Las Vegas Sun

May 19, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

All animals deserve respect

Oct. 2 is World Day for Farm Animals. It’s intended to memorialize the billions of animals abused and killed for food each year.

After watching the film “Okja,” I realized that a farm animal is much like our family dog, fully deserving of compassion and respect.

They get neither on today’s factory farms. Male baby chicks are suffocated in plastic garbage bags or ground up alive. Laying hens are crowded into small wire cages that tear out their feathers. Breeding sows spend their lives pregnant in metal cages. Dairy cow babies are snatched from their mothers upon birth, so we can drink their milk.

The cruelties inherent in factory faming drove me to replace animal products in my diet with plant-based options. My cruelty-free diet is also great for my health and for the health of our planet.