You don’t have to be a vegan or vegetarian to care about animal welfare, in fact, if you’re an omnivore you have an even greater responsibility to fight for ethical, cruelty-free and sustainable animal farming practices. It was brought to our attention today via the ASPCA that an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals captured video footage of extreme cruelty and suffering in the living conditions of chicks and chickens at a farm that sells to wholesale giant Costco, a company that has long been a supplier to restaurants.
In response, the ASPCA and Mercy for Animals have started a petition calling on Costco, a multi-billion dollar company whose profits soared during the pandemic, to stop buying from farms that do not abide by ethical and humane animal welfare practices.
There’s no excuse for this kind of f’ed up factory farming, and we as consumers must demand an end to animal cruelty. No, it’s not ironic to be a consumer of meat and also an activist for animal welfare. We’ll say it again, if you eat meat, you need to give a damn about where it comes from and how the animal’s life was lived. Just because an animal is bound for human consumption does not mean it must live its entire life in misery.
Please, sign this petition, and always, always inquire about the origins of the meat you consume, everywhere you buy it, whether at a market or restaurant. We can have a huge impact simply by refusing to buy meat that doesn’t come from ethically-raised animals. And if ethical meat costs more, well, it should, and we should just eat less meat. Nobody needs to gorge themselves on too much meat, especially if it means supporting animal cruelty.
