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Megan Dickinson
Professor D. Watkins
English Comp 2 TR 10:30
16, February 2016
Making Dinner Cruelty Free
As you sit at the table ready to eat your delicious ribeye steak with your side of buttered
corn and your pile of mashed potatoes do you ever think, "I wonder how this animal lived, died
and how it was processed?" Chances are you don't. In society today we have distanced ourselves
from the animal and, in turn, lost respect for the animal that had its life taken to sustain ours.
Now we have the leisure to go to the store and pick out the piece of meat we wish to cook for the
night. In the past our ancestors walked out and hunted the animal, killed it, cleaned it, and
cooked it. Today, convenience is one of Americas top priorities. Americans usually dont think
about how the animal lived or if it was killed humanly, we usually dont even see the animals.
We may see some animals if we live on or by a farm, but most likely they are not from Tyson
Foods, JBS, Smithfield Foods or Cargill. These four companies produce up to 85% of the
packaged meat in the United States.
Looking into the past, some Native Americans were Pantheists. Pantheism is God being
the universe and everything in it is God, or showing respect to multiple Gods. The Oglala Sioux
Tribe believed God is within all things. The natives were very spiritual and ceremonial. In
being so, natives had ceremonies for everything, from birth to life, to milestones in life such as
puberty and marriage. Hunting is one ceremony that they have when it comes to death. Natives
shared their animism and respect for nature. Hunters only hunted for food and asked permission
from the animal spirits during the hunts. The natives viewed the white mans attitude as the

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complete opposite about nature and animals. Native Americans felt the white man hunted and
took and cleared land for sport and not just for food. To them it was an insult to their respect for
the animals spirit and the land. Along with hunting the animal for food, the natives made use of
the animals skin for clothes and shelter. Native Americans had a very good idea when it came to
animals and respect. The Europeans felt the natives way was wrong so they started to institute
policies to force natives onto reservations and changed their spiritual traditions in 1882. Soon the
United States Federal Government started to ban Native American religious rights. Being a
Native American from the Cherokee Tribe, I fully believe in having respect to the land and the
animals. We dont just kill animals because they are in our way while we are hiking, we move
around them or we do not cross them. As we move along in life we need to address where we
want to be, where we need change and find a path to get there.
Along with taking my native history into the equation I started to look into giant
slaughter houses and what I like to call Animal Concentration Camps. These camps are several
acres of Farm land where the farmers have pinned in animals that walk in 1 to 2 feet of mud,
urine and feces. We need to see where they are wrong and right. I will start with the farm and the
antibiotics. I decided to get on a reputable sight about antibiotics. I found the Animal Health
Institute (AHI) website and it was very informative. AHI spoke about Antibiotics and how much
they are needed in the animals that feed us. They simply make the meat much safer and the
welfare of the animal is much safer. Since Antibiotic resistance is a public health concern, the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Food and Drug Association (FDA), and the United
States Department of Agriculture work with the veterinary community to focus on several layers
of protection for the health of people. The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring
System, known as N.A.R.M.S., assists the U.S. Government as they closely track antibiotic

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resistance. My familys safety is my number one concern. At first, I was against antibiotics until I
researched into what they do and how long antibiotics have to be out of the animals system. The
farmer cannot take a cow to butcher or take milk from the cow until the antibiotic has at least 60
days to run through the system. This gave me some hope for the human and animal relationship.
Looking further into the Animal Concentration Camps I watched a documentary called
Food Inc, which was filmed by Robert Kenner who has made several documentaries for
National Geographic and Public Broadcasting Systems (PBS). Watching Food Inc. with my
husband showed us a world that we never acknowledged before. We watched as living pigs were
pushed into a small box and electrocuted quickly, we could hear their squealing screams then
silence as they started coming out of the other side dead and lifeless. Chickens from the Tyson
Company were huddled into crowded huts as a farmer picked up the dead hens and loaded them
onto a tractor and hauled off to a dirt pile. Being disgusted with how the animals were treated I
had to step away and regain my composure. As I sat back down to finish the rest of Food Inc. I
watched a farmer who raises his own cattle, chickens and hogs talk about how people have lost
respect for the animal. He doesnt keep his hens in a crowded hut, he rather gives them space and
lets them live for a while. His cattle are grass grazing and the hogs are out in their own side of
the many acres he owns. He and a few farmers help gather the chickens and have their own
system of manufacturing the meat. It consists of a tent and processed in what people today would
deem unsanitary. He sets the hens upside down in what looks like spinning metals cones, then a
worker then slices the hens throat and the camera pans to a chicken who, to us, looked
completely shocked that her friend of many months just had her head chopped off. But as he
cleans the hens he has constant hot water running to keep bacteria away. When my husband and I
sit and talk about what we just watched, we both agreed that switching to free range meat would

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be the best for our family. As my husband and I looked into our decision, we discussed how will
we get from where we are now to where we want to be, which is eating as cruelty free food as we
can get.
Where do we start our new journey? I decided to gradually change my familys diet so it
wont be a major shock to our pockets and digestive tracts. Tracking down a farm isnt as easy as
it sounds, but we will stop by Target. Targets products meets all dietary needs such as being
gluten free, certified humane, organic, and all natural. Every Saturday, Guthrie has a farmers
market with several options. People post their free range eggs on local Facebook sites. All of this
does cost a bit more than the hormone loaded meat, so we need to budget accordingly. As we
gradually go into our new diet, we will start seeing the costs and effects of the food.
Taking in all of this information from my native ancestors, to all the research that Ive
done, plus the cost, I realize this wont be an easy change but, my familys well-being is worth
more to me than a dollar bill. I wont change how I prepare my meals; I will just change what
products I use to prepare the food that nourishes my childrens bodies. Gaining respect for
animals is one positive thought I want my children to learn. If I can instill the thought of respect
in their little minds, then they can use that in their future lives and shadow it onto my
grandchildren. As I set sail on our new endeavor, we shall see where our ship of respect will take
us.

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"Animal Antibiotics." Animal Health Institute. Web, ND, 10 Feb. 2016.

<http://www.ahi.org/issues-advocacy/animal-antibiotics/>.
The Animal Health Institute talks about animal antibiotics by explaining why antibiotics
are so important for animals that we consume. They explain how antibiotics reduce the
chances of the transmission of bacteria from animals to humans. The Center for disease
control (CDC), The Food and Drug administration (FDA), The United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) and the veterinary community work together to keep our food
safe for us to consume so we doing get any bacteria that will hurt or kill us. The National
Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) Tracks Antibiotic resistance.
"Antibiotics and risks." Animal Health Institute. Web. ND, 10 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.ahi.org/issues-advocacy/animal-antibiotics/antibiotics-and-danger/>.
The Animal Health Institute explains the possible risks of using antibiotics on animals
that we eat. A flow chart is shown of the possibility of bacteria becoming resistant to the
antibiotics given to the animals which the risk is very low. The Flow chart was created by
The Harvard center for risk analysis and it shows the likelihood of events. It compares
what humans can die from to the risks of certain bacteria becoming resistant.
"Benefits of Antibiotics." Animal Health Institute. Web. ND, 10 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.ahi.org/issues-advocacy/animal-antibiotics/benefits-of-antibiotics/>.
The Animal Health Institute explains the benefits of antibiotics. The FDA has kept the
threat of bacteria and diseases under control for over 40 years. It is scientifically based
that animals welfare benefits from the use of antibiotics. The food people consume is
safer, the rates of animal and human illnesses have increased. Therefor careful use of
antibiotics keeps animals and humans safe and healthy

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"Biography: Temple Grandin Ph.D." Biography: Temple Grandin Ph.D., N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb.
2016.
<http://grandin.com/temple.htmlt>;.
This is a biography of Temple Grandin PH.D. who designs for livestock handling
Facilities and a professor of Animal Science at the Colorado State University. She has
developed scoring systems assessing for the handling of cattle and pig meat.
"Food, Inc. Movie." Monsanto. Web. ND, 15 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.monsanto.com/food-inc/pages/default.aspx>.
Monsanto Explains Questions that have been asked by consumers. Some questions ask
about their treatment toward farmers and how they know biotech crops produce safe
food.
Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kennor. Movie One, 2008.
Food Inc. is a documentary of the big meat corporations and how they mistreat animals.
the director shows the true world of the slaughter houses and how they animals are
treated horribly. From cattle, hogs and chickens to the little genetically modified soy bean
from Monsanto. Food Inc. shows how the farmers are treated by Monsanto and how strict
it is to be under their control with little to no way out.
"Organic Agriculture: Is It Safe?" Animal Health Institute. Web. ND, 10 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.ahi.org/issues-advocacy/animal-antibiotics/organic-agriculture-is-it-safer/>.
The Animal Health Institute Compares the animals that are organic and the animals that
have antibiotics. It has shown little difference between the organic and the conventional
system but the risk is still there. The AHI goes into some detail of certain bacteria and the
risks.

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Regan, Tom, Dr. "The Philosophy of Animal Rights." Culture & Animals Foundation. Web. ND,
15 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.cultureandanimals.org/pop1.html>.
Dr. Tom Regan talks about the Philosophy of animal rights and list several questions that
people ask and has given answers