Throughout history animals have been misused because they have never had spokesmen to fight for them, but as we humans are improving people have come together to form the PETA foundation (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). It is a non-profitable foundation, which was founded in March of 1980. It consists of 300 employees and two million members and supporters whose role is to fight for the rights of animals and make sure that people don’t put animals in danger. In this essay, I’d be talking about the fight against animal cruelty and the good reasons to become a Vegan or turn Vegetarian.
A Vegetarian is a person who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or, in some cases, any food derived from animals, as eggs or cheese, but subsists on vegetables, fruits, nuts, grain and more but a Vegan is one refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Becoming one of the two might seem hard but if committed to it can save a person from so many sicknesses and diseases. The many fears that hold people back are legion. Some of the fears are that of changing to a new lifestyle, the fear that they wont, be able to get over missing meat, dairy, and eggs, the fear of what people might think, the fear of trying something new. There are so many reasons and they are more and more. All these things hinder people from living a good and healthy lifestyle.
Non vegetarian and the act of animal for food has been debated over the centuries, and even some spiritual leaders have disagreed with the very idea of paining any living being for your personal needs. Before I got on to talk about this I’ll leave it for another time.
PETA has done a lot against animal cruelty. Some of their ventures include banning chicken tossing. Chicken tossing is basically throwing chickens and to see how far they land. This can cause injures to the chickens bones and after being part of this can cause brittle bones or even arthritis. The chickens that’s are mostly used during this activity are young chickens because they are lightweight and thus can fly further than other chickens/ hens. Other ventures also include the banning of Foie Gras. It’s a food product made of the liver of duck or goose that has been specially fattened. Lastly, is illegalizing cock-fighting in New Mexico as well as stopping many other people and companies in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
The AWA (Animal Welfare Act was first created and signed in the year of 1966. It is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers. The AWA requires that minimum standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public. The last time the act was changed was in 2008 and one change that was made was to strengthen the penalties related to animal fighting by adding prohibitions on possession and training as well as advertising animals or sharp instruments for use in animal fighting, and increasing criminal penalties from 3 to 5 years imprisonment.
Another case would have to be the food industry in killing animals for food. In “Food.Inc” pigs, chickens and cows were kept in unhealthy condition where they were injected Medications to cure diseases caused by the food and hormones they are being feed in all of them. When looking for exact names of medications I came up short meaning the food industry is hiding it from its consumers so they just give it the fancy name Antibiotic but what it really does it harm the livestock. A question was asked by one of the farmers “If you can grow a chicken in 49 days why would you want one in 3 months”. The average person would agree to the chicken that is bigger and took fewer days to grow but in process are harming themselves with all the medications they were given including the type of meals given to them. As pointed out in the film, most people are under the illusion that their food is grown on the cutie little farms often depicted on the packaging of the products themselves. In all actuality, few of those farms exist, as most of them have been replaced with the large factory farms (Kenner 2009). The factory farms have over-crowding of livestock causing problem for the environment due to the biodiversity. The main goal of the PETA foundation is to help, but also to show the world that it is possible to not reply on eating animals since we can also eat a diet and also gain the entire needed requirements for the body and not kill animals.
In Conclusion, the PETA foundation was founded in 1980 and from then till now, has fought so many fights to changes peoples ideology on animals treat less just because they don’t voice their likes and dislikes. The biggest fight that they are still fighting is that of the fast food industry mass producing to feed its customers and in the process, harm the animals by feeding them to grow faster and bigger in a short amount of time which doesn’t give them time for their internals to grow or even their bones to strengthen them. The food industry is only supplying what the people demand. Me myself, I don’t mind becoming vegetarian or vegan, the problem is having to stay one in the world were almost everyone eats meats therefore, making it hard to stay a Vegan/Vegetarian. It's ridiculous what people/companies will do just to make an extra buck without any concern for our health. It's worse that they make false claims and didn't really admit to doing anything wrong.
Works Cited
Food Inc. (2008) – IMDb. Prob. Robert, Elise Kenner, Pearlstein. Perf. Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Wed. 24 May 2011. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/>
Griffiths, Heather: Steinbrecher, Christopher “The Colonel’s Strategy:KFC, PETA and Superficial Appeasement” Excerpt in Sociological Spectrum Vol. 30 Issue 6, p725-741, 17p Print
Janelle Rohr, ed. “Animal Rights Opposing Viewpoints”. Greenhaven Pr 1989. Print
Murchison, William. “Animal Rights and Wrongs” Vol 36 pg 29-39, 8p Print
Pivetti, Monica. “Animal rights activists” representations of animal and animal rights: An exploratory study” Excerpt in Anthrozoos. Vol 18, 2005. Print
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