From our laboratory cages,
we hear the explosions and
smell the huge clouds of smoke and debris fast approaching.
Cover your faces quick, humans!
Strange substances in the eyes are incredibly painful
and can leave you blind.
From the slaughterhouse,
we hear you screaming in terror
as you see others all around you dying
and knowing you are next.
From endless rows of battery cages,
we cry for those of you who remain alive inside the inferno,
crushed together, unable to move,
wondering if you will ever see the light of day again.
From cold metal gestation crates,
we mourn for your young ones who must grow up
without their mothers' love,
and for the mothers whose babies have been ripped away from them
forever, before they could even say goodbye.
From your radios and televisions,
we hear you sharing your shock and grief and disbelief
over this senseless destruction of innocent life.
We hear your angry voices vowing to avenge the evil
and to do whatever it takes to make certain that
it never happens again.
From every factory farm, puppy mill, research lab and circus cage,
we hear your cries as you experience what, for us, is
everyday life.
Will you ever hear ours?
By Fran Hutcherson
September 11, 2001
On behalf of the nine billion animals killed for food each
year in the United States
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