On Stockyards and Compassionate Carnivores

I don't know about you, but I was hit particularly hard by Dan Barry's "Silence Replaced Bids and Moos at Stockyards in Suburbs" in this morning's New York Times. And the accompanying slide show was even more devastating because of the photos and the sounds of the animals.

It was the language that struck me, of course, as Barry tried very hard to present a romantic tale of the end of an era. If he just gave me the facts, I wouldn't have been nearly as disturbed. When I read it, I wonder if I'm the only person on the planet who feels a pang, both in her stomach and her heart.

Here's what hurt me most, as Barry describes the last day the stockyards of South St. Paul, Minnesota were open for business:

• "where the auctioneer’s sweet serenade only hardens those bovine expressions of uh-oh." The sweet serenade leading to slaughter? And mocking the animals with uh-oh? Would he have felt the same way if the animals were dogs? And dare I say the same scenario occurred with humans not that long ago. Does he not see the similarity?
  
• "Punctuation to this reality came in January, when yet another animal escaped from the stockyards. A bull weighing nearly a ton apparently did not like what it had been sold for and wound up for a while on Interstate 494 during the morning rush hour. A police officer’s shotgun blast soon freed the animal from worrying about the evening commute." Mocking the bull is not journalism. He wanted to be free, Mr. Barry. He doesn't know--or care--how much he was sold for. And calling him "it," well, at this point, despite the fact that we know he's a he, we also know enough about Barry to know he doesn't care.
• "Here is John Barber, big and strong and 69, the yard’s main auctioneer for nearly four decades. What a voice he has, so deep and soothing that you want to bid on something, anything: Would there be room for a heifer in the apartment?" Something. Anything. And the heifer comment is just rude.
• "The Kruegers have donated a 900-pound heifer to be the last cow auctioned at the stockyards, with the sale proceeds going to an agricultural scholarship fund. Its father was a Simmental named Red Rock, and its mother was a Black Angus named, simply, N501 Commercial. As for its own name, chosen well before its historical role was determined: Timeless." IT is a cow. IT is a heifer. IT is female. IT is not an inanimate object. SHE is an individual. SHE WAS an individual.
• "a black-white-brown sea surrendering puffs of steam from wet hides, and the occasional yardman shout of Hey! Hey! Hey!" At this point, since he's so fond of telling us what the animals think, I'd be interested to hear what he thinks is going through their minds. Perhaps it rhymes with: Free me.
• "After a while Mr. Barber reclaims his seat, signaling that the final cattle auction is about to begin. All that livestock from Minnesota and Wisconsin, unloaded from trucks and herded into pens, now to be rushed into the arena for some momentary preening, bought, rushed out, loaded up and carted away.
  
  At the same time there comes the smell of cooking beef — free hamburgers! — to settle over the arena and pens, and to underscore the fate of at least some of those gathered here." An honest moment of commentary.
• "He sings to the cattle trotting into the arena 10 and 20 at a time, many of them relieving themselves to convey what they think of the honor." Perhaps that's why they were relieving themselves. And who could blame them.

Listening to the slide show was difficult for me, but it was also educational. Just when I was relieved that the stockyards were closing, I learn that the "service" will now be online. As John Barber said: "Change is hard but we'll make it through. Nobody's died from change."

That's not true. When people change their minds and decide to eat animals that do not come from factory farms, somebody dies for that change. For each meal made with animals, somebody dies.

Comments

[Elaine Vigneault]

I like most of your criticisms and I think you're on point with this article, specifically, "Mocking [...] is not journalism."

However, I have one minor issue. You wrote:
"Would he have felt the same way if the animals were dogs?"
The trouble is, many people really don't feel a special connection to dogs. And even some people who do feel especially fond of dogs don't always disagree with their treatment as fur or food animals in other cultures.

I see you often make this statement "what if they were dogs?" and I don't think that really expresses your thoughts about animals. I think it's an analogy that works in your mind, because you care deeply for dogs, but doesn't work in the minds of many other people.

Besides, look what our culture does to dogs! Puppy mills, greyhound races, sled races, killing in shelters, tail docking, dogfights...

The comparison simply doesn't work. Instead of saying "what if they were dogs?" maybe you should say "what if they were human children?" or just don't use an analogy at all.

*(I only say this because I see you often make this dog analogy. If you made it less often, I wouldn't even have noticed.)

[Mary Martin]

Actually, Elaine, I mention dogs because they're supposed to be "man's best friend."

Believe it or not, I've always been a cat person. Just don't tell Violet or Charles. Dogs come up a lot because they're used more than cats (racing, fighting, mushing) in the US. Furthermore, there is that segment of the US population that hates cats and has created bumper stickers, t-shirts and websites around the concept of hating cats. I don't see that with dogs so they're a safer reference.

I don't go directly to human children because I don't think most people can deal with that. But they can be eased in that direction with an animal that our culture has a particular affinity for--allegedly.

Don't I get any points for: "And dare I say the same scenario occurred with humans not that long ago?"

[Cláudio Godoy]

Talking about heifers, take a look at http://www.heifer.org/

[Mary Martin]

Hi Claudio!
I was sort of hoping they'd gone out of business (it IS a business, make no mistake). I ranted about Heifer several times since I started blogging. The worst was probably on December 20, 2006 in "On Heifer Int'l and People Who Aren't Thinking" at: http://www.animalperson.net/animal_person/2006/12/on_heifer_intl_.html

I just reread it and was thinking: I can be SO obnoxious!

[Roger Yates]

Mary, I refuse to believe you could be as obnoxious as this:-

"It may seem hard to believe that peace could really take root one cow at a time. Yet we’ve seen time and again that people with something to live for, they have nothing they want to die for. Since receiving a cow Agnes has milk to feed her children, and with money from the sale of surplus milk she can tend to her family’s needs: food, medicine, clothing and more.

"What a glorious sight it will be to see Hutu and Tutsi women gathering together at the “Passing on the Gift” ceremony. Old resentments may not all be forgotten, but they are slowly being forgiven. Here and there you hear the word “mahoro” — peace — that it seemed no one had used for years, now being spoken with genuine hope.

"In a land with so much poverty, and thousands of war orphans, just imagine the impact of 1,000 or 10,000 cows! There just seems to be no limit to the amount of good we can do, as long as we can count on good friends like you."