Letter to the Editor

Big farms violate rights of animals raised for food

To the editor:

I am writing in response to Laura Puchbauer's letter regarding meat and how it is produced.

There are no nutritional needs for humans to eat any animal products. All of our dietary needs, even as infants and children, are best supplied by an animal-free diet. More than 30 million Americans are vegetarians. Perhaps most alarming to me is the misperception that farm animals are treated humanely. When you leave the small, family-owned farms of Southeast Missouri, you find the factory farms where grocery stores and restaurants get their meat, where deprivation and disease thrive and animals are treated most inhumanely. Simply put, the factory farming system strives to produce the most meat, milk and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible and in the smallest amount of space. Approximately 20 percent of animals raised on factory farms die of stress. Even the minimal standard of care set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is grossly inadequate.

An argument does exist as to whether or not animals were given to us by God for consumption. But the God I know through my Bible would not condone what humans are doing to animals. We should be adding animals to the list of defenseless beings on this earth who are suffering at the hands of callous humans.

The solution? Research what really goes on at these farms. Contact your representatives and stand behind legislation proposed to strengthen the rights of animals. Criminally charge those who violate them. Better yet: Become a vegetarian.

KIMBERLY NECAS

Cape Girardeau