The perspective we need to take out of vegan protests

Enough with the rules for some and not for others. There is something deeply wrong with our society and the current protests have been exactly what we need, writes Andrea Macleod.

AS A vegan and having been a vegetarian previously for 30 years, I find myself in a deeply depressed state. Perhaps, and although I have not been involved in the protests, my thoughts are indeed “militant” by the new government standards.

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I think cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, elephants, whales, birds, lizards, snakes, crocodiles and I could go on — are all equal. I think they should not be farmed, not held in tiny pens, not forced to die, not forced to listen to the horror of others dying, not be born to be a commodity.

Why is one mother’s baby less important than another? Picture: AP/Jens Meyer

I believe current farming is inherently cruel.

I believe people need to know the truth and not turn away from it just because it is uncomfortable.

I believe farmers need to really think about what they are doing.

Is there a way to do this better? And demand to do it better. Are there new industries ones that are not cruel, that do not depend on the death of another?

What is a livestock farmer anyway — someone who raises animals to be killed. Why do we need to keep protecting this industry and pretending it is caring, warm and fuzzy? If this is who we are as a society, a society that keeps millions of animals in cages and then brutally kills them meanwhile condemning the slaughter of whales and seal pups, there is something deeply wrong with the society.

Enough with the rules for some and not for others. Pain is pain. Suffering is suffering. Killing is killing. There is nothing kind about killing.

A pig named Boe was caught on camera not being able to get up and licking the floor in an attempt to get food and water. Picture: Still from a video from the Animal Liberation Queensland

I hear the farmers saying they love their animals. I watch vision of their devastation when their stock die in drought and flooding rains but I don’t see tears or heartbreak when vision of horrendous offshore processing plants and their animals is aired on national TV and in print around the world.

I don’t see a shift in recognition that these are not just livestock, they are conscious, feeling beings, no different to our pets, no different in their love for each other, their bonds with their offspring and in, some cases, their willingness to defend with fury their families.

All animals deserve dignity and kindness. Picture: AAP/Sue Graham

They are just like us — capable of vast emotion FULL STOP and how do I know because I have seen it and because fortunately science has now also taken the time to prove it — animals feel, they have elaborate social networks, they are joyous, they are so funny and they grieve. They feel pain and fear just as they feel love and connection.

They have a right not to suffer and livestock should not be exempt from our laws. Yes there are two laws — one for livestock and one for pets.

Find me a child who hasn’t cuddled a lamb and felt its preciousness or a baby duckling or calf.

Find me an adult who can honestly pass by any one of the images of dying sheep and cattle on live export ships and the horrors of their deaths without feeling something.

Live export ship Al Messilah in Perth. Source: Supplied

Sheep deserve better

Don’t be angry at the vegans, just ask questions. Are they right? Do animals suffer when they die? Are they frightened? Do they want to die? Should we be doing this better? Could I kill the animal myself and then skin and cook it? Why is it OK to love my dog and be so indifferent to the sheep that suffered deeply and lost its life for the food on a plate? Why is that OK, really?

Is there an alternative?

There is something inherently wrong when the kindness and passion of people who are sitting on the right side of science and justice are deemed terrorists. Should they invade farms -probably not. But the frustration of knowing that animals are dying in this way is overwhelming. And saving three sheep is the biggest of wins — that is three lives, three precious animals who will know what it is to be cared for from now.

Screenshots from the 60 Minutes Australia video detailing Australia's live, long-haul exports. Picture: YouTube/60 Minutes Australia

Having written thousands of letters to government about live export, about dairy cattle, about horse racing, about duck shooting, about baby chicks being ground to death and crabs boiled alive, I am tired of rhetoric from government about there being standards — they are not standards fit for this time.

I am tired of nothing changing.

When nothing changes, new ways of getting attention are required.

Why can’t we find a way to acknowledge that there is a process in this country which is inherently cruel and instead of governments attacking those who are standing up to shine a light on the horror, they should be finding ways to transition, swiftly away from this?

Screenshots from the 60 Minutes Australia video detailing Australia's live, long-haul exports. . Picture: YouTube/60 Minutes Australia

And for those who want to talk about stunning of animals before they are killed: Go and watch it. Go and watch the baby chicks ground up while still alive. Go and sit with the sheep and cattle as they go in to die. It is a horror. And horror traumatises every living creature. Take your children to see where their dinner comes from and not the farm, go to the pens outside the killing floor.

Protesters from Animal Liberation Queensland stop trucks at Ingham's Murarrie slaughterhouse in Brisbane this week. Picture: Brian Bennion

I will never forget a phone call from my local State Member when the first of the live export terrors began airing. She said it was dreadful, she said it wasn’t OK, she promised to do something. Yet she is part of a government that has increased our live exports to the very countries with no real change to regulations or protections or prosecutions despite everything that she knows.

This is the frustration of all those who have been writing, begging, clinging to hope that things will get better for these animals and yet they are not. We feel we are not fighting hard enough for them, we feel broken when we know that day after day millions of them die painfully and terrified.

Ban Live Export national protest at Parliament House. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Please ask vegans why they are upset, why they want change. It’s not for them — it’s all for the animals.

And then go and see what happens for yourself. If you are OK with that — so be it.

Then try a vegan burger or a vegan cupcake or a vegan pie. It won’t kill you or anyone else.