WEBVTT 00:00:40.379 --> 00:00:48.109 I want you to imagine that one morning you wake up and as you stretch in bed, your fingers 00:00:48.109 --> 00:00:55.679 graze your oak headboard and suddenly, before your eyes, you see the tiniest acorn fall 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:02.789 to the ground, sink into the earth, shoot up into a great oak, get cut down by industrial 00:01:02.789 --> 00:01:08.799 machinery, chopped into pieces, manufactured into a headboard, packaged, shipped, displayed, 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:11.590 and purchased by you. 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:13.539 This all happens in the span of a few seconds. 00:01:13.539 --> 00:01:19.909 You start thinking maybe you aren’t quite awake it was just a particularly vivid dream. 00:01:19.909 --> 00:01:25.080 But when you throw back your sheets, you’re regaled with their entire journey from cotton 00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:28.970 seedlings in a field all the way to adorning your mattress. 00:01:28.970 --> 00:01:35.789 By this point you’re understandably afraid to move, so you yell for a loved one, instinctually 00:01:35.789 --> 00:01:38.979 reaching out to them as they rush in. 00:01:38.979 --> 00:01:41.259 And it happens again. 00:01:41.259 --> 00:01:45.990 Only this time you’re not watching their history, you’re seeing it through their 00:01:45.990 --> 00:01:47.110 eyes. 00:01:47.110 --> 00:01:52.689 Every moment in their life as they saw it, every experience as they experienced it—all 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:55.149 in the blink of an eye. 00:01:55.149 --> 00:02:01.130 It’s all so much at once you find yourself unable to explain to them what’s happening—at 00:02:01.130 --> 00:02:03.950 least not without sounding insane. 00:02:03.950 --> 00:02:08.149 So you laugh it off—must have been a bad dream—and thank them when they offer to 00:02:08.149 --> 00:02:09.720 make breakfast. 00:02:09.720 --> 00:02:13.260 Maybe getting something in your stomach will settle things down. 00:02:13.260 --> 00:02:17.360 You keep your socks on as you make your way to the table to save yourself the life story 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:22.239 of your floors and carpets, and pull back your chair with your foot before carefully 00:02:22.239 --> 00:02:23.410 sitting down. 00:02:23.410 --> 00:02:27.820 You decide to just use a single fork for everything that you’re going to eat so that you don’t 00:02:27.820 --> 00:02:31.700 have to learn more than you care to know about utensil production. 00:02:31.700 --> 00:02:36.140 Your plate is set before you and your loved one or family member or roommate joins you. 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:41.060 You smile and thank them and say you must have just been hungry. 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:47.209 And then you make the mistake of taking a bite of bacon. 00:02:47.209 --> 00:02:49.079 And it happens again. 00:02:49.079 --> 00:02:54.040 What do you think you would see? 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:55.810 What would you hear? 00:02:55.810 --> 00:02:57.310 Smell? 00:02:57.310 --> 00:02:58.810 Feel? 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:05.019 What would it be like seeing through the eyes of that pig? 00:03:05.019 --> 00:03:09.880 Just imagine the full scope of this—every item you pick up at the store, every piece 00:03:09.880 --> 00:03:13.959 of clothing you put on, every person whose hand you shake or hug. 00:03:13.959 --> 00:03:17.430 How would your understanding of the world and those around you change? 00:03:17.430 --> 00:03:21.100 And how would it affect your food choices? 00:03:21.100 --> 00:03:24.070 Hello, my name is Emily Moran Barwick. 00:03:24.070 --> 00:03:29.139 I’m an animal liberation activist, an artist, an educator and a vegan. 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:33.201 I created the YouTube channel and accompanying website, Bite Size Vegan, where I educate 00:03:33.201 --> 00:03:38.139 people about veganism through a wide array of video styles covering a diverse range of 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:39.139 subjects. 00:03:39.139 --> 00:03:43.260 In our time together today, I’m very likely going to challenge some of your life-long 00:03:43.260 --> 00:03:44.260 beliefs. 00:03:44.260 --> 00:03:50.609 I’m going to ask you to set aside your preconceptions, suspend any certainties, and try to see with 00:03:50.609 --> 00:03:54.510 a fresh set of eyes that which you’ve never questioned. 00:03:54.510 --> 00:03:59.979 The everyday, ordinary, accepted aspects of your daily life. 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:06.210 I am aware that this is a great deal to ask of you, especially coming from a total stranger. 00:04:06.210 --> 00:04:10.360 I’m asking for your trust when I haven’t even earned it. 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:15.859 But believe it or not, I am not here to force my beliefs upon you—to criticize your country, 00:04:15.859 --> 00:04:17.870 culture, traditions, religions, or beliefs. 00:04:17.870 --> 00:04:20.789 I’m not here to shame or shock you. 00:04:20.789 --> 00:04:23.030 I’m not even here to make you vegan. 00:04:23.030 --> 00:04:25.530 I won’t pretend to have that power. 00:04:25.530 --> 00:04:28.750 And no one really makes any lasting change through force anyway. 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:35.690 Today, I’m simply here to show you what is really going on every second of every day 00:04:35.690 --> 00:04:41.030 all around the world behind closed doors—including here, in Ireland. 00:04:41.030 --> 00:04:46.970 I’m here to present evidence—for your consideration—that things may not be as 00:04:46.970 --> 00:04:48.759 they appear 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:52.400 Undoing a life-long belief is no easy task. 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:56.639 But in order to make informed decisions, to look ourselves in the mirror and ask if we 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:02.889 are truly living the values we purport to have, we must know the truth. 00:05:02.889 --> 00:05:08.900 We must educate ourselves about what is really going on, not rely on what we’ve been taught. 00:05:08.900 --> 00:05:12.410 We must make decisions based on facts, not fantasy. 00:05:12.410 --> 00:05:16.250 I’ll want to preface this talk by saying that I’m going to be transparent with you 00:05:16.250 --> 00:05:19.120 and I’ll even tell you if I don’t know something. 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:23.380 I will be focusing rather intensely on the situation here in Ireland. 00:05:23.380 --> 00:05:28.950 Now I’m obviously not from here—and as much as I strive to be diligent in my research, 00:05:28.950 --> 00:05:34.470 it would be a grave misjudgment and incredibly presumptuous on my part to come here and try 00:05:34.470 --> 00:05:40.820 to tell you about your own country, especially on something so incredibly central to your 00:05:40.820 --> 00:05:45.320 country’s history, economy and culture, as animal agriculture. 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:50.500 The facts I’ll present today are not of my creation—I’ve sourced them from primarily 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:55.480 Irish governmental and industry documents, the European Union, and many, many others. 00:05:55.480 --> 00:06:00.570 You don’t even have to believe me—I will be providing you with a link to a resource 00:06:00.570 --> 00:06:05.570 sheet containing a full transcript of this talk with detailed citations for every fact 00:06:05.570 --> 00:06:10.050 I state, a full bibliography and additional resources so that you can dig deeper. 00:06:10.050 --> 00:06:15.610 We’ll only be able to barely scratch the surface in this brief window of time we have 00:06:15.610 --> 00:06:16.610 together. 00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:18.310 So let’s get started. 00:06:18.310 --> 00:06:24.600 For anyone unfamiliar with the term “veganism,” vegans do not eat, wear, or use anything that 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:26.710 came from someone else’s body. 00:06:26.710 --> 00:06:29.200 We don’t eat meat, drink milk or eat cheese. 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:31.280 We don’t consume eggs or honey. 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:34.280 We don’t wear leather, wool, silk, or down. 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:39.000 We don’t use products that were tested on animals or contain byproducts from their slaughter. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:45.100 And we don’t attend circuses, zoos, aquariums, or any other event that exploits living beings 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:47.650 for our entertainment and pleasure. 00:06:47.650 --> 00:06:52.090 Now you may think this is an extreme way of life—most people do. 00:06:52.090 --> 00:06:55.250 Maybe it seems unrealistic, unnatural, even dangerous. 00:06:55.250 --> 00:07:02.780 Perhaps a well-intended but misguided over-reaction to isolated cases of animal cruelty. 00:07:02.780 --> 00:07:07.230 After all, most people identify as animal lovers—they don’t want to cause the suffering 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:10.919 and death of innocent beings anymore than vegans do. 00:07:10.919 --> 00:07:15.720 But all those undercover videos of abuse and horror stories of cruelty you hear in the 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.860 news—those are in America, right? 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:19.870 Or China. 00:07:19.870 --> 00:07:21.300 Or some far away land. 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:25.510 Or a case of one corrupt individual giving all farmers a bad name. 00:07:25.510 --> 00:07:30.780 Or the inevitable product of factory farms, big agribusiness, and corporate greed. 00:07:30.780 --> 00:07:34.370 But it’s not like that here. 00:07:34.370 --> 00:07:35.940 Here we have smaller farms. 00:07:35.940 --> 00:07:36.940 Higher standards. 00:07:36.940 --> 00:07:38.230 Better conditions. 00:07:38.230 --> 00:07:40.140 Stronger regulations. 00:07:40.140 --> 00:07:42.770 Our farmers care about their animals. 00:07:42.770 --> 00:07:47.880 Maybe your family or you yourself are involved in some aspect of animal agriculture and find 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:53.540 the claims of many animal activists objectionable, inflammatory, and completely out of line with 00:07:53.540 --> 00:07:54.669 your own practice. 00:07:54.669 --> 00:08:00.000 Or maybe the rolling green pastures you drive past, with peacefully grazing cows seem to 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.340 be another world from the vegan arguments against beef and dairy. 00:08:03.340 --> 00:08:07.199 Or maybe you have a friend who raises their own chickens for eggs and treats them like 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:11.530 family members, nothing like the tiny cages in the media. 00:08:11.530 --> 00:08:15.660 Certainly there’s a middle ground between systematic abuse and the extreme measures 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:16.699 of veganism? 00:08:16.699 --> 00:08:23.490 A way of farming animals that’s inline with the inherent values of humanity: stewardship, 00:08:23.490 --> 00:08:28.550 compassion, respect for life, humane treatment. 00:08:28.550 --> 00:08:32.959 Assuming this is the case, how much do you know about the exact nature of these higher 00:08:32.959 --> 00:08:37.769 standards and stronger regulations—or even the origin of the animal or animal product 00:08:37.769 --> 00:08:39.070 on your table? 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:40.070 Where were they born? 00:08:40.070 --> 00:08:41.070 Where and how were they housed? 00:08:41.070 --> 00:08:42.539 How were they treated? 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:44.259 How were they killed? 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:49.100 Unfortunately—or, you may think fortunately—the hypothetical exercise we started off with 00:08:49.100 --> 00:08:50.579 is total fantasy. 00:08:50.579 --> 00:08:55.250 The vast majority of people posses very little to no knowledge of where their food comes 00:08:55.250 --> 00:09:01.430 from and how the individuals from whom it was taken were treated—including the Republic 00:09:01.430 --> 00:09:04.329 of Ireland and the whole of the EU. 00:09:04.329 --> 00:09:08.180 What we eat is such an accepted part of our every day life that most of us have never 00:09:08.180 --> 00:09:10.590 even thought to question what we’ve been told. 00:09:10.590 --> 00:09:16.800 This isn’t due to a lack of intelligence—this information is deliberately difficult to find—and 00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:21.060 even then, it’s couched in euphemisms and dense legal language. 00:09:21.060 --> 00:09:25.760 Which makes you wonder— if there’s really nothing wrong with how we breed, raise, and 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:32.230 kill the animals we eat—if it really is better here, why such make such an effort? 00:09:32.230 --> 00:09:35.800 Today we’re going to decode this language, look behind closed doors—we’re going to 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:40.110 take that figurative bite and see the history of the animals we eat. 00:09:40.110 --> 00:09:44.800 And this is not just about them, but also the environment, our health, and the health 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:46.400 of our family. 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:51.650 You deserve to know the truth about what you’re putting in your body—about what you’re 00:09:51.650 --> 00:09:53.750 feeing your children. 00:09:53.750 --> 00:10:00.490 And you certainly deserve to know what you’re paying others to do to animals in your name. 00:10:00.490 --> 00:10:05.130 Now I’m not even talking about instances of overt abuse and neglect—which have and 00:10:05.130 --> 00:10:09.740 do occur in Ireland— because we all know such cruelty is unacceptable. 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:15.700 What we’re going to focus on are the standard operating procedures and best practices. 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:19.320 You may already be familiar with some of what I’ll cover—perhaps it’s even part of 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:24.530 your every day work—but remember today is about seeing these accepted conventions through 00:10:24.530 --> 00:10:30.550 new eyes—the animals’ eyes—and questioning our mentality towards these beings. 00:10:30.550 --> 00:10:36.180 To this end I’ll be using terminology you may find objectionable when applied to non-humans—perhaps 00:10:36.180 --> 00:10:37.830 overly anthropomorphic. 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:42.930 This is a perfect example of our completely contradictory beliefs. 00:10:42.930 --> 00:10:49.220 Humane regulations are an inherent admission of animals’ ability to suffer and feel pain. 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:53.640 So how can we claim that our standards are higher, our animals better treated, that they’re 00:10:53.640 --> 00:10:59.709 healthy and happy—then deny that they even possess these capacities when asked to see 00:10:59.709 --> 00:11:02.390 from their perspective? 00:11:02.390 --> 00:11:04.010 We cannot have it both ways. 00:11:04.010 --> 00:11:11.160 So let’s see how the vast majority of Ireland’s population lives. 00:11:11.160 --> 00:11:15.740 The Republic of Ireland’s human population is now over 4.7 million. 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:21.670 Of course this does not include the over 1 and a half million pigs, 5 million sheep, 00:11:21.670 --> 00:11:26.330 almost 7 million cows, and 11 million chickens and other birds. 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:31.120 As you most likely are aware, Ireland’s main animal agriculture outputs are dairy 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:36.220 and beef, however the most highly consumed animal products in the Republic are pig meat 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:37.220 and poultry. 00:11:37.220 --> 00:11:42.610 In fact, Ireland has one of the highest levels of poultry meat consumption within the EU 00:11:42.610 --> 00:11:49.000 at 32.8kg per person in 2015, finally overtaking Irish per capita pig meat consumption by over 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:50.000 a kilo. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.820 And, believe it or not, at least according to the respective countries’ statistics 00:11:52.820 --> 00:11:58.581 from 2014, Ireland’s population consumed almost 7 kilos more poultry per person than 00:11:58.581 --> 00:12:03.600 the United States, and between 9 and 24 kilos more red meat, depending on the measurement 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:04.880 parameters. 00:12:04.880 --> 00:12:09.320 It just so happens that the most highly consumed meats in Ireland are the most intensively 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:15.080 farmed, though this can be easy to miss as the Agricultural Census groups pigs, poultry, 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:18.290 horticulture, fruit and mixed crops as “Other.” 00:12:18.290 --> 00:12:25.480 Ireland’s pig industry states in its own 2015 report that “currently 99%+ of Irish 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:31.330 pigs are bred and reared in indoor, non-straw bedded, slatted or solid floor systems.” 00:12:31.330 --> 00:12:36.270 In 2003 the European Commission stated that while “the majority of pigs for fattening 00:12:36.270 --> 00:12:40.459 (81 %) are reared on units of 200 pigs or more,”…[t]he industry in…Ireland is 00:12:40.459 --> 00:12:43.260 characterised by units of more than 1000.” 00:12:43.260 --> 00:12:48.770 Within the pig industry worldwide, it’s standard practice to “process” piglets—a 00:12:48.770 --> 00:12:56.070 perfect example of the euphemistic terminology with which we reduce individuals to inventory. 00:12:56.070 --> 00:12:58.890 It allows us to distance ourselves from our actions. 00:12:58.890 --> 00:13:04.300 During “processing” baby pigs have their teeth cut or ground, their ears sliced or 00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:09.650 pierced, their tails cut off and boys have their testicles ripped out—all without anesthetic. 00:13:09.650 --> 00:13:16.120 While the Irish pig industry seems to favor raising intact males, the Republic’s laws 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:21.399 explicitly permit unanaesthetized castration, along with teeth and tail cutting of piglets 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:23.120 under 8 days of age. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:27.529 Ear tagging, notching, or other “lawful application” of identification are permitted 00:13:27.529 --> 00:13:30.950 at any age on any animal. 00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:36.550 Baby pigs are killed before they’re 6 months old—a decade before their natural lifespan. 00:13:36.550 --> 00:13:41.160 The brief time they get to spend with their mother is through the thick metal bars of 00:13:41.160 --> 00:13:42.540 her farrowing crate. 00:13:42.540 --> 00:13:48.779 Nursing mothers are tightly confined, unable to turn around or interact with their babies. 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:54.200 Pigs are highly intelligent and incredibly social, ranking with primates in their level 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:56.019 of social cognition. 00:13:56.019 --> 00:14:01.630 Mothers can recognize their piglets by sound alone, and sing to their babies while nursing—referred 00:14:01.630 --> 00:14:03.660 to in studies as “nursing vocalization.” 00:14:03.660 --> 00:14:10.010 But despite their scientifically recognized array of complex emotions, piglets are separated 00:14:10.010 --> 00:14:16.089 from their mother within days or weeks of their birth, with Ireland specifying no earlier 00:14:16.089 --> 00:14:18.360 than 21 days. 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:22.519 The sooner her babies are taken, the faster she can “re-enter production.” 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:27.730 At her “time of service,” the astounding term for forceful penetration of her vagina 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:33.070 with an instrument full of boar semen, she may legally be chained in place, one of the 00:14:33.070 --> 00:14:36.890 number of exceptions allowing the tethered restrained of pigs. 00:14:36.890 --> 00:14:41.160 Tethering stalls as a whole, where pigs were chained in place all the time were outlawed 00:14:41.160 --> 00:14:47.519 by the EU in 1995, but as we’ll continually see with all regulations, this came with ample 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:52.209 exceptions, loopholes, and a 10 year window for implementation. 00:14:52.209 --> 00:14:59.610 In 1998 91% of Ireland’s mother pigs were still confined to sow stalls or tethered. 00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:03.959 And when sow stalls, also known as gestation crates, were subsequently outlawed through 00:15:03.959 --> 00:15:10.089 a 2001 EU decision, again with ample fine-print exceptions and only for a certain portion 00:15:10.089 --> 00:15:16.089 of their pregnancy, Ireland was one of nine member states found to be non-compliant in 00:15:16.089 --> 00:15:21.860 2013, with the European Commission stating they’d “had twelve years to ensure a smooth 00:15:21.860 --> 00:15:26.160 transition to the new system and to implement the Directive.” 00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:30.871 Later that same year, the organization Compassion in World Farming released an undercover video 00:15:30.871 --> 00:15:37.190 from their investigation into five pig farms in Cork, Waterford and Kerry, with one investigator 00:15:37.190 --> 00:15:41.500 stating, “These are the worst pig farms that we have seen in Europe, and the worst 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:47.610 conditions that I have seen in years,” finding pigs covered in their own excrement, relegated 00:15:47.610 --> 00:15:54.130 to filthy pens, cannibalizing dead pigs left in their pens out of boredom, bins full of 00:15:54.130 --> 00:16:00.620 carcasses, weak and emaciated pigs left to die, open wounds, among other violations. 00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:05.550 Fearing their findings were an indication of conditions within “a large section of 00:16:05.550 --> 00:16:10.450 Irish pig farming,” the organization noted how “Ironically, as these investigations 00:16:10.450 --> 00:16:14.210 were taking place, Ireland held the EU Presidency. 00:16:14.210 --> 00:16:21.600 During their tenure, the Irish Government made a show of taking the lead on animal welfare.” 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:25.620 Humane regulations do not equal humane treatment. 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:31.079 As I mentioned earlier, there’s a tendency to dismiss these kinds of investigation as 00:16:31.079 --> 00:16:35.320 isolated incidents—five isolated incidents in this case. 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:41.269 That’s why I’m laying out in such detail the exact nature of the highest standards 00:16:41.269 --> 00:16:47.079 available—standards that reduce intelligent beings to machinery. 00:16:47.079 --> 00:16:51.980 That allow the repeat sexual exploitation and confinement of mothers, the mutilation 00:16:51.980 --> 00:16:58.820 of babies, the separation of families in order to churn out the next round of living products. 00:16:58.820 --> 00:17:04.329 If we look at Ireland’s own portrayal of ideal conditions, images printed in welfare 00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:09.269 guides, pig farms featured on Ear to the Ground, and make the effort to see with a fresh set 00:17:09.269 --> 00:17:14.019 of eyes, how can we call this treatment humane? 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:22.290 If this is the highest standard, what’s happening when the camera’s not rolling? 00:17:22.290 --> 00:17:26.809 This particular episode of Ear to the Ground perfectly illustrates our true motivation 00:17:26.809 --> 00:17:31.670 for enhanced welfare—allowing a few pigs to access to the outdoors for the first time 00:17:31.670 --> 00:17:37.679 in their lives to see if this improves the flavor of their flesh and the price their 00:17:37.679 --> 00:17:39.760 carcasses will fetch. 00:17:39.760 --> 00:17:45.330 Ireland’s Pig Industry Stakeholders in their own 2015 report cite animal health and welfare 00:17:45.330 --> 00:17:52.500 as major challenges, and propose a financial incentive of €200 per sow for depopulation—meaning 00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:55.400 payment for killing and “restocking” their “inventory.” 00:17:55.400 --> 00:18:03.240 In 2015, 3.2 million pigs were killed in export-approved plants in Ireland. 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:07.799 When we add in the estimate for non-export approved plants and the 181,000 Irish pigs 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:13.549 shipped alive to other countries, the body count climbs to 3.6 million (3,575,737). 00:18:13.549 --> 00:18:18.010 This does not include pigs “destroyed” for disease or depopulation, nor the worn 00:18:18.010 --> 00:18:22.340 out mother sows killed with their “production” declines. 00:18:22.340 --> 00:18:27.450 Deemed unfit for human consumption, even in their death’s these serially abused beings 00:18:27.450 --> 00:18:32.150 are denied any recognition of individuality. 00:18:32.150 --> 00:18:38.620 If we are capable of treating these social, intelligent, emotive beings—who show affection 00:18:38.620 --> 00:18:44.540 and play in many of the same ways as our beloved canine companions—with such malicious, selfish 00:18:44.540 --> 00:18:50.720 disregard, imagine what we’re capable of doing to beings with whom we’re less able 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:58.040 to relate, 2015 was a banner year for the Irish Poultry and Egg industries, with rising 00:18:58.040 --> 00:19:01.160 global demands and domestic consumption. 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:05.090 Along with poultry surpassing pig flesh as the most eaten meat in the country, Irish 00:19:05.090 --> 00:19:10.650 egg consumption and production are also rose, with the nation’s 240 egg producers churning 00:19:10.650 --> 00:19:16.520 out 281 million more eggs in 2015 than five years prior. 00:19:16.520 --> 00:19:23.120 By sheer quantity alone, chickens are the most severely exploited of farmed land animals. 00:19:23.120 --> 00:19:29.169 the mothers of the pig industry, layer hens are imprisoned, used up, and thrown away when 00:19:29.169 --> 00:19:33.360 their bodies give out prematurely from the extreme demands of production. 00:19:33.360 --> 00:19:37.610 Hens lose vital nutrients every time their body forms an egg. 00:19:37.610 --> 00:19:42.380 Every aspect of their lives is regulated to ensure maximum output. 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:46.770 From breeding them to produce eggs at an alarmingly unnatural rate, to controlling their laying 00:19:46.770 --> 00:19:52.690 cycles with days and days of persistent light followed by long periods of complete darkness, 00:19:52.690 --> 00:19:58.160 to starving them for weeks at a time in an effort to force yet another egg cycle from 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:03.260 their worn out bodies, a process benignly referred to as “induced molting.”. 00:20:03.260 --> 00:20:09.120 Of course, the EU essentially banned the complete removal of food and water in 1999, so instead 00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:13.850 of suffering through up to 3 years of this brutality, European hens whose production 00:20:13.850 --> 00:20:19.450 has declined have the good fortune of being slaughtered around their first birthday. 00:20:19.450 --> 00:20:24.500 The vast majority of the world’s more than 7 billion layer hens spend their abbreviated 00:20:24.500 --> 00:20:29.810 lives in cramped battery cages, unable to even extend their wings. 00:20:29.810 --> 00:20:33.830 Now you may have heard the big fuss about the European Union’s groundbreaking directive 00:20:33.830 --> 00:20:38.480 set in 1999 banning “barren battery cages” by 2012. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:42.160 From the media coverage, you’d think EU layer hens are living in luxury. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:47.940 But as we’re seeing with humane regulation, the devil is truly in the details. 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:53.610 In reality, the directive merely replaced barren battery cages with “enriched,” 00:20:53.610 --> 00:20:55.610 meaning furnished, battery cages. 00:20:55.610 --> 00:21:02.860 Reports extolled how hens would now be afforded 750cm2 each, neglecting the legislation’s 00:21:02.860 --> 00:21:07.020 clarification that only 600 of these would be usable due to “furnishings”—meaning 00:21:07.020 --> 00:21:12.650 this most “revolutionary” advancement for the rights of layer hens granted them 00:21:12.650 --> 00:21:18.140 each an additional 50cm2. 00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:23.670 Understanding the true impotence of this legislation makes its pathetic implementation all the 00:21:23.670 --> 00:21:24.930 more baffling. 00:21:24.930 --> 00:21:30.299 In 2012, nine countries told the European Commission that their farmers would not meet 00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:35.070 the deadline for conversion, with four additional countries saying it was unlikely they’d 00:21:35.070 --> 00:21:36.289 be ready. 00:21:36.289 --> 00:21:43.280 These thirteen countries had over 12 years to grant the laying hens they enslave a meager 00:21:43.280 --> 00:21:46.690 50cm2. 00:21:46.690 --> 00:21:50.500 And all the while the media celebrates the victory for animal welfare, the public eats 00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:56.740 more and more eggs, reassured by their higher standards, and the individuals this entire 00:21:56.740 --> 00:22:01.990 charade is supposed to be for, remain just as exploited. 00:22:01.990 --> 00:22:05.760 This is readily evident if when we put a face to the figures. 00:22:05.760 --> 00:22:06.970 Meet Alice and Joy. 00:22:06.970 --> 00:22:11.280 They were both liberated with a few of their sisters from Irish egg farms and brought to 00:22:11.280 --> 00:22:15.990 Eden Sanctuary just outside of Dublin, where they walked on grass and saw the sky for the 00:22:15.990 --> 00:22:18.230 first time in their life. 00:22:18.230 --> 00:22:21.630 Alice came from a battery cage farm. 00:22:21.630 --> 00:22:24.780 Joy came from an enriched cage farm. 00:22:24.780 --> 00:22:30.590 Eden’s founder, Sandra Higgins, described in a report on the EU Directive the conditions 00:22:30.590 --> 00:22:33.160 in which Joy and her friends were imprisoned. 00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:38.620 “A large number of them had extremely inflamed and swollen bodies, obviously stressed to 00:22:38.620 --> 00:22:41.340 the limit by the human demand for eggs. 00:22:41.340 --> 00:22:45.980 One hen was barely able to walk, her legs unable to keep her body upright because they 00:22:45.980 --> 00:22:49.880 were forced so wide apart from the swelling in her abdomen. 00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:52.720 Some had prolapsed from the effort of laying eggs. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:54.900 Some died of egg peritonitis. 00:22:54.900 --> 00:23:00.059 Joy, like the others, was exceptionally light, with a mere covering of skin and feathers 00:23:00.059 --> 00:23:03.580 over her sharply protruding keel or breast bone. 00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:06.350 She had ammonia scalds on her skin.” 00:23:06.350 --> 00:23:11.559 Apparently they hadn’t seen the news to know how fortunate they were to be living 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:16.669 under the highest of standards. 00:23:16.669 --> 00:23:20.750 Confronted with this reality, most people propose a shift to free-range and cage-free 00:23:20.750 --> 00:23:21.750 facilities. 00:23:21.750 --> 00:23:27.120 But as we’ve seen, the only comfort these labels bring is to our own conscience. 00:23:27.120 --> 00:23:31.440 Cage-free birds are crammed into tiny sheds and have twice the mortality rates of battery 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:33.120 caged hens. 00:23:33.120 --> 00:23:37.020 They still have their sensitive beaks cut or burned off, and as they still suffer the 00:23:37.020 --> 00:23:42.750 same predisposition to osteoporosis from their inbred overproduction of eggs —which, with 00:23:42.750 --> 00:23:47.800 their increased opportunity for movement, results in an increased incidence of fractures. 00:23:47.800 --> 00:23:51.330 Their bodies are their prisons. 00:23:51.330 --> 00:23:58.390 The most horrifying consequence of our perverse genetic manipulation, is the fate of male 00:23:58.390 --> 00:23:59.540 layer chicks. 00:23:59.540 --> 00:24:05.190 We’ve optimized our machines, you see, and designed one kind of chicken for meat and 00:24:05.190 --> 00:24:06.400 another kind for eggs. 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:11.940 Because of this, the egg industry produces billions of unwanted male baby chicks every 00:24:11.940 --> 00:24:12.940 year. 00:24:12.940 --> 00:24:17.600 To “dispose of”—as it’s termed—these baby chicks, they are either painfully gassed, 00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:23.020 slowly suffocated in plastic bags, or they are ground up alive. 00:24:23.020 --> 00:24:29.870 This is standard practice all over the world, regardless of cage-free, free-range, and organic 00:24:29.870 --> 00:24:31.080 labels. 00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:37.230 The EU regulation under which Ireland operates lists maceration as the preferred method, 00:24:37.230 --> 00:24:42.090 specifying that chicks must be less than 72 hours old when the are killed –they are 00:24:42.090 --> 00:24:45.160 not even granted three days of life. 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:49.150 Now you won’t find any mention of this barbaric practice in Ireland’s newly implemented 00:24:49.150 --> 00:24:53.860 Animal Welfare Act, or anything specifying methods of confinement and slaughter. 00:24:53.860 --> 00:24:59.080 And even if you manage to unravel the convoluted language and trace the overly complex changes 00:24:59.080 --> 00:25:04.750 in legislation enough to find what eventually became part 7 of Schedule 5 of the Welfare 00:25:04.750 --> 00:25:09.280 of Farmed Animals Regulations, you’ll find, amongst a myriad of disturbing details of 00:25:09.280 --> 00:25:13.880 legalized murder, “The permitted methods for the killing of chicks,” cleanly laying 00:25:13.880 --> 00:25:19.940 out the proper way to grind up conscious, living, feeling, day old babies. 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:25.370 Of course if you happen to look deeper and find that Schedule 5 was deleted in its entirety 00:25:25.370 --> 00:25:30.530 in 2013, you may understandably assume chick disposal was abolished. 00:25:30.530 --> 00:25:37.350 In reality, the reason Ireland’s new Welfare Act seems so sterile is that it simply defers 00:25:37.350 --> 00:25:43.080 the gruesome details to the EU Regulations, and Ireland-specific supporting statutory 00:25:43.080 --> 00:25:44.860 instruments. 00:25:44.860 --> 00:25:49.160 I hope by now my initial claims that we can’t trust what we are told are sounding slightly 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.980 less like a conspiracy theory. 00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:56.400 If you’re wondering why this hasn’t been exposed on the news, it has. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:00.720 And every time it’s people are appalled, outraged, disgusted. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:05.460 They wonder how anyone person or industry could be so barbaric. 00:26:05.460 --> 00:26:12.790 And they continue to eat eggs, not realizing they’ve just answered their own question. 00:26:12.790 --> 00:26:18.851 The European Commission estimates that the EU kills 330 million chicks every year, with 00:26:18.851 --> 00:26:21.940 global estimates at 3.2 billion. 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:27.669 The chickens of Ireland’s raises meat industry aren’t any better off, bred to grow at such 00:26:27.669 --> 00:26:31.670 alarming rates that they collapse under their own weight before being sent to slaughter 00:26:31.670 --> 00:26:34.080 at only 5-6 weeks old. 00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:40.990 In 2015 Ireland killed a record 80.3 million chickens in approved export plants alone. 00:26:40.990 --> 00:26:46.410 Ireland’s SafeFood review not only describes in detail how Irish chickens are hung upside 00:26:46.410 --> 00:26:51.850 down and dragged through electrified water baths, but also addresses the health impact 00:26:51.850 --> 00:26:53.640 on the human population. 00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:58.590 Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in Ireland, with 00:26:58.590 --> 00:27:01.090 “the highest burden…seen in children under five.” 00:27:01.090 --> 00:27:07.929 In 2008, of the broiler chicken carcasses inspected from Ireland, 98% were contaminated 00:27:07.929 --> 00:27:09.809 with Campylobacter. 00:27:09.809 --> 00:27:16.289 That same year, Ireland had the most outbreaks of Cryptosporidiosis and E-coli in the entire 00:27:16.289 --> 00:27:17.780 EU and EEA. 00:27:17.780 --> 00:27:23.130 And I’m sure your familiar with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease—which 00:27:23.130 --> 00:27:30.350 brings us finally to most iconic and the most profitable sectors of Ireland’s animal agriculture: 00:27:30.350 --> 00:27:33.310 dairy and beef. 00:27:33.310 --> 00:27:36.580 Ireland is home to over 6.3 million cows. 00:27:36.580 --> 00:27:42.700 1.7 million were slaughtered in factories & abattoirs in 2015, with total “disposals” 00:27:42.700 --> 00:27:46.090 as it’s termed, reaching nearly 2.1 million. 00:27:46.090 --> 00:27:51.530 But these numbers say little about the lives of these beings. 00:27:51.530 --> 00:27:54.190 We all know milk comes from cows. 00:27:54.190 --> 00:27:58.450 We may think they have a constant supply of milk and even that they need to be milked 00:27:58.450 --> 00:27:59.620 to relieve the pressure. 00:27:59.620 --> 00:28:02.690 But cows are mammals, just like us. 00:28:02.690 --> 00:28:07.200 They produce milk for one reason: to feed their babies. 00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:12.549 Cows carry their babies for 9 months, just like we do, they lactate to feed their babies, 00:28:12.549 --> 00:28:18.080 just like we do, and after weaning, they stop producing milk, just like we do. 00:28:18.080 --> 00:28:22.690 So in order to have a constant supply of cow’s milk for human consumption, we need a constant 00:28:22.690 --> 00:28:25.600 supply of pregnant cows. 00:28:25.600 --> 00:28:30.360 In the dairy industry, as we’ve seen with mother pigs, cows are repeatedly subjected 00:28:30.360 --> 00:28:33.320 to what we call artificial insemination. 00:28:33.320 --> 00:28:39.230 But were we to awake in the condition of our imaginary scenario, take a sip of milk and 00:28:39.230 --> 00:28:47.400 see the same experience from the cow’s perspective, we’d not hesitate a moment to call it rape. 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:52.169 Cows are restrained, anally penetrated by the inseminator’s arm, and vaginally penetrated 00:28:52.169 --> 00:28:54.830 by the semen-containing rod. 00:28:54.830 --> 00:29:00.540 Aside from the trauma of this experience, cows often sustain internal injuries, which 00:29:00.540 --> 00:29:06.610 is why AI training on female cows at slaughterhouses is gaining popularity. 00:29:06.610 --> 00:29:10.331 After all, any damage to working cows would slow down production, and what’s another 00:29:10.331 --> 00:29:14.240 violation when they’ll be dead soon anyways? 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:18.020 No matter where she’s raised or how she’s housed, when a dairy cow gives birth, her 00:29:18.020 --> 00:29:19.600 baby is taken away. 00:29:19.600 --> 00:29:24.920 Can’t have them sucking up all the profits, after all. 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:29.870 Animal Health Ireland’s handy CalfCare guide advises that “dairy calves should be removed 00:29:29.870 --> 00:29:34.620 from their dams,” meaning mothers, “immediately after birth and hand-fed colostrum,” which 00:29:34.620 --> 00:29:38.230 is the very first milk all mothers produce, containing important antibodies. 00:29:38.230 --> 00:29:43.419 They go on to explain that “the dairy calf is going to be separated from the cow anyways” 00:29:43.419 --> 00:29:48.929 as “dairy cows are not bred for their mothering abilities,” citing the low quality of their 00:29:48.929 --> 00:29:50.520 colostrum. 00:29:50.520 --> 00:29:55.871 Not only does this negate the emotional devastation of having child after child taken away, but 00:29:55.871 --> 00:30:01.380 it even uses the consequences of our own exploitation as a means of justification. 00:30:01.380 --> 00:30:07.419 Cows bond intensely with their calves and will cry for days when they are taken. 00:30:07.419 --> 00:30:11.630 A former cattle rancher friend of mine turned vegan when she witnessed her cows chasing 00:30:11.630 --> 00:30:13.929 the trailer as it took their children away. 00:30:13.929 --> 00:30:18.279 She says they cried for days and only stopped when they lost their voices. 00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:19.570 This is not anthropomorphizing. 00:30:19.570 --> 00:30:27.190 It is a mother’s grief and it’s utterly heartbreaking to watch. 00:30:27.190 --> 00:30:31.950 If her baby is male, he is sent to a veal farm where he is tied down, unable to move, 00:30:31.950 --> 00:30:35.820 or locked in a cage where he cannot even turn around until he’s slaughtered while still 00:30:35.820 --> 00:30:38.200 only a few weeks old. 00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:45.890 Veal, an industry that even many meat-eaters oppose, wouldn’t exist without dairy. 00:30:45.890 --> 00:30:50.110 Every cup of yogurt, every scoop of ice cream and every glass of milk is directly connected 00:30:50.110 --> 00:30:53.040 to the deaths of those baby calves. 00:30:53.040 --> 00:30:59.110 Of course the dairy calves of Ireland are shipped to other countries to meet their fate. 00:30:59.110 --> 00:31:03.289 Female calves are doomed to suffer the same fate as their mothers, whose worn out bodies 00:31:03.289 --> 00:31:08.730 give out around 4 or 5 years of age, despite their natural lifespan of 20 years or more. 00:31:08.730 --> 00:31:13.799 They’re sent to slaughter for cheap meat and pet food, deemed unfit for human consumption. 00:31:13.799 --> 00:31:18.240 At the slaughterhouse, many of these mothers face their final and most brutal separation 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:20.690 from yet another child. 00:31:20.690 --> 00:31:25.789 While formal statistics are difficult to obtain as most studies focus on the economic cost 00:31:25.789 --> 00:31:30.590 of “fetal wastage,” accounts range from approximately 10% to 70% of cows arriving 00:31:30.590 --> 00:31:32.850 at the slaughterhouse pregnant. 00:31:32.850 --> 00:31:38.899 Ireland’s welfare laws allow the unanesthetized castration of cows up to 6 months of age with 00:31:38.899 --> 00:31:43.550 a burdizzo, or a rubber ring around their scrotum up to 8 days of age, as well as the 00:31:43.550 --> 00:31:47.149 painful removal of their horns up to 15 days. 00:31:47.149 --> 00:31:52.230 Of course Ireland’s Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council recommends these procedures 00:31:52.230 --> 00:31:57.130 not be carried out simultaneously with the weaning of beef calves, stating that, “Weaning 00:31:57.130 --> 00:32:01.669 of the suckled calf from its mother can be particularly stressful for both the cow and 00:32:01.669 --> 00:32:02.669 her calf.” 00:32:02.669 --> 00:32:07.020 Their dairy brochure offers a single bullet point, that “Weaning of calves should be 00:32:07.020 --> 00:32:08.520 done with the minimum of stress.” 00:32:08.520 --> 00:32:15.710 An EU audit encompassing only a fraction of Irish dairy farms between 2012 and 2014, found 00:32:15.710 --> 00:32:20.809 up to 70 welfare violations per year, stating that “the most frequently detected in bovine 00:32:20.809 --> 00:32:22.440 animals is mutilation.” 00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:27.500 And that despite corrective measures, “the number of mutilation non-compliances detected 00:32:27.500 --> 00:32:32.390 from 2012 to 2014 remained stable.” 00:32:32.390 --> 00:32:37.610 Living beings aren’t meant to be production machines. 00:32:37.610 --> 00:32:42.370 Dairy cows are prone to infections from frequent milkings, and are often pumped full of antibiotics 00:32:42.370 --> 00:32:45.080 and growth hormones, all of which seep into their milk. 00:32:45.080 --> 00:32:50.539 Even here in Ireland there’s an official number of pus cells allowed in milk, euphemistically 00:32:50.539 --> 00:32:52.919 referred to as the “somatic cell count.” 00:32:52.919 --> 00:32:59.710 In the United States, 750,000 pus cells are allowed in every mL, with the EU specifying 00:32:59.710 --> 00:33:03.630 400,000 cells/mL and Brazil allowing 1,000,000 cells/mL]. 00:33:03.630 --> 00:33:08.350 Yes, Ireland’s dairy and beef cattle are largely pasture raised and on much smaller 00:33:08.350 --> 00:33:10.600 farms than industrial production. 00:33:10.600 --> 00:33:12.690 But even that’s changing. 00:33:12.690 --> 00:33:17.659 With the end of the milk quotas, Ireland’s largest dairy farmer said that in order to 00:33:17.659 --> 00:33:22.020 compete, “the dairy farm of the future is going to have to be bigger.” 00:33:22.020 --> 00:33:28.100 And for the cow, the pig, the chicken, duck, turkey, for the lamb or sheep—they don’t 00:33:28.100 --> 00:33:31.330 know the name of the company or person enslaving them. 00:33:31.330 --> 00:33:34.140 They don’t know what size the farm is or in what country. 00:33:34.140 --> 00:33:40.679 They are just as robbed of their rights and their lives regardless of location 00:33:40.679 --> 00:33:45.340 Our rationalizations and justifications are of no use to those whom we exploit. 00:33:45.340 --> 00:33:50.600 With some of our most impressive mental gymnastics, which would be admirable if it weren’t so 00:33:50.600 --> 00:33:55.600 horrific, we say this barbaric mutilation, this conversion of living beings from someONES 00:33:55.600 --> 00:33:59.510 to someTHINGS is for their own good. 00:33:59.510 --> 00:34:02.510 Because if we if we don’t clip their teeth or cut their beaks or slice off their tails, 00:34:02.510 --> 00:34:05.000 they’ll attack and chew on each other. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:10.290 What we fail to mention, is that these behaviors are stress responses to confinement in overly-crowded, 00:34:10.290 --> 00:34:13.549 insanity-inducing conditions. 00:34:13.549 --> 00:34:19.010 If we didn’t put them in these abusive conditions, they wouldn’t react the way they do. 00:34:19.010 --> 00:34:24.490 But we humans love to play the role of savior in the disasters of our own creation. 00:34:24.490 --> 00:34:29.030 We swoop in to milk the cow and relieve the painful pressure of her swollen udder. 00:34:29.030 --> 00:34:32.500 Pressure that wouldn’t exist had we not taken her child away. 00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:37.960 We’ve spent all this time looking at the treatment of animals in Ireland, but the truth 00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:43.000 is, Ireland exports the vast majority of its outputs, including 90% of beef and around 00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.129 85% of dairy. 00:34:45.129 --> 00:34:50.940 In addition thousands of live pigs, chickens, sheep, lambs, and unweaned calves—babies 00:34:50.940 --> 00:34:56.239 we’ve stolen away from their mothers—are shipped out of Ireland on extended, terrifying 00:34:56.239 --> 00:35:00.390 journeys to other countries through all manner of weather extremes. 00:35:00.390 --> 00:35:05.059 If they manage to survive the journey, they’re either fattened up for slaughter, or in the 00:35:05.059 --> 00:35:09.230 case of veal calves confined and slaughtered, or simply killed immediately. 00:35:09.230 --> 00:35:14.049 Ireland’s transport reports show regular violations of animal welfare regulations, 00:35:14.049 --> 00:35:18.829 with Ireland as a whole receiving a Formal Notice from the EU in 2011. 00:35:18.829 --> 00:35:22.539 And when these beings arrive at their final destination, the nature of their treatment 00:35:22.539 --> 00:35:26.119 and their deaths are out of Irish hands. 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:31.790 Undercover investigations continue to expose brutal abuse of these imported animals. 00:35:31.790 --> 00:35:36.229 Ireland ships living beings across the EU as well as to destinations like Tunisia, Libya, 00:35:36.229 --> 00:35:39.299 Morocco, Kosovo, Albania, Rwanda, China, and the Ukraine. 00:35:39.299 --> 00:35:42.380 But what about the animals that you eat? 00:35:42.380 --> 00:35:44.609 How are they treated? 00:35:44.609 --> 00:35:50.239 Looking again at what’s eaten the most, 60% of pig meat and 90% of chicken consumed 00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:51.920 in Ireland are imported. 00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:56.269 Another SafeFood report found the majority of Ireland’s population had very low awareness 00:35:56.269 --> 00:36:01.489 as to the actual source of their food, illustrating how a single slice of Hawaiian pizza processed 00:36:01.489 --> 00:36:07.640 and packages in the Republic of Ireland, would have ingredients from at least 19 countries. 00:36:07.640 --> 00:36:12.239 Ireland is home to multiple multinational corporations with the world’s largest beef 00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:17.779 producer, JBS, recently relocating their headquarters to the Republic, amidst criminal proceedings 00:36:17.779 --> 00:36:19.739 for violating Brazilian laws. 00:36:19.739 --> 00:36:26.089 In surveying and observing Irish consumers, they found that “While many aspired to be 00:36:26.089 --> 00:36:31.130 healthy, economical, and to support the domestic market, this did not follow through to their 00:36:31.130 --> 00:36:32.459 purchasing behaviour. 00:36:32.459 --> 00:36:37.170 It was observed … that there is a marked difference between consumers’ attitudes 00:36:37.170 --> 00:36:38.980 and their behaviours.” 00:36:38.980 --> 00:36:43.799 This finding was echoed in an EU study on awareness of slaughter regulations, with the 00:36:43.799 --> 00:36:48.950 majority of Irish consumers unaware of the details or even whether regulations exist, 00:36:48.950 --> 00:36:56.269 and just two of the 13,500 respondents from across the EU citing animal welfare at slaughter 00:36:56.269 --> 00:37:01.859 as a consideration in their meat purchases, with the main driving forces being quality 00:37:01.859 --> 00:37:03.200 and price. 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:06.119 Once again money trumps ethics. 00:37:06.119 --> 00:37:11.450 Yes, the industry keeps the truth deliberately hidden, but to be honest, most of us prefer 00:37:11.450 --> 00:37:13.329 not to know. 00:37:13.329 --> 00:37:20.559 We say we love animals, but it’s impossible to love someone and profit from their death. 00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:22.800 Of course farmers take care of their animals. 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:28.079 But we only need to look at the language to see it’s not compassion, it’s maintenance 00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:29.780 of inventory. 00:37:29.780 --> 00:37:36.039 We even limit the parameters of their so-called legal protection by the bottom line of cost. 00:37:36.039 --> 00:37:41.500 We amass mountains of paperwork, conduct thousands of studies, spend untold amounts of money, 00:37:41.500 --> 00:37:47.410 form governmental, institutional and industry panels, all to decide, define and decree the 00:37:47.410 --> 00:37:52.650 right way to rape, confine, mutilate, kidnap and kill. 00:37:52.650 --> 00:37:55.660 I mean it really is absurd when we step back and think about it. 00:37:55.660 --> 00:37:59.859 Do we have manuals on how to humanely rape? 00:37:59.859 --> 00:38:01.549 Or how to compassionately kidnap? 00:38:01.549 --> 00:38:02.650 Or ethically rob? 00:38:02.650 --> 00:38:04.469 Of course not because those are oxymorons. 00:38:04.469 --> 00:38:06.089 They cannot coexist. 00:38:06.089 --> 00:38:11.900 But when it comes to our treatment of animals, we will bend over backwards and create massive 00:38:11.900 --> 00:38:17.680 paper trails of regulations to feel good about what we are doing. 00:38:17.680 --> 00:38:22.109 We turn these living beings into data points, flowcharts, and percentages—calculate to 00:38:22.109 --> 00:38:27.229 a decimal point’s certainty the exact cost of every aspect of their lives and details 00:38:27.229 --> 00:38:28.229 for their deaths. 00:38:28.229 --> 00:38:34.219 We relegate the annual mass murder of over 3 billion day-old conscious, innocent babies 00:38:34.219 --> 00:38:35.450 to a footnote. 00:38:35.450 --> 00:38:41.459 A footnote in a study conducted for the welfare regulations we’re so graciously creating. 00:38:41.459 --> 00:38:48.180 We deem them legally sentient, deserving freedom from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, injury, 00:38:48.180 --> 00:38:54.300 disease, fear, distress and mental suffering—then use this very recognition of their capacity 00:38:54.300 --> 00:39:01.680 to feel the same emotions and sensations as we do to design—in language so disturbingly 00:39:01.680 --> 00:39:07.869 detached it’s nothing short of sociopathic—the exact manner in which we may legally violate, 00:39:07.869 --> 00:39:11.910 imprison, cut, burn, alter, and murder them. 00:39:11.910 --> 00:39:16.630 This is how profoundly illogical our thinking is when it comes to animals. 00:39:16.630 --> 00:39:20.219 It goes against all basic human understanding. 00:39:20.219 --> 00:39:25.529 Knowing better but doing wrong anyway is worse than having no knowledge. 00:39:25.529 --> 00:39:31.089 Yet we have the audacity to hold this legislative recognition of non-human sentience on high 00:39:31.089 --> 00:39:35.969 as a giant step forward for the rights of animals. 00:39:35.969 --> 00:39:41.359 As if systematically exploiting individuals with fully admitted knowledge and comprehension 00:39:41.359 --> 00:39:48.099 of their capacity to suffer is something to commend. 00:39:48.099 --> 00:39:53.020 Look what we offer ourselves as evidence of progress: one news report extolled the reduction 00:39:53.020 --> 00:39:58.549 in animals slipping and falling on their way to slaughter in one abattoir in one country. 00:39:58.549 --> 00:40:03.749 When we look at our actions from the other side, the perverse absurdity of our deluded 00:40:03.749 --> 00:40:06.499 self-congratulations is astounding. 00:40:06.499 --> 00:40:13.549 If you were in the place of these beings, how grateful would you feel if your captor 00:40:13.549 --> 00:40:20.059 laid down a bathmat on the ramp to your execution? 00:40:20.059 --> 00:40:23.509 Is this really the best we have to offer? 00:40:23.509 --> 00:40:26.420 Being the most courteous murderers? 00:40:26.420 --> 00:40:29.269 The most considerate rapists? 00:40:29.269 --> 00:40:33.670 Pouring untold resources into these convoluted laws and regulations, all the while completely 00:40:33.670 --> 00:40:37.029 blind to the fact that there’s another option entirely. 00:40:37.029 --> 00:40:41.430 One we don’t have to manipulate our values to justify. 00:40:41.430 --> 00:40:46.650 One we don’t have to couch in euphemistic terms or bury beneath incomprehensibly dense 00:40:46.650 --> 00:40:48.099 legislation. 00:40:48.099 --> 00:40:52.819 One that allows us to finally align our actions with our values and become the people we believe 00:40:52.819 --> 00:40:54.459 ourselves to be. 00:40:54.459 --> 00:40:55.640 Good people. 00:40:55.640 --> 00:40:58.009 Kind people. 00:40:58.009 --> 00:40:59.180 Animal lovers. 00:40:59.180 --> 00:41:02.380 Stewards to this earth and its inhabitants. 00:41:02.380 --> 00:41:05.730 Before we address—very briefly—issues of the environment and health, I’m going 00:41:05.730 --> 00:41:06.989 to play a short video. 00:41:06.989 --> 00:41:10.969 While I’ve included footage on your resource page of the undercover investigation into 00:41:10.969 --> 00:41:15.979 Irish pig farms and the brutal abuse and prolonged slaughter of live exported Irish animals, 00:41:15.979 --> 00:41:19.089 I decided to take a different approach here today. 00:41:19.089 --> 00:41:23.489 The video I’m going to play only includes footage of government-sanctioned conditions 00:41:23.489 --> 00:41:27.880 and practices, all completely legal here in Ireland. 00:41:27.880 --> 00:41:32.849 If it really is better here, we should have no objection to watching. 00:41:32.849 --> 00:41:38.019 If you feel you must turn away, I’d just ask you to think on the question: “If I 00:41:38.019 --> 00:43:41.229 can’t watch the process, do I have a right to eat the product?” 00:43:41.229 --> 00:45:40.920 VIDEO 00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:47.829 In my years of being vegan and speaking with many, many non-vegans, I have yet to ever 00:45:47.829 --> 00:45:54.809 hear one reason that even comes close to justifying putting a sentient being through what we just 00:45:54.809 --> 00:45:56.569 saw. 00:45:56.569 --> 00:45:58.160 Not one. 00:45:58.160 --> 00:46:04.229 You cannot watch that and say that the animals we kill for our food don’t know any better. 00:46:04.229 --> 00:46:07.970 That they die peacefully and humanely. 00:46:07.970 --> 00:46:09.109 They can sense the fear. 00:46:09.109 --> 00:46:10.579 They can smell the blood. 00:46:10.579 --> 00:46:11.849 And they fight. 00:46:11.849 --> 00:46:12.931 They fight to the end. 00:46:12.931 --> 00:46:18.759 And you can’t say that it’s happening in some far away place because it’s happening 00:46:18.759 --> 00:46:22.690 all over the world. 00:46:22.690 --> 00:46:28.489 The CO2 chambers you saw - those were the medieval devices lowering pigs to an extraordinarily 00:46:28.489 --> 00:46:34.890 painful death of burning from the inside out – that is seen as the most humane method 00:46:34.890 --> 00:46:36.269 of slaughtering pigs. 00:46:36.269 --> 00:46:41.709 It’s employed worldwide, including here in the Ireland. 00:46:41.709 --> 00:46:47.569 The EU, in its groundbreaking legislation, recommended phasing out the use of carbon 00:46:47.569 --> 00:46:52.950 dioxide, but said “the impact assessment revealed such recommendations were not economically 00:46:52.950 --> 00:46:54.509 viable at present.” 00:46:54.509 --> 00:47:00.979 Interestingly enough, Butina, the company that manufactures the very chambers you saw 00:47:00.979 --> 00:47:06.969 in that video—and the ones operating here in Ireland—was one of the stakeholders involved 00:47:06.969 --> 00:47:08.150 in that assessment. 00:47:08.150 --> 00:47:15.920 It’s the absurdity of murderers deciding how they’re allowed to murder. 00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:21.509 As we saw with the disease outbreaks, it’s not just the animals’ welfare that’s compromised. 00:47:21.509 --> 00:47:25.940 In Ireland, just like the United States, heart disease is the number one killer. 00:47:25.940 --> 00:47:31.910 We’ve long had proof that a balanced vegan diet can prevent and even reverse heart disease. 00:47:31.910 --> 00:47:38.630 74% of men and 57% of women in Ireland were overweight or obese in 2010, with the World 00:47:38.630 --> 00:47:43.930 Health Organization designating Ireland as the leader of Europe’s obesity crisis, with 00:47:43.930 --> 00:47:49.430 almost the entire adult population predicted to be overweight or obese by 2030. 00:47:49.430 --> 00:47:55.859 More than 1 in 4 children in Ireland are overweight or obese, with a SafeFood study finding 61% 00:47:55.859 --> 00:48:02.799 getting insufficient dietary fiber, 40% exceeding recommendations for dietary fat, and all exceeding 00:48:02.799 --> 00:48:08.839 salt intake by 50%, specifying that “processed meats … made a major contribution to the 00:48:08.839 --> 00:48:14.089 salt content of all children’s diets,” the very kind of meat that the WHO has designated 00:48:14.089 --> 00:48:16.369 as a class one carcinogen. 00:48:16.369 --> 00:48:22.390 We’re taught that animal products are necessary for protein, vitamin D, B-12, iron, and other 00:48:22.390 --> 00:48:27.680 nutrients, but these “foods” are a package deal—inseparable from their disease-promoting 00:48:27.680 --> 00:48:28.680 components. 00:48:28.680 --> 00:48:31.980 I’ve included more in-depth information on health and nutrition on your resources 00:48:31.980 --> 00:48:37.349 page, as well as a link to a free comprehensive guide to going vegan from Eden Farm Sanctuary’s 00:48:37.349 --> 00:48:42.219 Go Vegan World campaign—but I want to speak very briefly to fishing and the environmental 00:48:42.219 --> 00:48:44.109 impact of animal agriculture. 00:48:44.109 --> 00:48:48.719 Whether you eat fish and marine life or not, this matter impacts all of us. 00:48:48.719 --> 00:48:53.609 The ocean, or rather the phytoplankton within the ocean, provides somewhere between 50 and 00:48:53.609 --> 00:48:59.769 80% of our oxygen and the oceans ecosystems store carbon in massive quantities—we are 00:48:59.769 --> 00:49:05.499 destroying the very lungs of our planet with the delusion of sustainable fishing. 00:49:05.499 --> 00:49:11.079 Setting aside all arguments for animal ethics, the destructive nature of animal agriculture, 00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:16.489 the environmental crisis at hand should be on the forefront of Ireland’s agenda—too 00:49:16.489 --> 00:49:21.180 protect and preserve the incredible landscape of this country, in which its citizens take 00:49:21.180 --> 00:49:23.009 well-deserved pride. 00:49:23.009 --> 00:49:27.430 And while Ireland is the first country to implement a nation-wide sustainability program, 00:49:27.430 --> 00:49:31.890 it unfortunately mirrors all of the major green initiatives and government panels the 00:49:31.890 --> 00:49:38.220 world over, proposing and celebrating symbolic gestures, essentially applying media-friendly 00:49:38.220 --> 00:49:41.670 Band-Aids to a severed limb. 00:49:41.670 --> 00:49:48.109 Animal agriculture accounted for 34% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2013, the single 00:49:48.109 --> 00:49:50.449 largest contributing sector. 00:49:50.449 --> 00:49:58.569 It’s responsible for 97.5% of ammonia, 89.2% of methane, and 94% nitrous oxide and a greenhouse 00:49:58.569 --> 00:50:04.240 gas that is 296 times more destructive than carbon dioxide and which stays in the atmosphere 00:50:04.240 --> 00:50:06.900 for 150 years. 00:50:06.900 --> 00:50:12.660 Ireland had the 4th highest greenhouse gas emission per capita in 2011 The National Competitiveness 00:50:12.660 --> 00:50:18.470 Council reported in 2008 that the ROI was “one of the highest carbon emitters on a 00:50:18.470 --> 00:50:24.359 per capita basis in the OECD,” utilizing less than half the OECD average of renewable 00:50:24.359 --> 00:50:28.920 sources, with no waste to energy conversion, stating “the least preferred waste solution 00:50:28.920 --> 00:50:32.589 from an environmental perspective, dominates in Ireland.” 00:50:32.589 --> 00:50:38.299 Their subsequent 2015 Scorecard, showed Ireland’s environmental performance (EPI score) and 00:50:38.299 --> 00:50:43.529 rate of improvement still lagging behind OECD average, with particularly poor performance 00:50:43.529 --> 00:50:49.119 “in relation to biodiversity and protection of habitats, fisheries and water sanitation.” 00:50:49.119 --> 00:50:54.099 Keep in mind this is the impact of the iconic, grass-fed, pasture-raised Irish agriculture. 00:50:54.099 --> 00:51:00.579 As it is, EPA documents show time and again the waste lagoons from pig and dairy farms 00:51:00.579 --> 00:51:06.140 and wastewater from rendering plants contaminating Ireland’s protected waters, and mislabeled 00:51:06.140 --> 00:51:12.589 or non-compliant handling of SRM materials, meaning remains at risk of containing mad-cow 00:51:12.589 --> 00:51:15.180 disease, directly threatening the public health. 00:51:15.180 --> 00:51:21.119 The Irish Times reported the increasing environmental devastation of New Zealand’s dairy practice, 00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:25.809 saying how that country was “often held up as an example of what Ireland could have 00:51:25.809 --> 00:51:29.539 been if the milk quota regime had not pulled the handbrake on our growth.” 00:51:29.539 --> 00:51:32.769 Twenty days later, the quote was lifted. 00:51:32.769 --> 00:51:38.329 Even if this approach was the ideal we hold it up to be, we simply don’t have the land 00:51:38.329 --> 00:51:40.489 for the number of animals we eat every year. 00:51:40.489 --> 00:51:45.779 The amount of land that it takes to produce 37,000 pounds of plant-based foods will only 00:51:45.779 --> 00:51:48.819 yield 375 pounds of meat. 00:51:48.819 --> 00:51:54.819 You can grow 15 times more protein on any given area of land with plants versus animals. 00:51:54.819 --> 00:52:00.380 We have environmentally reached the point beyond personal choice--beyond “you eat 00:52:00.380 --> 00:52:03.339 how you want to eat and I’ll eat how I want to eat.” 00:52:03.339 --> 00:52:08.299 This is a global crisis and it’s not about you and it’s not about me anymore. 00:52:08.299 --> 00:52:12.589 We say that children are our future but what future can they have when we are eating the 00:52:12.589 --> 00:52:14.809 planet to death? 00:52:14.809 --> 00:52:17.859 The world cannot sustain meat, dairy and egg production. 00:52:17.859 --> 00:52:20.029 It simply can’t. 00:52:20.029 --> 00:52:23.369 We have to start aligning our actions with our values. 00:52:23.369 --> 00:52:28.009 I understand that animal agriculture is more deeply rooted within Irish culture than I 00:52:28.009 --> 00:52:33.230 can possibly comprehend—an enormous source of pride for your country, which is all the 00:52:33.230 --> 00:52:35.430 more reason to take action. 00:52:35.430 --> 00:52:40.859 Far from contradictory, offensive, disrespectful or extreme, the principles and practices of 00:52:40.859 --> 00:52:46.619 veganism are the best hope for healing our planet, and of preserving the beauty and history 00:52:46.619 --> 00:52:48.670 of countries like Ireland. 00:52:48.670 --> 00:52:55.109 And in making this shift, we’ll need farmers more than ever—those who know the land when 00:52:55.109 --> 00:52:57.230 so many of us find it foreign. 00:52:57.230 --> 00:53:02.339 We’ll rely on them for our food as much as we ever have. 00:53:02.339 --> 00:53:06.440 We cannot justify what we do to animals out of tradition. 00:53:06.440 --> 00:53:09.589 Our traditions do not alleviate their suffering. 00:53:09.589 --> 00:53:14.680 And our customs do not dictate the value of someone else’s life. 00:53:14.680 --> 00:53:16.430 Traditions can be wrong. 00:53:16.430 --> 00:53:19.339 And customs can be cruel. 00:53:19.339 --> 00:53:23.599 There are many atrocities in the history of humanity that we now look upon with disgust 00:53:23.599 --> 00:53:27.709 and disbelief at what used to be commonplace. 00:53:27.709 --> 00:53:30.900 And you don’t have to give up taste or even giving up our favorite foods. 00:53:30.900 --> 00:53:36.119 These days there exist vegan alternatives for virtually every meat, cheese, dairy creation, 00:53:36.119 --> 00:53:37.119 even eggs. 00:53:37.119 --> 00:53:41.189 And you can find recipes online for making your own versions if the readymade alternatives 00:53:41.189 --> 00:53:44.640 aren’t available in your area or are too expensive. 00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:49.839 Veganism, far from being an extreme lifestyle, a threat to tradition, is the most sane and 00:53:49.839 --> 00:53:51.079 rational way to live. 00:53:51.079 --> 00:53:55.220 It’s the most powerful tool we have for saving our planet, for improving our health 00:53:55.220 --> 00:54:00.119 when we eat health-consciously, and for regaining our compassion- for becoming the people we 00:54:00.119 --> 00:54:03.089 believe ourselves to be: Good people. 00:54:03.089 --> 00:54:07.039 And good people don’t destroy the planet, leaving our children without a future. 00:54:07.039 --> 00:54:10.930 Good people don’t throw newborn babies into grinders. 00:54:10.930 --> 00:54:14.480 Good people don’t rip day old babies away from their mothers. 00:54:14.480 --> 00:54:17.410 Good people don’t rape, torture and murder. 00:54:17.410 --> 00:54:23.229 Yet “good people” everywhere are doing all of these things with every bite of every 00:54:23.229 --> 00:54:24.229 meal. 00:54:24.229 --> 00:54:26.589 But that’s the beauty here. 00:54:26.589 --> 00:54:29.410 You no longer have to buy into the lie. 00:54:29.410 --> 00:54:32.599 You decide what goes into your body. 00:54:32.599 --> 00:54:36.700 You decide whether you want to continue to have others kill for you. 00:54:36.700 --> 00:54:42.400 You decide whether you want to continue consuming death, terror, and heartbreak. 00:54:42.400 --> 00:54:44.380 You have the information at you feet. 00:54:44.380 --> 00:54:48.329 The responsibility now lies in your hands. 00:54:48.329 --> 00:54:50.229 You decide. 00:54:50.229 --> 00:54:53.659 And my hope is, you’ll decide to go vegan.