Third week of Suffering: But what can I do?

JANUARY 20, 2010

Reading about animal suffering is one thing, but having to watch repeated visual images of animal cruelty and torture is starting to weigh heavily in my subconscious. This week we had to watch a film called Peaceable Kingdom which visually revealed a lot of the farm animal cruelty I have begun to read about in this course. These images cause me to have an immediate and violent internal reaction that explodes out of my body as shakes and wails, and I begin to cry before my eyes even have time to produce tears to lubricate and soothe the instant stinging. I have to say, this intense physiological reaction that I have to witnessing torture startles me every time, and it gives me a mental slap that screams “DO SOMETHING!”

But what can I do? The problem of factory farming is so systemic that my personal decision to abstain from eating meat feels irrelevant. I know I am not the only one who feels this way, but I don’t understand why the majority of the population isn’t outraged. For example, my boyfriend is a kind person and could be described as one of those types who “wouldn’t harm a fly”. He is supportive and sensitive to the emotional challenges I am facing in this class, yet the idea of going vegetarian doesn’t even seem to cross his mind. It’s as though the things I am experiencing are only happening in the classroom, but don’t apply to the real world and so he is therefore exempt from any responsibility. I want so badly for him to make the same connection that seems so obvious to me, but he didn’t have the same reaction while watching Peaceable Kingdom. He still wears the cultural blinders that allow most people to chew the flesh of other creatures for nourishment, even when that nourishment can be obtained without causing cruelty and death to other animals.