The Animals Lament

The Animals Lament



Every year 45 billion animals are killed worldwide for human consumption. For example, in Germany it is 332,100,000 roasting chickens, 40,200,000 pigs, 24,000,000 soup chickens, 20,300,000 turkeys, 14,200,000 ducks, 4,100,000 cows, 1,000,000 geese, 900,000 sheep or goats and 7,500 horses. And in the US the numbers are even greater: In 2002, for example, a total of 10,108 million animals were killed and raised for food. These included for instance, 41 million cattle and calves, 116 million pigs, 4.2 million sheep, 304 million turkeys, 25,6 million ducks, as well as 2,133 million broilers and 484 million laying hens.




The Pig Ghetto: “In groups of 80 to 200 animals, we pigs are kept on gratings in nearly constant darkness. We stand on split flooring with no straw on it, which often leads to dam­aged joints. We are produced as if in a factory. The breeding sows are artificially inseminated in individual pens. During their 15 weeks of pregnancy, they are kept vegetating in very dimly lit tiny concrete stalls. To give birth they are tied up in special birthing pens. They can hardly move, and can merely stand up and then lie down again. So it is impossible for them to care for their young.”





The Hen “Torture Chamber”: “We laying hens vegetate away our brief lives in Hen Torture Chamberwindowless halls where we live in group cages up to 8 stories high. Twenty-two hens share 1 square meter of space; and the stench is unbearable. Already after 14-18 months of the hen torture chamber, our egg-laying perform­ance is not high enough, and so we land in the soup pot. How­ever, up to 20% of us do not even survive these 1 1/2 years: We die of stress, infec­tion, bone dis­ease, etc.”





The Calf Prison: “We are shut into narrow wooden pens, The Calf Prisonwhere we can hardly move. Right up until our murder, which you call slaughter, we are not given more than 1 square meter of space – this is how those who fatten us maximize their prof­its. Instead of mother’s milk we get only a fatty, white brew, consisting of skim-milk powder, tallow, whale fat and lots of salt. We get terribly thirsty from all the salt and since we do not get any water, we drink even more of the salty brew. In this way, we are fattened to our slaughtering weight in a very short time. During our whole brief and lonely life, we never even see a green meadow. We see the sun for the first time on our way to the slaughterhouse.”




The Turkey Death Cell: “We turkeys in factory farming suffer even more than Turkey Death Cellchickens being fat­tened for slaughter. Since our breast is the most desirable and expensive piece, our skeleton, legs and liga­ments are bent under the weight of our flesh because they cannot keep up with the accelerated growth of our body. At the end of our 22-week lives, we slide around or we lie on our extra-wide and heavy breast. Just like the hen torture chambers, our beaks and those of ducks are cut off – without anesthesia. Pain and constant irritation are the result - comparable to having your human lips cut off.”




Miserable transport: “You transport us thousands of kilometers all through the continent. We are crammed into the tightest Miserable Transportspace for days, without water, without food, in unbearable heat, in icy cold, with broken bones or open wounds. Many of us do not survive the transportation. We die of thirst; we are crushed; we die of sev­ere injuries or from panic and stress. On the way to the slaughterhouse, many of us are so weak that we can’t even walk 100 meters fur­th­er. So that we move more quickly, we are prod­ded with metal hooks in the mouth, eyes or anus.”




Brutality in the Slaughter­house: “When the butchers slit us open, cut our Brutallity in Slaughterhousethroats or saw off our legs we are often still conscious. We bellow on the hooks; we twitch in death anxiety and under hellish pain. And the animals next in line have to witness the final agonies of their brothers and sisters, knowing that it will be exactly the same for them. But you know no mercy. You call this reasonable, because you want to eat us.”




The Execution: “You try to numb us Pig Electric Tongspigs with electric tongs. The pain shoots through our head, our whole body, like a bolt of lightening. You think we don’t feel anything, when after the electric shock you throw us into boiling water to burn the hair and soften our hides for skinning. But your numbing doesn’t work for very long. We experience on our living body how our lungs fill with boiling hot water ... a terrible death!”

Hunting Terror from Ambush:




“The hunters set up a trap and lure us wild pigs with feed bait, in order to better shoot Wild Pigus – comfortably and cowardly from outside the confines of the trap. But one cannot always talk about a ”quick death.” Some of my friends and relatives are shot and wounded in the open. ‘Expansion bullets’ tear blood and in­testines out of severely wounded, fleeing animals.”

Deer Hunted




“Over 60% of the deer hunted do not die immediately. Many drag themselves along through the forest for hours and days, severely injured, with intestines hanging out. Fawns watch helplessly as their mothers bleed to death.”

“A special favorite is the hunting drives against us field Field Harehares. Even though we can run so fast, we don’t have a chance. When the hunter’s round of buckshot hits, we scream in pain like little human children. Many hit hares turn several somersaults in the air, screaming from pain until they lie dead.”

The consumption of meat, sausage, fish and poultry is a risk factor for numerous illnesses. The one who wants to live a healthy life should avoid these products. Seen from a dietary-physiological point of view, meat is a superfluous form of nutrition. There is no longer any doubt among experts that one’s dietary needs can met with a veg{etari}an diet. This is true for all ages With some diseases, for example, high blood pressure, rheumatism or metabolic disorders, a vegetarian way of life is the most sensible therapeutic measure there is. How each person wants to decide about eating meat is up to him, but he should be clear about the consequences.