Greetings.
Unfortunately the editor of the N.Z. “Listener” did not publish this letter. I guess there’s only one consolation when that happens: at
least two people – editor and her secretary – have read and hopefully
absorbed a little of what we wrote!! Of course, ‘humane
methods’ or action, would mean not farming them at all! But that is
jumping too far ahead for most readers and the editor.
Subject: Factory Farming...
What a revealing item was S.A.F.E.’s advertisement (Campbell Live, T.V.3, Dec. 10), on factory farming in New Zealand. Quite a shock, I imagine, for those not familiar with the methods by which much of our pig and chicken products are acquired.
Remember that old saying to the effect that a nation can be judged by the way in which it treats its most vulnerable members – namely children and animals? Those piglet ‘children’ could not even touch their mothers! Does that matter?
We have often heard, ‘Animals are not like humans; they don’t feel things the same’. Don’t they?? I have seen a ewe calling out for her lamb for several days, after it died. And her care and concern for it during its ill-health was an undeniable example of maternal love.
Sow crates, and cages including colony cages for hens, are not
the way many of us wish to see animals treated. Their suffering,
particularly because they don’t understand WHY they are being made to
suffer, is heartrending. Causing suffering to other creatures can never contribute towards the health of humans; how
much has the example we set, and the stifling of empathy and compassion,
contributed to the rash of violent acts by children against animals – and,
later, against humans? Think back to the dissecting of small
creatures, in schools. How much does a child’s sympathetic heart have
to be ‘hardened’ in order to cope with that? We are learning
- but far too slowly. It’s time to demand humane methods.
Noelene
Kirwee Canty, New Zealand
Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman
Thank you. We’ll publish it so that even more people will read it.
In the Love of the Lord,
Frank and Mary
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