Telling Their Stories

Speech Given on Direct Action Everywhere Day of Action: United for Liberation
 7-25-15

Over 10 billion land animals are killed in the United States alone every year, and this does not even include animals who live in the waters. 10 billion is an unfathomable number to contemplate. When we deal with such sheer enormity, we tend to lose track of the bigger picture and this overwhelming number can easily become an abstraction. However, we must remember that when we say over 10 billion, we mean over 10 billion individual animals, each with their own story. To help us see the individual beings behind the statistic, I'd like to share the stories of just 4 different animals with you, whose lives were violently cut short by the evil system of death and profit known as animal agriculture.

The first story is of Riya Aurora, a beautiful young cow who lived for a short time at Lasa Sanctuary, a farm animal sanctuary in Jefferson, Ohio. Riya was rescued by Lasa from a small farm in Ohio that claims to pride themselves on their humane and responsible treatment of animals. I had the unique honor of meeting Riya myself at Lasa just last month. Riya, like all cows exploited for their milk production, was forcibly impregnated, and had each of her 3 babies ripped from her side each time she gave birth. Because of this abuse, Riya, like many cows used for dairy, suffered from a chronic and painful udder infection called mastitis. Before Riya was rescued, the farm tried to wretch another ounce of profit from her one more time before selling her to auction, by impregnating her once again so she can be sold as a bred cow. When Riya was rescued by Lasa, they made a promise to her that this time she could have her baby. On July 5^th (this month), Riya gave birth to her daughter Skye, the first calf in her short 4-year life born to her she would be able to keep. Riya tended to Skye gently and lovingly, but she was unable to nurse her because her udders were too damaged by years of abuse. On Wednesday July 9^th, Riya came down with an infection that came from the mastitis that lied dormant in her body, but was stimulated when lactation started in her body again. Riya took a sudden turn for the worse as the infection flooded her body. 48 hours later, despite all emergency treatment efforts, Riya's body succumbed to the infection and she died, just days after giving birth to her daughter Skye. At this point I want to quote directly from Lasa's memorial post on Riya: “The truth is simple. The farm did this to her. The dairy industry did this to her. She deserved love, compassion, respect, freedom, and family and what she got there was a life of infection, imprisonment, and broken bonds. The farm knew she was sick, they knew this could happen, but they chose profit.”

The 2^nd story I want to share is of another individual animal who came from a so-called humane and free-range farm, a farm that supplies “humane” eggs to Whole Foods. Sia was a hen rescued from such a farm by the animal sanctuary Hen Harbor. Sia enjoyed spending time with the other hens at the sanctuary, often leading the pack for nightly meals. Sia loved bathing in the sunshine, and fresh cold watermelon in the summertime. Sia died this month. Like all hens bred for egg consumption, she died of egg impaction where the broken eggs were literally rotting inside her abdomen. Domestic hens are genetically bred to produce at least one egg per day in the name of egg industry profit. In contrast, free-living chickens in the wild lay clutches of eggs, around 10 per year. Chickens are bred to ovulate at 30 times the natural rate and as a result develop ovarian cancer at 30 times the natural rate. This means that every egg a hen lays brings her one step closer to death. Eggs are for one purpose: reproduction. They were never meant for human consumption. The greatest injustice is that even hens, like Sia, who have been saved from the malicious clutches of the egg industry are going to die early, their lives viciously cut short, because their very bodies, their reproductive systems, have been hijacked in the name of profit and greed. Remember this the next time your neighbor tries to convince you of the “humane” nature of keeping backyard hens for their eggs.

The last story is of 2 individual pigs who did not have the fortune, like Riya and Sia, of being rescued by a sanctuary. Instead they lived and died on a small family commercial farm. They were given the disrespectful and disdainful names Porky and Bess. The farmer tried to treat them kindly but had long ago closed down his heart and desensitized himself to any natural affection that would arise for the animals because he saw them as living profits instead of living beings. Porky and Bess loved to eat vegetables, wallow in the mud, bathe in the sun, and nestle together in the shade. Porky and Bess were among the lucky tiny fraction of animals to enjoy these small comforts before their lives were cruelly stolen from them. Shot between the eyes, Porky ran in fear from the noise to his food dish and tried to eat, struggling to avoid his fear, acting like nothing happened before his throat was slit. Bess was killed soon after him. Porky and Bess didn't want to die. Like all animals, they valued their lives, even if the farmers didn't, and possessed a strong will to live. Even on this small family farm, there is much blood and violence in their deaths.

I deliberately chose to tell the stories of animals who all came from so-called humane, small, free-range farms. I did this to stress a point: There is no such thing as humane animal agriculture. There is no such thing as humane animal agriculture. I can't emphasize this enough so I'll say it one more time: There is no such thing as humane animal agriculture. All of these animals, whether they come from factory farms or family farms, wanted to live, wanted to enjoy their short time on Earth to maximum fulfillment, just like all of us do. Animal agriculture is an evil; it is a violent and oppressive system of cruelty that corrupts our planet, and it must be abolished. So today we remember all the animals malevolently ripped from the planet by this evil in hopes that one day all living beings will be truly free. Today we remember all those individual stories and the billions more that will never be told. So I implore you to go out and share these stories. For Riya, for Sia, for Porky and Bess, for the billions of baby chicks who will come blinking into the world only to be coldly snuffed out moments later because they were born the wrong sex, for the frightened baby calves who will never know the gentle love of their mothers, for the mother cows who mourn in agony for their stolen babies, for the over 10 billion individual beings on this Earth and who will be born onto this Earth only to be exploited, abused, tormented, and violently murdered in the name of profit and greed, we remember you. We will not forget you. We will tell your stories.