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A Day in the Life

by Jessica Petryshyn

A Day in the Life - Jessica Petryshyn
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“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men”

— Leonardo Da Vinci

“Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to a man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.”

— His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Script:

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Close your eyes. Now imagine waking up tomorrow morning, but instead of waking up in your bed, you’re now in the body of a pig. You’re surrounded by other pigs, dozens of other pigs. All of them are scared, frantic, and anxious in this cramped enclosure. The concrete is cold on your feet and your whole body is aching in pain. You notice the pig beside you has a massive injury on its leg, there's pus and blood oozing out. Looking around, it seems that many pigs have horrible untreated injuries.

 

It’s dark inside this space, there is no sunlight, fresh air, or grass anywhere. The pungent stench of feces is almost unbearable. You now see that you’re at a commercial farm. A worker comes out and starts herding you and all the pigs into another area, and everyone is becoming even more frantic and scared. That’s when you realize that you’re on death row. All of the pigs are being hit with electrical prods. You get hit with the prod, it is very painful and you scream in agony. Everyone is scared and jumping on top of other pigs, trying desperately to escape. The pigs ahead of you are being corralled into a single file assembly line, and it’s almost your turn. At the end of this line one by one each pig is being electrocuted and then loses consciousness. They’re then hung up by their back legs on another assembly line where a worker slits their throat and they bleed out.

 

It’s your turn… you have nowhere to go, you try to scream out and ask for their mercy. What did you do to deserve this? Why is this happening to you? You’re at the end of the line. You look around and no one is coming to save you. The electrical prods come down and you feel a jolt of electricity coursing through your body. You’ve never experienced this kind of pain before. You’re just hoping it will be over soon. The electricity stops, but you can still feel everything, you haven’t lost consciousness. Your legs are hung up and the worker grabs your head and takes the knife to your throat.

 

You wake up. It was just a nightmare. 

 

This nightmare is the reality of every livestock animal at a commercial farm. They’re treated inhumanely during their short life here, before being slaughtered, butchered, and sold for meat. It doesn’t stop at pigs — chickens, turkeys, cows, goats, sheep... are all unfortunate enough to be apart of this treatment. Every dollar you spend, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want. Who wants to support this kind of treatment towards animals? Here are some ways you can make a difference.

 

  1. Cut back on your meat and dairy consumption. Start committing to “Meatless Mondays”, and get your friends and family involved! Quit basing your meal plans around meat, and start choosing your vegetables and grains first. Swap out meat for a vegetarian or vegan option — there are hundreds of resources online to help you with recipes and ideas!

  2. Start purchasing organic meat and dairy products from your local Farmer’s Market. In Edmonton and surrounding area there's a farmers market open every day except Mondays during peak season, and Wednesday to Saturday year round. Talk to the vendors, ask them questions. How is your cattle raised? What sort of diet do you give your pigs? Do you have photos of the farm? Farmers who raise their animals humanely want to share this information with you. So get to know them!

  3. Go vegan! I know it sounds scary. But it’s actually easier than you’d think. The number of people choosing a vegan lifestyle has increased immensely over the past few years. There are vegan substitutes for meat, vegan restaurants, cookbooks, and social media groups that can all help you make an easy transition for you.

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Let’s be a voice for animals. Together we can make a difference. 

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