Debunking the "oh but it's not so bad in South Africa" myth...

by Jodi Allemeier


While I am vegan for many reasons, including health, environmental and moral reasons, many people argue “oh but it’s not so bad in South Africa”.

We are a nation of meat eaters. If you believe that every chicken burger, steak or piece of boerewors that lands in your shopping basket/on your plate/in your gut came there after living a long and fulfilling life on an idyllic open “family farm”, you are kidding yourself.

We are a nation of meat and chicken eaters. We are a nation of over 47 million people, many of whom eat chicken, beef or at the very least, dairy products every day. South Africans consume close to ONE MILLION TONS OF CHICKEN A YEAR! (SouthAfrica.info)

That requires HUGE volumes of supply. Such volumes simply cannot be “produced” on nice open pastures and “humane” (??) slaughter methods. They cannot all graze on natural grasses sprouting from the earth.

Meat is a big business in SA, and big business will always necessitate that “goods” are “produced” as quickly and cheaply as possible.

So yes, of course there are animals in SA being kept in horrendous conditions, fed antibiotics as opposed to being properly treated for festering wounds and illnesses, force-fed hormones and grains (that are mass-produced for the meat industry, causing harm to the environment, while millions go starving) and killed in the cheapest and fastest way possible.

Some standard practices in SA include (elated.co.za):

• All farm animals end up at the slaughter house where it is a physical impossibility for them not to be terrified. Heightened senses allow the animals to smell the blood and excrement, and hear the screams of their fellows doomed to terrible deaths. Death is the greatest "injury" one can inflict on a living being. All living beings feel pain, as they all have senses.
• Live transport where animals are without food and water for days and subjected to extreme weather conditions with no protection.
• Lay hens are intentionally starved to induce moulting and increased egg production.
• Spent end of lay hens are left for days in crates open to the elements until sold to disadvantaged communities.
• Cows are repeatedly inseminated to ensure ongoing milk production. Cows and their calves are separated at birth, causing intense suffering, fear and distress; and this is a routine practice if humans are to continue drinking their milk.
• Hanging cows, pigs, sheep and chickens upside down by one leg on the slaughter line can never be anything other than uncomfortable. They want to live and they scream and struggle, fighting for their lives; dislocating their hips and wings, and breaking their legs in the process. Often they will fall to the ground before dying, and struggle in a pool of their own blood. There is no dignified way to gloss over the horrors of the slaughter process. No animal gives their life willingly so that we may eat them.
• Sow gestation and farrowing crates are standard practice. At least 95% of all female pigs live their entire breeding lives in metal bar prisons where they cannot take a step forward or back, lie down properly to sleep, or reach their piglets to nurture them, nor can they get away from their voraciously suckling piglets. They suffer from pestering wounds and often show signs of psychological stress.
• Piglets removed from their mother at four weeks old, still have an urge to suckle everything they touch. Lack of nurturing is as stressful to the young as is abusive treatment.
• All intensive farming of animals requires close confinement resulting in discomfort, psychotic behaviour and cannibalism.
• Chickens have their beaks and some of their toes cut off at birth, pigs have their tails docked and holes cut in their ears, while calves are branded and have their testicles and horns cut off – These injuries are routinely administered with no anesthetic, and often with harsh tools, such as pliers.
• Male egg layer chicks are killed at birth by suffocation, crushing or just discarded in dumpsters and left to die of starvation.
• Milk production relies on mechanical milking machines which cause severe discomfort to the cows' udders. Selective breeding, food additives and other best farming practices result in swollen, distended, painful and often infected udders.

Watch Earthlings for more about the manner in which animals are treated.

Still, if you insist on believing that the SA meat industry is somehow more “humane” than in the US, EU or east, consider how much imported meat you must be consuming. Remember, in consumerism “there is complicity”. If you are buying these products, you are supporting the abuse (and often times torture) of other species.

According to SA Meat Industry Company (SAMIC) and StatsSA data, in 2008 SA imported a total of 55,298,815 kg of meat:

• Over SIX MILLION KILOGRAMS of cow meat ( 6,011,687.00 kg)
• Over SEVENTEEN MILLION KILOGRAMS of sheep & goat meat (17,133,516.00 kg)
• Over FOURTEEN MILLION KILOGRAMS of pig meat (14,248,559.00). The majority of this is “pork” ribs
• Over SEVENTEEN MILLION KILOGRAMS of “other OFFAL” (i.e. livers etc) (17,905,053.00 kg)

This does not even include poultry, fish, dairy and other products such as fur and leather (I wonder why fur is so horrific, but animal skin soaked in hazardous chemicals to stop it from (naturally) decomposing is somehow ok?). According to StatsSA import data, in 2008, over R 8 billion worth of dairy products, eggs and honey were imported. Similarly, over R 8 billion worth of fish, crustaceans and molluscs were imported. A further R 20 million worth of processed animal products for industrial preparations were imported.

In fact, when you analyse the data of meat imports, some shocking things are evident – such as the importation of horse, donkey and mule meat (which has not been recorded since 1998…)

Beyond any moral arguments, according to the SA Heart and Stroke Foundation, one heart attack is record every 12 minutes in SA, the majority of which were preventable by simple life-style changes. If we start consuming less/no meat & animal products, it will be beneficial to our health and environment.