A brief thought on feel-good fuzzy words
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

There's an Elephant in the Room
March 2017

However most of us would struggle to define what ‘humanely’ actually means in real terms, because it is a word that means different things to different people. It sits alongside a raft of other feel-good fuzzy words that we are encouraged to see as related; words like ‘free range’, ‘organic’, ‘grass fed’, ‘corn fed’; words that suggest that the package contents had a wonderful life before winding up in a supermarket mortuary aisle.

The mere fact that the industry could even consider promoting the suggestion that our victims must be ‘happy’ to give up the substances derived from their bodies is an admission that the consumers are not alone in recognising that our victims matter. However, as always, we should remind ourselves to follow the money and not let the mob or the marketers dictate our actions by falsely seeking to absolve us of responsibility for them.

joy rescued hen
Joy, rescued from a free-range facility by
Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary

Most of us will agree that it’s wrong to harm animals and we all say that we think they should be treated ‘humanely’. However most of us would struggle to define what ‘humanely’ actually means in real terms, because it is a word that means different things to different people. It sits alongside a raft of other feel-good fuzzy words that we are encouraged to see as related; words like ‘free range’, ‘organic’, ‘grass fed’, ‘corn fed’; words that suggest that the package contents had a wonderful life before winding up in a supermarket mortuary aisle.

Marketing is a science. Those who market substances that are derived from the lives and the bodies of animals, take advantage of the vague understanding of consumers and go to great lengths to suggest that the products they sell were produced in a way that does not conflict with our shared values of caring about animals, employing these feel-good labels often alongside endorsements by various organisations that mendaciously claim to represent ‘animal interests’.

Taking advantage of what we don’t know

Knowing that most consumers don’t know – and in many cases would prefer not to know – the details or the true definitions, the words are often illustrated (not always subtly) to suggest that they represent a good thing; cue suggestive images of jolly cartoon hens on green grass in sunshine, smiling cartoon cows with jaunty cartoon udders, even – disturbingly – cute and smiling pigs cheerfully slicing their own bodies.

To a greater or lesser degree, the general theme is to seek to ensure the dismembered parts and secretions are as sanitised as possible and bear no possible reminder of the true owner. It would never do to remind the consumer of the helpless, distraught individual whose unique and precious body they comprised not so very long before. It would never do to open a window into the injustice of their lifelong and relentless use as a commercial asset, where every minute aspect of the existence they endure is governed by humans to maximise their own commercial advantage and fulfil the peaks and troughs of consumer demand-led misery.

If we look into the industry definitions of ‘humane’ or ‘free-range’ or any other of the words we like to see, we will find that they are technical terms, used as a result of compliance with a list of fairly loose conditions for a single reason.

Keep on telling us we’re ethical

Despite recent and rather transparently untrue attempts to suggest that only ‘happy’ victims yield eggs, milk and body parts, that reason has nothing to do with respect for our victims, nothing to do with recognition of their individuality, and nothing to do with acknowledgement of their right to live unharmed. Why would it? For the industries that sell body parts and secretions by the kilo, litre or carton, they are not regarded as sentient individuals, they are resources, business assets and nothing more. The reason that the fuzzy words are promoted is that it’s good business.

Every time we see any of the fuzzy words on a package using or containing milk, eggs or body parts, or indeed on any animal substance, it is a clear admission that suppliers know that their consumers like to be told they’re being conscientious. As a former nonvegan, I know only too well that not only do nonvegan consumers like to be reassured this way, we readily abdicate to the supplier most of the responsibility for ensuring that their products will allow us to continue to feel good about ourselves and pretend we’re causing as little harm as possible.

Our actions, our responsibility

We can’t have it all ways. Either we recognise that our victims matter, that they have feelings, that they can be harmed and hurt. Or we don’t. The fact that so many of us act as I once did myself, looking for the fuzzy words in the misplaced hope that my choices minimised harm, is a clear recognition that for most of us, we know that they matter.

The mere fact that the industry could even consider promoting the suggestion that our victims must be ‘happy’ to give up the substances derived from their bodies is an admission that the consumers are not alone in recognising that our victims matter. However, as always, we should remind ourselves to follow the money and not let the mob or the marketers dictate our actions by falsely seeking to absolve us of responsibility for them.

There is only one way to cause as little harm to others as possible. And that way is to become vegan. In fact it’s the definition of veganism. Find out about it today. Be vegan.


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