help but also think of the millions of turkeys that will be tortured, abused and eventually slaughtered at the hands of cold hearted "humans". I think of it every year. And sadly, the slaughter of turkeys does not just happen at Thanksgiving, it happens everyday, all around the world. Suffice to say I am thankful that I am a vegan and do not support the horrific and inhumane treatment that turkeys go through to ultimately become part of the traditional feast for Thanksgiving.
I recently came across this undercover video which documents the harsh realities of what goes on to turkeys behind the closed doors of factory farms (the video is posted below) Farms are often depicted as places where animals roam free in the sunshine and live happy carefree lives. Well, this couldn't be further from the truth! The video below shows "The Truth". The truth of what these factory farms do not want you to know about and do not want you to see!
This video is from PETA, an animal rights organization which some people do not support. However, if you watch any other footage similar to this one, from any other animal rights organizations, sadly - you won't see anything different. The same type of abuse and slaughter happens at factory farms, regardless of what organization is documenting it.
I want to warn you that this footage is very hard to watch. It is highly disturbing and truly heartbreaking. But "The Truth" needs to be seen and heard. Without it, you'd never see the struggles these birds have no choice but to put up with - no matter how hard they struggle - the brutal and horrific treatment they have to endure everyday - and you'd never hear their screams of pain, confusion and fright these animals go through as they are slaughtered without watching the video.
While I am adamant regarding my beliefs and support of animal rights, I am not a vegan who tries to convert other people into vegetarians or vegans. I don't force my personal beliefs and life style choices onto other people, but I am very open to talking about it if other people want to talk about it and/or have questions about it. And I'm also very open about it here since this is my personal blog that I use to express my feelings, thoughts and more, about a variety of things in my life...which is in part of why I'm writing about this here.
I do realize and respect that everyone has their own life, have their own feelings about animal rights, and have their own personal choices regarding what they eat. I also realize that even some people who love animals, eat meat or dairy due to medical or religious reasons.
But, I hope that whatever your stance is about animal rights, that you will watch this video, take it into consideration and give thought about what you see in this footage. Because I think it's safe to assume that whether you're vegan or not, most of us would agree that NO animals should be treated like this - ever!


I want to wish everyone a blessed and very Happy upcoming Thanksgiving!
And to my friends who are fellow vegans or vegetarians, keep up the fight for the love of our precious animal friends!



Til later...
Cheers from Catland!
- Jane

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh i do hate to see those videos, but they are really effective and hit home with a lot of people. but at the end of the day i can sleep easy at night knowing i had no part and contributing to torture of any kind.

Jane said...

Hi Lncgreetings -

How are you? Very good I hope :)

Sorry for the delayed reply - lots of crazy stuff going on here...

...But in reply to your comment - I hate to watch those videos too. It's soooo heartbreaking and they always make me cry. But, as you said, it IS effective. I just wish more people could see these types of videos, cause I don't think most people realize the severity of the torture that our precious and beautiful animals have to endure everyday!

And also like you said (so beautifully too) I also can sleep better at night knowing I don't contribute to torture of animals!

Wishing you a very Happy Holiday and a fun and festive 2009 as well :)

Cheers from Catland!

- Jane