I’m A Pig…Get Me Out Of Here!

Photo credit: luisrock62 from morguefile.com
Two contestants from the British reality show, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! are being charged with animal cruelty because they killed and ate a rat in order to get more energy for the challenges ahead. WTF?!?! Millions of pigs are slaughtered in Australia every year for food and the government is worried about one rat? Don’t they sell those big rat traps Down Under too? I don’t think the Australian Rat is considered an endangered species so what’s the big deal. I’ll admit it’s not big game but how is this any different from hunting rabbits or deer? Is it just because they filmed it?

60 Minutes also aired a segment on hog factory farms in Australia a few weeks back but I have yet to hear of any animal cruelty charges being filed against these businesses. If I were to be reincarnated as an animal, I’d take the rat’s life any time. He spent almost his entire existence running free, doing whatever it is that rats do, until one day he was grabbed up into the sky, had his throat slit, and was gone in a matter of minutes. Contrast that with the factory-farmed hog who spends his entire life crammed into a small enclosure with hundreds of other pigs and endures painful procedures such as having his tail cut off and his teeth ground down without anesthetic until it’s time for him to be zapped with a stun gun, hung on a hook and left to bleed to death after having his throat slit.

As a committed meat eater I’m seriously considering the options I have to stop supporting the existence of factory farms. If I still lived in Kentucky I could probably get some venison from family members who like to hunt but here in Arizona paying premium prices for humanely-raised livestock seems to be my only option. Since my income qualifies me for the lower end of middle class, meat will have to be a treat rather than an every meal staple. I’ve decided that this will be my New Year’s resolution for 2010 because I can’t fall back on the hot dog excuse anymore. I just don’t want to know isn’t going to cut it because I already know too much.