#14 Hastings and chickens

I go by the chicken factory by commercial every Saturday, where animal activists meet outside holding placards to protest chicken consumption. Most people on the #14 look tattered, broke, or basic and they make fun of the "save the chickens" brigade every time we pass them. I think their inability to sympathize with the protestors viewpoint is healthy and refreshing, as regular people have been completely forgotten by the fashionable young crowd that has the luxury of time and money to protest minor causes. It is interesting to see the #14 pazsengers' perspective. I don't sympathize with the chickens that much, to be totally honest. Regular people simply want to eat at an affordable meat instead of making meat a ritzy "Whole Foods" free-range, organic fed, expensive luxury commodity. It is as if is a fetish for people with an expendable income, and they want to force there norms upon everyone else without regard to their financial situation. What is worse than mass animal production? Making animal production a commodity that only the ritzy rich can afford. I don't want chicken consumption to become a decision of the rich in a two-tiered state of rich and poor people where the rich spend more money on food than what a poor person makes in a year.

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JQ

Jun 16, 2017 at 1:50pm

“The fashionable young crowd that has the luxury of time and money to protest minor causes”? – many of the folks protesting are ‘working poor’ and they are there on their own time. It also doesn’t cost them any money to be there.
“A ritzy "Whole Foods" free-range, organic fed, expensive luxury commodity”? – the farm that was recently in the news – Elite Farm Services that sells to Loblaws – is a free range farm…
It doesn’t cost any more money to eat a plant based diet than it does to eat a meat based diet. It can even save you a few dollars.

well

Jun 16, 2017 at 2:25pm

We don't learn about food in schools, so who can blame the poor for consuming animals? Their social circles, families and media all preach eating the same greasy dairy and meat shit. But with knowledge comes responsibility. It took me over 30 years to go from the people you are describing to vegan. My grocery bills are much cheaper than they were when I ate meat, but again, this kind of knowledge isn't taught to the poor. I do have to do some cooking myself, time that many poor people working multiple jobs don't have. Also, the wealthy buying their guilt away with 'free-range' etc already happens.

A.D

Jun 16, 2017 at 2:45pm

Thanks for the advertising ! ❤️

It feels good to see that our protests are becoming so famous that people are now posting about it in Straight !

Let's hope that the #14 passengers talk about it to their friends too, maybe at some point Vancouverites will be so tired of picturing thousands of baby chickens being SLAUGHTERED everyday behind these walls that they will stop eating them.

From a broke and vegan single mom
(Ps: rice and beans are still cheaper and healthier than pieces of dead chicken)

Nic Waller

Jun 16, 2017 at 3:37pm

Dear Completely Forgotten,

When you travel past the chicken slaughterhouse at Hastings and Commercial next Saturday, please consider stopping to chat with us. Perhaps you have seen our signs but not heard our voices.

It is not our goal to turn chickens (or any other animal) into an expensive luxury commodity. In fact it's quite the opposite -- we don't believe that chickens should be a commodity at all. Because chickens are living animals, they're not made in a "chicken factory". Because they appreciate affection and gentle rubs, and they try to escape from situations in which they are hurting. Like humans and other animals, they have the capacity for both enjoyment and suffering. Because we know that they feel, we believe they should be afforded a proper place in our moral framework. We believe that's reason enough not to eat them.

And for greater certainty, there's no need to eat animals. It only takes a look at healthy and happy people who are thriving on a 100% plant-based diet to realize that choosing not to eat animals is a legitimate option available to us. There are many millions of vegetarian and vegan humans in the world. Their existence is also a testament to the healthfulness of a diet without animals. If we can live a happy and healthy life without harming animals, why wouldn't we?

Of course, humans are also animals. Like chickens, we also have the capacity for both enjoyment and suffering, and our human interests also matter. At a bare minimum, we make a point not to subordinate other worthy causes. Some of us make donations to the Vancouver food bank. Others work with people in the DTES. Others protest against fossil fuels. And some are members of the new Vancouver Tenants' Union. We do what we can with the time we have.

I agree completely that we should avoid a two-tiered food system where only the rich can afford to eat well. Given the world's expanding population and the extreme resource demands and environmental harm of industrial animal agriculture, opting out of that system by going vegan is one way we express our desire for equity.

Take care. Maybe we'll meet next Saturday.

Sincerely,
One Vegan

Teri Thom

Jun 16, 2017 at 4:27pm

It's sad that you completely miss the point of the protest which is to draw attention to the unnecessary, unjust suffering and exploitation of non human animals. What you have done however, is illustrate the degree of brainwashing the average person has been subjected to. Hopefully our protests and social media campaigns will correct that sooner rather than later. This is not a judgement. We're all someplace on this journey. It's barely 7 years since I got it.

Anonymous

Jun 16, 2017 at 8:56pm

Too many vegans only care about the suffering of non-humans. Exploiting the poor for your vegetables is somehow a-okay.

6 12Rating: -6

Response

Jun 16, 2017 at 9:27pm

I think banning meat worries me more. Are you going to throw people in jail for eating meat? Kind of ironic, cruel, and unjust.

Not eating meat and creating a PC non-meat eating culture is quite crazy. Someone mentioned the word "brainwashing", and I think it is coming from your "education". Newsflash: we're not letting you in classrooms to teach children your crazy ways.

6 15Rating: -9

Sandra Dyer

Jun 16, 2017 at 9:56pm

The people who protest every Saturday at hard-working, busy people who feel compelled to give up their spare time to an issue that is largely ignored. You state that you don't "sympathize with the chickens that much." That is exactly why people are protesting. What happens to animals who are not lucky enough to be deemed "pets" is horrific. The recent abuses caught on film at the Chilliwack chicken farm are rampant in the industry. If the protesters were talking about animal abuse involving dogs, there would be outrage.
The last thing that animal rights activists are asking for is for people to eat expensive meat from Whole Foods. Whole Foods farms have been shown to treat their animals marginally better than regular farms. The animals all suffer horrific treatment regardless of whether there is a 'humane' marketing label attached to it.
Chickens like other animals have capacity to suffer, feel pain, and have family relationships that are destroyed by our insistence on consuming them.
Workers in these industries suffer horrible working conditions. Post traumatic stress from working in a dangerous environment and killing day in and day out takes an enormous toll. One of the protestors is a former slaughterhouse worker and speaks from experience.
Please open your eyes and see beyond the unhelpful stereotypes that protestors have nothing better to do. They are trying to create change because they are deeply disturbed by suffering of all sentient beings.

8 8Rating: 0

Anonymous

Jun 16, 2017 at 11:19pm

Being vegan takes privilege. More privilege than I have access to.

7 10Rating: -3

OP @ AD

Jun 17, 2017 at 5:47pm

It was my pleasure to advertise, as it's lovely to discuss conservative open-minded ideas on a left-leaning website :)

8 10Rating: -2

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