The Straits Times
STForum Online
Sep 11, 2009
Doing good to animals is great, but isn't it better that we first do them no harm?
WEDNESDAY'S report, 'Fed pricey herb, to strains of Mozart', is ironic.
No amount of air-conditioning, pricey herb feeds, mood lighting and Mozart can compensate for the pain and suffering a chicken, or any animal for that matter, undergoes before it is slaughtered.
The plight of chickens which are bred in captivity for the sole purpose of being eventually slaughtered, begins from as early as when they are chicks. They have to be de-beaked and have their wings clipped - to prevent them inflicting injury on their fellow chickens.
Chickens bred in factory farms suffer cramped living conditions and endemic diseases. They are given powerful cocktails of steroids and antibiotics engineered to accelerate growth, to shorten their lives and hasten their harvest.
While the antibiotics suppress disease among the animals, their use leads to the emergence of newer and more powerful strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which are, more than ever, able to transcend animal-human borders.
Feeds fortified by Cordyceps and cultured lactobacillus underscore the inefficiencies of meat sources of food.
A lifetime of fortified fowl feed - anywhere from four to nine months - translates to only a few days of human meals without any assurance that such fowl feed fortification passes on greater nutrition down the food chain.
If such nutrients can withstand the rigours of slaughter and cooking, just imagine the avian virus and other contaminants that must be surviving the transition equally well.
Expending land, water, nutrients and energy for lighting and music on animals means less of such limited resources are available for man's own benefit.
Why not deploy these directly for mankind instead, to optimise them while reducing methane, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions and waste by-products which poison water supplies and necessitate expensive treatment plants?
Doing good to animals is great. Isn't it better that we first do them no harm?
Vijay Kumar Rai
