A battle of comments ensued under my recent Facebook posting: Hate crimes got you down?! If you still eat meat, then you are part of the problem. My vegan friends understood the post and added supportive comments. But my meat-eating friends were insulted and confused by this post; several of them demanded an explanation.
This controversial posting stemmed from my knowledge of one of the 12 “Universal Laws” — The Law of Divine Oneness. This law states that in our world, everything is connected to everything else. This means that every individual thought, word, action and belief affects every other living being in the universe. Proof and theory for this phenomenon are provided by the principles of quantum physics. But an easier way to explain this law is to view the world as one giant soup bowl of energy. Everything an individual chooses to do with his/her mind and body affects the essence of the soup in the bowl. At any given moment, you are affecting the bowl of soup. At any given moment, are you adding kindness and love to the world or are you adding cruelty to the world?
We all contribute to cruelty in the world: even the smallest judgmental thought against another has a negative impact on the bowl of soup. The point of my Facebook post was not that meat-eaters are the only problem, but to bring about awareness that eating meat is one way that cruelty is being promoted in the universe. In the meat industry, cruelty, suffering and inhumane conditions are the norm in factory farms, the animal transportation system, and the slaughterhouses.
To bring awareness to this, videos and stories of the meat industry need to be viewed and told. Many such videos and stories are available on the internet. One such story is retold in the following paragraph — a true story and a typical story from the meat industry where it is common for animals to arrive at the slaughterhouse unhealthy and no longer able to walk. They are called “downers” in the industry.
Inside a truck at a stockyard, a cow that could no longer walk was subjected to the customary electric prods in the ear canals. When this failed to get her up on her feet, the stockyard workers beat and kicked her. When that failed, they tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a pole in the ground, and drove the truck away. This resulted in the cow lying on the ground with a broken pelvis and broken legs. She cried out for three hours. Periodically, after urinating or defecating, she used her front legs to pull herself forward to a clean spot.
A witness finally called the police. The witness was eventually told that if she left, stockyard personnel would euthanize the cow. The witness left and returned an hour and a half later to find a deserted stockyard and three dogs attacking the cow, which was still alive. The witness attempted to utilize the police a second time. A police officer was willing to shoot the cow but the vets at the facility would not allow it because it would destroy her meat. Finally, after seven hours after the cow was yanked from the truck, a butcher arrived and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50. Her meat was sold in grocery stores to humans.
If you wonder how you can help to stop cruelty in our world, you could stop eating meat. If you want more kindness in the world, put it there.
