Dairy cows and mammals who like humans only produce milk to feed their children
And so what this means is that every single year, year in, year out
Farmers will forcibly impregnate the dairy cows to ensure they're continuously producing a profitable supply of milk
And so the farmer restrains the dairy cow and forces semen inside of her cervix
To tell you about the next part of dairy farming
I want to tell you about a personal experience I had, something that happened to me back in 2017
it was the first time I'd ever visited a dairy farm and
so myself and several others, we kind of just wandered into the farm
With the objective of filming, taking pictures and raising awareness and trying to show people what happens in the dairy industry
Now the farmer who saw us and he wasn't particularly bothered by our presence and so he allowed us to wander around
and as we were wandering around he came across a pen
and in this pen was a mother cow
and her baby
and her baby had just been born.
In fact, her baby was still so newborn, the mother was cleaning her after the birth
And so the farmer came over to us
and he told us he was going to separate the baby from their mother
Now all dairy calves are taken away from their mothers normally within the first 24 hours of life
so the farmer can take as much milk as possible and make as much money from the dairy cow's body as they possibly can
and so we filmed
We filmed as the farmer brought in the trolley and he put the trolley next to the calf
he picks the calf up and he threw the calf into the trolley
and then began to wheel the calf away.
I ended up stood next to the mother and I walked alongside her for as far as we could
because then the farmer closed the gate on both of us
and so I looked at that mother,
and I watched her as she watched her baby being taken further
and further and further
and further
And further and further and further away from her
And that was the last time she ever saw her child
As well as I was looking at this dairy cow this mother
She looked at me and in that moment our eyes made contact
And I saw everything I expected to see, I saw pain, I saw fear, I saw anguish
but I saw something else
I saw confusion
and this is what I hurt me the most
because I realized in that moment
that the animals have no comprehension of why we do these things to them.
They don't understand they don't know
and I thought about all the pigs in the gas chambers and all the animals who are exploited or the vary in
insidious industries of animal exploitation
and I thought about the fact that they had no idea why any of these things were being performed and done to them?
and I thought about all the times I had been most scared in my life
and how often fear was coupled with confusion
and ambiguity about the situation, a lack of comprehension
about why these things were happening and when they were going to stop
And I thought about how confusion often amplifies the experience of terror, an experience of fear
But of course we can't explain these things to animals.
They don't speak our language. And nor do we speak theirs
What if we could?
What if we could communicate with them and talk to them and have a dialogue with them
and tell them why we're doing these things to them
What would we say?
What would you say?
What would you say to that dairy cow in that moment as her baby is being taken away from her
would you say "I know that you're grieving
and another loss your child will cause you pain
and that you wish to act out your maternal drive to be a mother
and to raise your baby
but what you've got to understand
is that I love the taste of your lactations in my cup of coffee
and congealed into a block called cheese that I grate on my pasta"
Do you say "I know you don't want to be forcibly impregnated. I know that's a horrible experience for you
But it's quite inconvenient for me to buy oat milk"
What would we say to the pigs in the gas chambers?
Would we say "I hear you screaming
and I can see you thrashing
and I acknowledge that you're suffering but please
can you just understand that I love the taste of your flesh in between two pieces of bread that I call a sandwich?"
Would we say to the animals "I know you have a desire to life and that you do not wish to be exploited
but going vegan is a bit extreme.
And anyway it's my personal choice, so can you please respect that?"
Because really what else could we say to them?
What else could we say to them?
We couldn't say, "I'm sorry,
I'm so sorry
God, I'm so sorry,
but what you have to understand is this is a necessity and this has to be done
and I wish it didn't but it absolutely does for my survival and a survival of my species
Because that's not true
And that would be a lie
We do not do these things to animals because we have to
we do them because we want to
Or more importantly because we enjoy the product that comes as a consequence of the things that we do to animals
We do it because we enjoy the taste of their flesh and their secretions
But in reality our body needs cow flesh, chicken flesh, lamb flesh or pig flesh
as much as it needs labrador flesh or poodle flesh or cat flesh
Our body needs cow's milk as much as it needs dolphin milk or giraffe milk or rat milk
it just doesn't
and so the question then becomes well "what has higher value?"
taste or life
our taste buds
or the life of an animal
Do we really value the 15 minutes of sensory pleasure that we get from consuming their bodies
as being worth more than their entire existence
and can we really justify what we do to animals by saying "it's our personal choice"
and should someone's choice automatically be respected simply because
they've personally chosen to enact that choice?
I mean every choice that we make is a personal choice
regardless of whether that choice would be deemed moral or immoral
And when we cite personal choice as a justifier for what we do to animals
whose choice are we considering other than our own?
Do we factor in the choice of the trillions of animals? And it is trillions.
The trillions of animals who are killed every single year
Do we factor in their desire for life and the desire to live without exploitation and suffering?
or do we unconsciously buy these products simply because we always have
and because our peers around us do so
and because society tells us it's ok
But how do we morally justify this?
What moral justification do we have to excuse the exploitation of animals?
And so I want to go back to the dairy industry for just a moment
because in the UK a survey was conducted by the British Cattle Veterinary Association
and the survey revealed that about 150,000 cows are sent to the slaughterhouse each year whilst pregnant
and it revealed about 40,000 of these cows are in the late stages of pregnancy
Theoretically meaning that the baby inside of them could be capable of independent life
Now there are no legal guidelines to protect unborn animals within the industry
but the RSPCA which is Britain's leading welfare organization has a set of guidelines
that advises that a slaughterhouse should follow in the event of a pregnant cow being brought to their facility
And so this guideline state the cow should be killed in the normal way
So a bolt in the head and a knife across their throat
But they're supposed to hang on the bleeding line for at least five minutes
To try and provide enough time for the baby inside of the mother to die as well
Now an ex-vet who used to work in UK abbatoirs had this to say about her experience
of seing pregnant cows being slaughtered. She said:
Sometimes when the animals are hanging on the bleeding line, you can see their unborn calves kicking inside their mothers wombs
I as a vet, I'm not expected to do anything
unborn animals don't exist according to the regulations.
I'm supposed to stand there, do nothing. Stay quiet
It broke my heart.
I felt like a criminal
But the survey from the British Castle Veterinary Association
went on to reveal that over 75% of the pregnant cows sent to slaughter
was sent by farmers who didn't think the cows were pregnant
or simply did not know
Which means that around 3/4 of the pregnant cows are sent to the slaughterhouse
without the slaughterhouse be made prior aware that they're pregnant
And so the cow comes into the the stun box the bolt goes against her head
She's hung on the bleeding line and her throat is cut
But then she's not left there for a minimum of five minutes. She's taken to the next phase of the slaughter
Which is when she's cut open
But because the baby inside takes longer to die what can happen
as the mother can be cut open?
And the baby can fall out
alive
conscious
sentient
gasping for air
and breathing
and now the RSPCA which stands for the Royal Society for the *Prevention of Cruelty* to Animals
states that if you cut out a baby from their dead mother and that baby is alive
you shoot them with a bolt or you hit them over the head with a blunt instrument
Their first and last experiences of life are on the floor of a slaughterhouse
Now we've all been raised with a set of values
dictated to us by the cultures that we were raised in
values passed down to us by the families who brought us up and
values that we assigned to ourself for all of those cognitive biases that exist within us all
The society has always progressed
precisely because it dared to challenge these dominant paradigms
The stagnation of progress comes from the refusal to challenge what it is that we have always done
But as Aristotle once said the roots of education are bitter
But the fruit is sweet
We can no longer bury our heads in the sand.
It is time to take our heads out of the sand
and no longer ignore something, the objectivity of something
simply because it makes us feel uncomfortable
or contradicts the values and lifestyles that we have always adopted
And so I left that farm
that dairy farm
and I left that mother there
and I left her newborn baby in the solitary confinement pen
that the farmer had thrown them into
I left
But they did not
Their life and their fate had been decided for them before they were even conceived
and so when I went back to my life
which was a life where I could do what I want,
spend time my friends, spend time with my family,
do things that made me happy and fundamentally live a life that was not dictated for me.
I made a vow to myself
and I vowed that I would never again
allow the suffering of animals to fall far from my mind
and I would certainly never again claim that their suffering does not exist
because even if we refuse it with our thoughts, with our eyes and with our ears
the suffering the animals are forced to injure is an objective reality
that exists even if we claim that it does not
Can we honestly still cling on to the idea that what happens to animals is isolated and a rarity
or is it time for us to acknowledge that the abuse and suffering that we inflict upon animals
is systemic and ubiquitous
and exists because the purchases that we make
and therefore the blood is on our hands collectively as a species
but also as individuals as well
One of the defining characteristics of our species is our ability to evolve and adapt
to learn from our mistakes and then change accordingly
Morality has always changed
and so as our understanding and knowledge about the complexity and wonder of life
continues to change
so too should our tolerance
our attitude and our empathy
towards those non-human animals who exist on this planet with us
and not for us
In our authoritarian ways we arbitrarily point the finger
and decide that certain species of animals deserve different fates to other species of animals
For those cows in that farm indeed for every animal that exists on every farm around the world
there is a life of exploitation and then death in a slaughterhouse
and yet for other animals who are identical in every single way that matters,
it's a life of love, the companionship, in our homes and in our families
and so, of course as humans, we are very different to the other beings on this planet
But what we share in common
is what is paramount
We are all alive
we are conscious,
we are sentient,
our experience of life is shown to us by the subjective and
individualistic perceptions that we see through the life that we all live
Intrinsically, we all want to live a life free from exploitation, from suffering and from harm
a life of peace
of tranquillity
full of happiness
and so is it time for us to consider all animals in our circle of moral consideration?
To understand that it's not the *way* that we exploit them that matters
but the fact that we *exploit* them in the first place
the mentality that allows us
to exploit them in the first place
Is it time for us to make a change?
Is it time for us to go vegan?
for ourselves
for our own health,
for our planet
but also for them
The other beings who may not walk like us,
talk like us
or look like us
but who definitely deserve a life of freedom
Just like us.
Thank you so much for listening
[claps]