Get the Facts – 5 Food Products That Taste of Torture

A recent survey has revealed the startling fact that almost a third of UK primary schoolchildren believe that cheese comes from plants. Most kids are naturally compassionate, so we’re guessing that if they knew the truth about the cruel origins of dairy products, they’d think twice about eating them. Maybe Emily Deschanel’s new dairy-industry exposé should be compulsory watching for all children – and for their parents, too.

And how many flesh-eaters really know what they’re eating? Oddly enough, the meat industry often isn’t too keen on spelling out exactly where its products come from – so we thought we’d do it for them. Here’s the unvarnished truth about some cruel foodstuffs that not everyone is aware of:

Veal: To make this co-product of the dairy industry, male calves are forcibly removed from their mothers when they’re only a few days old and shipped to the continent, where they’re confined in dark crates and have no room to move. The terrified, lonely animals may be purposely fed a diet low in iron so that they become anaemic and their flesh remains pale. By the time that they’re sent to be killed, many of these infants are so weak that they can barely walk up the ramp to the abattoir.

Foie Gras: This vile pâté is made from the diseased organs of ducks and geese who have been force-fed massive amounts of grain so that their livers swell to up to 10 times their natural size. Sometimes, the birds suffer from internal ruptured organs, and all of them pant constantly in their final days as they struggle to get air into their lungs. The process is so cruel that it’s illegal in the UK, although some British shops shamefully continue to sell foie gras.

Caviar: For this “delicacy”, eggs are ripped from the ovaries of female fish, just days before they’re ready to spawn. The mother-to-be is dragged out of the water and cut open, usually while she’s still alive. Fish experience pain just as we do, and being killed in this way causes them unimaginable suffering.

Chèvre (Goat Cheese):  Male goats born to dairy goats are usually killed at birth  so that humans can use their mothers’ milk for cheese. As the goat-cheese industry grows, these animals are increasingly reared intensively on farms, where they are kept in huge sheds all year round in cramped conditions, hooked up to industrial milking machines, and may have their horns burned off without painkillers.

Lobster: Before they’re killed, lobsters are kept in severely crowded, under-oxygenated tanks, where they are piled on top of each other – a hellish ordeal for these naturally solitary animals. It’s still common for chefs to boil lobsters alive: it can take almost a minute for the animals to die in the pot, and since their nervous systems do not go into shock when they’re harmed, it’s likely that they suffer intense pain for every agonising second.

To learn more about the grisly facts underlying the meat industry, take a look at our short video, “Glass Walls”, narrated by Paul McCartney. Then, please help to end the cruelty by cutting meat, dairy products and eggs out of your diet altogether.