Chapter 8 and Overall Review of Eating Animals

Eating Animals has affected me more than any other nonfiction book I have ever read. It is a story that lays down all the facts about eating animals in the 21st century. It is not a book dedicated to changing all its readers to vegetarians, but it is not a book without a purpose. Jonathon Foer wrote Eating Animals as a way to let the American public know the opinions of everyone involved and the common happenings in the "farming" industry of today so that people can hopefully come to the conclusion that, without a doubt, something is wrong.
In Chapter 8, Foer intertwines all of the information of the previous chapters and makes his conclusion clear: the way we are eating animals today is NOT RIGHT. The factory farm was not started to be what it is today. "When Celia Steele raised that first flock of confined chicks...When Charles Vantress crosses a red-feathered Cornish and a New Hampshire to produce the 1946 'Chicken of Tomorrow,'...[they] could not have comprehended what [they were] contributing to" (Foer 248). The greed for money over the well-being of the environment, the workers, and the animals being farmed has turned the vast majority of the farming industry into a monster. Foer revealed the most shocking atrocities in this last chapter. Here is an overview:
"After reported improvement in slaughterhouse conditions...using poles like baseball bats to hit baby turkey, stomping on chickens to watch them 'pop,' beating lame pigs with metal pipes, and knowingly dismembering fully conscious cattle" (Foer 428).
"Today's turkeys are natural insectivores fed a grossly unnatural diet, which can include "meat, sawdust, leather tannery by-products" (Foer 262).
"'deliberate acts of cruelty occurring on a regular basis' at 32 percent of the plants she surveyed during announced visits in the United States" (Foer 251). (What happens when visits are unannounced?)
These next two stories hit me really fast, and I was crying. I've never cried about something like this before. I really don't cry that much for a teenage girl, but these stories just really freaked me out. They are worker testimonials.
"One time the knocking gun was broke all day, they were taking a knife and cutting the back of the cow's neck open while he's still standing up. They would just fall down and be ashaking. And they stab cows in the butt to make 'em move. Break their tails. They beat them so bad...And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out" (Foer 249).
"One time I took my knife -- it's sharp enough -- and I sliced off the end of a hog's nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt left on my hand -- I was wearing a rubber glove -- and I stuck the salt right up the hog's a**. The poor hog didn't know whether to s*** or go blind" (Foer 249). (I don't know if profanity is allowed on here, so I bleeped.)
After reading this I decided to be a vegetarian. I'm embarrassed to say that I changed my mind after about four minutes. I came up with some excuses and decided I couldn't do it. I feel awful about this because I have learned that not eating meat is really the only way to destroy the factory farm, and it needs to be destroyed. Eating old-fashioned farmed meat is really not a plausible option because of the miniscule amount of farmers that are able to have completely humane and natural farms.
"Responding to the factory farmed calls for a capacity to care that dwells beyond information, and beyond the oppositions of desire and reason, fact and myth, and even human and animal." (Foer 259).
"Food matters and animals matter and eating animals matters even more" (Foer 260).
Most of my excuses for continuing to eat meat have to do with the fact that it would put a big strain on my family. Hopefully one day, when I'm on my own and have a family of my own, I can make the right decision.
I encourage everyone to read this book. If you are unsure about your feelings on "farming," this book will help you form a strong opinion and maybe even convince you to stop eating meat.