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Few people would themselves keep a hen in a shoebox for her egg-laying life; but practically everyone will eat smartly packaged, “farm fresh” eggs from battery hens.
If true, is this an ethical situation? Should we be reluctant to let people know what really goes on, because we’re not really proud of it and concerned that it might turn them to vegetarianism?
Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham.
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Next:
Factory
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It
is all very well to say that individuals
must wrestle with their consciences—but
only if their consciences are awake and
informed. Industrial society, alas, hides
animals’ suffering. 
For
modern animal agriculture, the less the
consumer knows about what’s happening
before the meat hits the plate, the better.
There’s
a schizoid quality to our relationship
with animals, in which sentiment and brutality
exist side by side.