It’s not an act of kindness to treat animals respectfully, it’s an act of justice.
Tom Regan - philosopher, animal rights advocate
The Victims of Our Choices
If you live or frequent the area of Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue West in Toronto, often referred to as the Stockyards District, you may have noticed the continual arrival of transport trucks with holes or slats in the sides.
Traveling from hwy. 401, along Black Creek Drive or Weston Road, to the stockyards district you many witness as many as 25 trucks per day.
What will I see inside these trucks?
If you’ve pulled along side or walked up to these trucks, you may have witnessed many pairs of terrified eyes peering back at you from inside. These eyes belong to mothers, fathers, babies, friends, siblings. All of them are victims of violence.
Where are the trucks going?
Have you ever wondered where they are going? The trucks then turn up Gunns Road to their final destination: the slaughterhouse. Directly behind the Stockyards Village shopping complex, hundreds of terrified victims are forced out of the trucks and into the windowless “kill plant” to have their throats slit each day.
An act so violent that we would not wish on our worst criminals.
Who Are They?
They are Mothers
After years of use, exploitation, torment, continual forced pregnancies, and having her newborn torn from her at birth, the cow used for her breast milk in the dairy industry is considered “spent” and sent to slaughter. She is generally between the age of 4-7 years old, a mere fraction of her natural 25-30 years. Because she can no longer produce the impossible and unnatural quantities of breast milk demanded by the farmer and consumer, she is discarded at the slaughterhouse and ground into low-grade hamburger for fast food restaurants. She often arrives at the slaughterhouse with udder painfully engorged, dripping milk and in different stages of pregnancy but, still, is shown no mercy.
They are Babies
Calves as young as one week old, victims of the dairy industry, arrive to be slaughtered for “veal”. On dairy farms, cows are kept in a continual forced (artificially inseminated) pregnancy. Shortly after she gives birth her newborn is torn from her and she is again artificially inseminated. If her calf is a boy he will likely be killed on the farm or sent to auction at only days old to be sold to meat packing companies for his flesh. If her calf is a girl she will be kept isolated from her mother in a crate, fed powdered milk, and will eventually replace her mother after she is killed. None of these calves will never know the the love or protection of their mothers. Cows are known for their strong maternal instinct and can be heard bellowing for her calf for days and nights after the abduction.
They are Sick and Injured
Since farmed animals are not required to have veterinarian care, they are often sent to be killed when they have injuries or become sick. Packed into transport trailers, these magnificent, frightened beings who weigh on average 1,000 pounds, thrash and slide on the slippery floor as they are transported along highways and country roads - in extreme cold and heat. Often they fall or collapse and are unable to right themselves in the crowded truck. They are trampled under the weight of their friends who are unable to avoid stepping on them.
They are Friends
In the meat industry, calves are taken away from their mothers at just a few months old and sent to fattening farms before they are killed at around 18-months-old. A mere fraction of their natural life span. Like us, the bond with some and dislike others. They often create caring, unbreakable, and altruistic friendships that can last a natural lifetime. At the slaughterhouse they are seen comforting each other before they are killed.
They are Innocent and Defenceless
Transport trucks and trailers filled with lambs are regularly witnessed at the slaughterhouse, and more often around the time of religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. The life of a lamb is short in the meat industry and they are often slaughtered at around four months old, although some are killed as young as 10 weeks old - a mere fraction of their 15-20 year natural life span. These lambs are often extremely frightened of humans but some, like our dog companions, still come to nuzzle your hand to see if you might be there to save them.