The beautiful & the damned

Humans are voracious beasts — globally, we consume 360 million tonnes of meat every year. That number comprises real beings, their earthly tenure ended by our greed — unless we count sausages or chicken wings as existential essentials, like water, it is impossible to justify these killings. Over 202 million chickens, 3.8 million pigs, 1.4 million goats and 9,00,000 cows are killed daily — but you don’t hear any cries. The industrial farming industry, which is valued at $3.3 trillion, ensures you meet these souls only as ‘tastes’. Despite the delicacies prepared using them, these animals are kept in cramped, filthy cages, many unable to even stand, often neutered or debeaked with no anaesthetic, experiencing sunlight and fresh air only en route to the slaughterhouse. There, their throats are slit often while they’re conscious. Many are still struggling for life as they are hacked, skinned or plunged into scalding tanks for hair removal.

Conditions aren’t much better for animals imprisoned elsewhere. Over 115 million are used in laboratory experiments worldwide each year — rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys and mice are forced to inhale toxic fumes, have holes drilled into their skull, their skin burned, suffering genetic manipulation and chemical injections. They are then dumped into small cages, echoing with fear, pain and callousness. We are told animal testing is for developing essential medicines — but it is also used to make life’s non-essential goods, from detergent to make-up, making us lovely on the broken backs of the damned.
Also read: ‘The British Raj had little knowledge — and even less sensitivity — towards animals used in war’

Life is a full circle though. Hurting animals, we hurt ourselves — Harvard Medical School finds eating meat is linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. As we decay, so does Earth — industrial food farms generate 18% of global warming emissions. The entire system, snatching untold lives and masquerading these killings as ‘celebrations’, is an orgy of baroque consumption — two-thirds of Earth’s agricultural land grows livestock feed while just 8% generates food for direct human consumption. There are solutions though. As Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, recognising two systems is vital. The first is speciesism or humans imagining other animals are inferior and their suffering irrelevant. The second is capitalism which often turns evil banal, leading to, as Karl Marx described, ‘All that is solid melts into air.’ Investigating this air is crucial now. Join Times Evoke in learning of the animals we damn — to save them and yourself.
Also read: ‘Humans treat animals like slaves, taking even their flesh from them — speciesism boosts this’