Take Heart!






























Christian Vegetarian Association
Blog
Discussions
Update Newsletters
T
ake Heart!

Take Heart Contents
| Animal Issues | Articles | Athletes | Bible | Children | Devotionals | Environment | Food | Health | Humor | OpinionPoetry | Quotations | Recipes |

Christian Vegetarian Association Presents:
Take Heart!

Comments from our Readers

Last week we ran an article titled City kids get lesson in bacon, bloodshed and asked for your comments. Thank you to all who shared their views on this controversial issue. Here are some of the responses:

“Seeing where bacon actually comes from can be an important and valuable lesson, but the most important thing is how the parents handle it. If they respectfully listen to the child and acknowledge the child’s feelings, they can contribute to the emotional and intellectual growth of the child. Many such children will choose to go veg, but not all. Most parents tell their kids that they must be “tough” and “realistic,” and they demand that their children eat animal flesh and other animal products. Children who abstain are often punished, e.g., not given dessert. The children repress their natural affinity for animals and must re-orient their sense of justice from what is fair and kind to what is the rule. The harm to these children is great, and society-at-large pays an ultimate price by having citizens who care more about following socially sanctioned rules that endorse violence and victimization than about the actual feelings of other individuals.”

~ Steve

“In my opinion, this is another example of eco-parent foolishness. Because this family can visit ONE farm that treats their animals decently, they mislead themselves into generalizing that situation to all animal products they consume, regardless of the source.

These children are not hearing or seeing the real story of 99% of the bacon, beef, dairy, eggs or any other animal product that's produced in this country, because they were taken to a farm where slaughter takes place on site, and where the animals were not routinely mistreated. But that farm is one in a million. So they missed out on witnessing the true story of animal agriculture: the industrial sheds where most animals live in warehouse style forced to breathe air so full of ammonia and other pollutants that it stings the eyes, not to mention what it must do to the lungs; transport to the slaughterhouse where the animals are rounded up, many unable to walk after being forced to repeatedly reproduce, and stuffed into trucks where they barrel down the interstates at 70mph in the dead of winter or height of summer for hundreds of miles without any protection from the cold; to the final destination of the slaughterhouse, where line speeds almost guarantee a tortuous death. Instead, this family got one more lesson in eating animal products guilt-free.

So unfortunately, the children in this story will eat animal products in the future, under the impression they came from the bodies of animals who lived happy lives and died in painless manners. But they'll only be deceiving themselves."

~ Julia

“The article was upsetting re: kids watching slaughter but at least the parents had the guts. I would hope that such an experience would encourage all who witnessed the slaughter to embrace compassion and turn away from the violence."

~ Kimberly

"One of the things that solidified my status as Vegan was that I started having flashbacks of the screams of pigs being slaughtered on our small family farm. I could actually hear them in my mind. But, compassion preceded my receiving those."

~ David.

Your question and comments are welcome

Copyright 2008 © Christian Vegetarian Association. All rights reserved.

| Home Page | Bibliography | Books, T-shirts, Etc. | Community | Contact Us | CVA Board | CVA Videos | Essays and Coloring Book | Honoring God's Creation | How to Help | Links | Membership | Mission | Podcast | Take Heart | Vegetarianism's Benefits |

This site is hosted and maintained by
The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation.

Since