A Hen and her Little Boy Friend

I love this video.  It's a little boy opening his arms to a chicken, and it comes to him and accepts a warm hug.  Pretty amazing, and a beautiful thing to see. How lucky this hen is. Poultry rarely gets anything close to kindness from humans   How many billions of these docile birds are killed and turned into McNuggets and drumsticks every year.  They have been reduced to commodities on a balance sheet, and their lives are an endless, horrific cruelty in the name of cost savings and profit.

H.G. Wells wrote a book called, The Time Machine. In it, a 19th century man created a machine that carried him into a distant future, where he found humans living a seemingly idyllic life. Only later did he learn the dominant species were a grotesque deviation of humanoid called Morlocks, who raised humans to live only long enough to mature, whereupon they were killed and eaten.  At least in that instance, the Morlocks  allowed their human food stock a few years of cruelty-free existence.  Animals raised for human consumption these days get nothing like that. Chickens are jammed in cages from the time they hatch. Their feet become infected from standing on wire mesh all day, every day. Their beaks are cut off to prevent them from pecking each other, thus damaging their commoditized flesh.  It diminishes us as humans to treat other creatures this way.

The boy in this video has been taught to express empathy to his feathered friends, and they in turn have learned to trust him. Yes, it's idealistic, but kindness is always a wonderful thing to witness.

Here is the video of a hen accepting some love from a little boy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxo1mZeY68&feature=youtu.be

Mostly Vegetarian Fifty Years From Now

Some consequences of unchecked human population growth are becoming ever more apparent. World population exceeds seven billion, with the total increasing about 70 million annually.   That's, in effect, the addition of six more cities the size of Los Angeles every year.  At least two billion more people will be on Earth by 2050. 

An article in the Guardian (U.K.) reports that the current portion of human food consumption from animal protein is about twenty percent.  Given the planet's increasing water and food scarcity, the only way to feed a human population expanded to nine billion would be to reduce consumption of animal protein to about five percent of total food intake.

It takes about ten pounds of grain and a huge amount of water to produce one pound of meat for human consumption. The Guardian article quotes Malik Falkenmark at the Stockholm International Water Institute ,  "There will be just enough water if the proportion of animal-based foods is limited to 5% of total calories and considerable regional water deficits can be met by a … reliable system of food trade."

Eating lower on the food chain allows water and grain resources to be used much more efficiently.  It's the only way to avoid mass starvation in the poorest parts of the world.  Beyond that, a transition to a mostly vegetarian lifestyle would have substantial health benefits. It would also mean that the slaughter of literally billions of animals raised now as industrial commodities would be dramatically curtailed. The latter consequence, in itself, is reason enough for me to embrace this inevitable change in human lifestyle.


Here is the link to the article in the Guardian newspaper...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/aug/26/food-shortages-world-vegetarianism

PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. aka PETA,  is an organization dedicated to protecting living creatures and assuring they are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.  The folks at PETA are warriors. They don't play nice when dealing with people or businesses that abuse defenseless animals.  Ingrid Newkirk, the leader of PETA, is  very tough. She and her associates don't care if some people are offended by their often hard-hitting strategies for exposing the terrible way animals are mis-treated in our society.

Literally billions of chickens, hogs, and cattle are brought into the world annually, and treated as commodities rather living beings that are just as vulnerable to pain and stress as humans. These creatures are subjected to every kind of abuse as they are raised then slaughtered, with only one thing in mind, maximum profit.  PETA shines a harsh light on the unsavory and largely hidden cultural practices that turn living, feeling creatures into cheeseburgers and McNuggets. Regretably, in our society, children are raised to recognize the food they eat as nothing more than edible tidings one buys at the store. 

PETA is not the only non-profit fighting back against animal abuse, but they are definitely one of the most aggressive. They operate fearlessly.  I admire Ingrid Newkirk and her band of change agents.  They are a force to be reckoned with, and their cause could not be more noble and decent.

Here is a link to the PETA website...

http://www.peta.org/