I would recognize that site anywhere...the metal bars, the white feathers flying haphazardly, the stench....the STENCH. I was heading home from a class and noticed what I thought was a semi full of crates fly by as I got on the highway. It's an atypical site here in Portland, but this would make for the second in about a month, so I followed my intuition.
My heart sank at the possibility of being faced with seeing animals who I couldn't help in the least. There is probably no single thing that makes me feel more helpless than witnessing abuse, cruelty, neglect and not being able to do a thing about the egregiousness. Somehow I felt that the least I should be able to do is look this abomination in the eye. I decided that I would catch up to the semi, which at that point was flying at top speed and ride alongside it. Sure enough, there were hundreds and hundreds of chickens crammed inside of those metal cages. I looked to connect with the faces of these animals....to see their individual suffering so that, if nothing else, I could continue to be their voice.
I could barely distinguish the birds from one another - the dirtiness of their feathers broke my heart...and my spirit, the absolute despondent looks on the faces of these creatures, their once bright red combs that had become pale, countless of them in these tiny spaces. They looked bewildered and resigned to their dictated circumstances. Completely trapped into a system they would never choose to be part of. Tears streamed my face and blurred my driving vision. I "pulled it together" and paced my speed as much I could until my path diverged from theirs. I told them that they were not alone and I wished for them the least violent and painful of deaths.
The emotions that this stirred in me are countless and indescribable. We have become so disconnected as a species that a truck full of sentient creatures is treated as the equivalent of a truck load of oranges on their way to market...so disconnected that we allow ourselves to be part of this system, one that treats innocent creatures like commodities. Born into a life of misery, suffering and death, all for the sake of desire, convenience, and the rationalizing that allows for desire and convenience to override compassion, empathy, wisdom, caring, and kindness.
For more information, please visit www.farmsanctuary.org and www.veganoutreach.org.
