Are you triggered by the Hulu original show “Handmaid’s Tale?” Does the way the handmaids on the show are treated fire you up inside and sadden and anger you at your very core? If you’re human, I’m sure it does. In case you haven’t watched the show, it’s based in a future dystopian society where most women are unable to produce children, and the women who are able are forced to procreate with a designated married man. In short, fertile women here are sex slaves. They’re property. When they do produce a child, the baby is immediately taken from the biological mother (handmaid) and given to the wife of the biological father. Then the handmaid is relocated to another couple and forced to go through the process again. It fires me up, too. You know why? Because almost this exact situation happens everyday all over the world, and many people turn a blind eye.
Let me explain the most obvious, most disgusting example that initially comes to my mind. Here me out, please. Lives depend on it.
Born into slavery, they are forced to live in confined quarters that are way too small in proportion to their body size. Their quarters are filthy. Some are never allowed to see daylight, experience another’s touch, make friends (cows are social creatures, like humans), to roam and stretch their legs. They’re artificially inseminated repeatedly, a.k.a. raped, forced to produce offspring without a break between each child. (I must mention that male cows are raped as well in order to provide their sperm. Dairy farmers call the tool they use for this process an “electroejaculator.”) Their children are immediately taken away from them, a situation to which they respond with heartbreaking cries for days. All they want to do is tend to and care for their babies. The male babies are immediately slaughtered, and the female babies are raised so they can live this wonderful life themselves. Then, the mother is forced to provide her breastmilk everyday, completely unnecessarily might I add, often suffering through infection of the nipples. While naturally they produce a small amount of milk to feed their babies, their bodies are manipulated to produce up to five times more milk than natural. They’re fed unnatural foods that don’t nourish their bodies, and due to their inadequate living conditions, antibiotics are added to their food to keep them from getting sick. Often this doesn’t do the job though, hence outbreaks of E. coli. When they’re no longer able to provide milk, their lives are cut short, often twenty years earlier than they would have died living freely in their natural environment. Before their untimely death occurs, they often lose use of their limbs and are prodded, pushed, and pulled to get to where others feel they need to go. COWS. Cows go through this torture to satisfy the indulgences of the most exploitative, selfish, and destructive species of all time. We literally torture this species to steal the milk meant for their babies.
This is the horror of the mainstream dairy industry. You have the power to put an end to this torture. The easiest thing you can do to save a life is to simply change your diet. You don’t need dairy products to be healthy. In fact, eliminating dairy from your diet will not only save lives, but it will make you feel better, make you healthier, and it will not hurt your wallet. There is a plethora of dairy alternative products at almost every single grocery store. If my small town has alternatives, there is no excuse. Oh, and guess what? You can live without cheese. I promise.
Another example: Animal breeding must be avoided at all costs. If you must adopt a pet, please rescue them. Breeders force animals to reproduce, and when they do, the babies are ripped from the parents and forced to live in a strange, new environment without the comfort of the mother. Can you imagine that happening to your baby?
The horrors a fictitious handmaid must endure happens every day all over the word to beautiful, sentient creatures who want and are entitled to the opportunity of loving and raising their children. Motherhood is a sacred right that belongs to all mothers. Humans have no right to take that away from anyone. If feelings arise within you as you watch a woman forced to relinquish her child that she suffered to carry and deliver in a trying environment, don’t turn a blind eye on the living creatures that this happens to right now.
As a human species, it’s time for us to evolve, grow, move forward. We don’t have to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can do all things in love, including eat, including grow food. Save a life. Go vegan. Or at the very least, go dairy-free. Adopt, not shop. We are all connected on this earth. When you go vegan, you will feel a huge weight lift from your shoulders, a huge sigh of relief, that you didn’t know was possible. It’s true. Stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. No lives are ours to own, profit from, or torture. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Sources:
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/heres-why-dairy-production-is-inherently
https://www.animalequality.net/node/742
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Excellent piece!