“150 years ago, they would’ve thought you were absurd if you advocated for the end of slavery. 100 years ago, they would have laughed at you for suggesting that women should have the right to vote. 50 years ago, they would’ve objected to they idea of African-Americans receiving equal rights under the law. 25 years ago, they called you a pervert if you advocated for gay rights. They laugh at us now for suggesting that animal slavery be ended. Someday they won’t be laughing.” Gary Smith.
What is Social Justice
It can mean many things! (1) an opposition to arbitrary discrimination, (2) support of the marginalized, and (3) a respect for autonomy and individual rights.
Creed
The Ontario Human Rights Commission redefined creed to include non-religious beliefs that substantially influence a person’s identity, worldview, and way of life. Because ethical veganism is a way of life, it falls under this definition. no forced biology dissections, no obligation to wear leather at work, no holding company functions at a steakhouse for vegans.
Gender
Rape to impregnate, incarceration and offspring taken to prevent nursing is the life of a dairy cow. Hens are valued only for their breast “meat” & reproductive eggs and are killed when “spent”. Social justice activists must refrain from objectifying animals in language. Female bodies are not “meat.” Animals are not inanimate “things,” she is “her” not “it.”
Animal Trafficking
Hedgehogs and lizards like any animal kidnapped from its natural settings suffer isolation from social networks, diet depravation during transport & no choice on where to live or care provided once delivered. See PETA.
Human Trafficking
Human traffickers kidnap or promise the vulnerable a good life and sell the victims into slavery as workers at slaughterhouses and other animal factories where 18 hour days are the norm, wages are low, and working conditions are dangerous.
Global supermarkets selling shrimp peeled by slaves in Thailand.
Speciesism
Speciesism focuses on one morally arbitrary characteristic: species, and uses that to justify violence and inequality.
Economic Justice
Worker Abuse in meatpacking plants coupled with psychological and physical damage mean 69% of Britian’s slaughterhouse workers are migrants.
NC company paid $600,000 to settle claims of not paying chicken catchers. Immigrant laborers in under-regulated dairy industry die in manure pits.
WHO states 3 billion are malnourished yet the amount of grains fed to US livestock is sufficient to feed 840 million plant-based people.
Risk Management rules ignored at “Free Range” brand of Pitman Chicken, hospitalizing 15 employees-fine levied. Haitian refugees work at turkey slaughterhouses.
Tyson so risky workers suffer 1 amputation/month at Tyson factories. Jail inmates told they are going to rehab enslaved at chicken slaughter plant.
2 amputations/month at US flesh factories and USDA chicken killing plants suffer lung and eye damage due to chemical exposure. Covid-19 cases 40% higher at slaughterhouses.
North Korean workers prepare sea life for US plates.
Dairy manure seep into the ground causing nitrate contamination of waterways where farm workers live. Animal ag hurts animals and humans!
Lawsuit: Lifting the cap on line speeds — 1,106 hogs per hour — will put slaughter workers in danger. Two rural southern workers killed in sped up chicken killing lines January 2020.
87% of the 17,000 COVID-19 cases & 100 deaths in April and May 2020 at slaughterhouses occurred among racial and ethnic minority workers
The world eats cheap bacon at expense of NC rural poor
Resources