Animal lover – Clan Witch & Word Refinery

I watched Hogwashed, Joey Carbstrong’s spin-off documentary following his film Pignorant (which you can watch on Amazon Prime).

Have you seen either of these yet?

Our abuse animals, particularly through the system of animal agriculture is one the truest horrors of our world. It fills me with terror how desensitised many of us are to the entirely unnecessary atrocities these animals are put through.

Isn’t it absurd that the release of these documentaries on YouTube are age-restricted? We can eat the murdered at any age but need to be carded to see it…. Many people feed these victims (sorry – bacon, ham, pork, etc) to their children (mmm, bacon, right?), so why not let them see where it comes from, huh? Fucking blows my mind. If you cannot face them, if you can’t look your dinner in the eye while you take his/her life, don’t fucking eat them.

I wasn’t shocked by the footage and the mountain of easy evidence showcasing blatant barbaric abuse and neglect captured by Joey’s team from UK farms, whose products are stacked on shelves and in restaurants with all the shiny feel-good labels for those that consume them; RSPCA Assured, High Welfare, Organic, Free Range (all bullshit to make consumers feel good about the animal abuse they pay for). I am not shocked, but I am constantly appalled that people continue to support it with their eyes closed. Lying to themselves about the glory of animal farming and the benefits of feeding our children the dismembered and skinned corpses of other species. Corpses that have been pumped full of antibiotics so it’s ‘fit’ for your fucking plate because of the disease-ridden, cannibalistic conditions they are forced to ‘live’ in before they are killed. Remember what kicked off BSE?! Yummy!

It (darkly) amuses the fuck out of me when folk who consume this stuff have the stupidity and audacity to talk about ‘healthy’ diets or the problems with pharmaceutical companies and vaccines while chowing down on these animals. And ‘High Welfare’? These words are meaningless as far as animal agriculture goes. How delusional can this collective be? It’s insanity! If I wasn’t already vegan for reasons of compassion, care and respect for other animals that we share this rock with, if I had no care for these living creatures and saw them purely as products for consumption, I’d still be disgusted! How can folks feed this to themselves and their children? Seriously?! the abuse isn’t just of the animals — think about it, and be honest with yourselves.

There’s a moment in Hogwashed where a farm worker drags off dead pigs (who likely died of disease), then washes his hands in the pigs’ medicated drinking water. This is the meat people are eating! What the fuck?!

Anyway. My reaction was as expected. Sets fire to my rage and deep sadness towards our species. And I’ve watched a lot of this type of footage from breeding to abattoir processing – both the ‘clean’ processing the industry likes to share and undercover day-to-day. It’s all fucked. More of us need to do fucking better. Stop making pathetic excuses.

I also want to throw in the deep admiration I have for the brave vegan activists who speak up and take action, often putting their own safety and even lives on the line to advocate for the animals. 💚

As a child, I used to beg my parents not to drive by it. “Please, can we take another road to get there?” I’d plead.

I’d have a visceral reaction on approaching this place. My insides would fill up with a sickening feeling like the air was choked with poison. My skin would prickle. Terror. Revulsion. Anger. Pain. Screaming. I could feel them scream. And how no one cared to stop it. What a world we live in. We turn so many blind eyes; it’s a wonder we see anything at all.

I hated being anywhere near this part of town because of the abattoir. On the edge of the east of Glasgow city centre — less than a mile away. It even had its own cattle ramp for the animals arriving by train at night.

The abattoir and meat market was in operation from 1911 to 2001. I can’t go through this area without thinking of the slaughter.

Since its closure, part of the site was used as a city car auctioneer, but that has long since moved too. Some of the facades remain intact and front a modern apartment development, which was part of the area’s regeneration. Behind those, overgrowth tries to reclaim the bones of remaining structures. New developers will move in soon.

It may look a certain way on the surface… I can still hear them.