...with the wheat gone, there's no place left to go.
I have seen the bodies of leverets that have gone through the threshers of a combine harvester. It's not a pretty sight. This reminded me that we don't even need to want to harm other animals in order to end their lives.
I read a paper about inattention, which was especially concerned with how we can put out of mind the harms done by factory farming and scientific research when we buy our meat or our medicine. But hidden below this are all the harms that we fail to even acknowledge.
Roadkill.
Birds flying into glass windows or plane engines.
So many millions of fish, sea mammals and sea birds killed as by-catch or tangled in nets.
Animals - and their habitats - destroyed by agriculture and construction.
Pollution.
Pesticides and other poisons that go up the food chain.
Wastage in scientific animal breeding institutions ('These litters are not required by any scientists, cull them.')
Wastage in labs - those that die before their suffering has contributed to scientific knowledge.
Wastage in animal farming - those that die of injury or disease before being culled.
Animals dying from induced genetic problems brought about by breeding for beauty or pug noses or temperament or extra milk or whatever it may be.
Race horses - or greyhounds - that don't make the grade, or suffer an injury in training or competition which is 'too expensive' to deal with.
Pet animals with expensive illnesses or injuries, or those whose temperament is deemed inappropriate or who are simply surplus to requirements.
Competition horses dying due to sport horse management.
Birds and other small mammals killed by pet cats.
Whales and dolphins beaching due to their confused sonar systems.
Animals dying of zootropic infections caused by crowded housing.
I wonder how many billions? Beyond flesh and leather, milk and eggs, science and culling, sport hunting and pest killing.
Oh and then of course there is climate change.
We are devastating all other animal life. And, of course, our own.
Comments