The problem with books on veganism is they’re all quite depressing. The death, the guts, the gas chambers, the end of the planet – reading about the torment of billions of animals can make one downcast. Pigs, for instance, are typically stunned with an electrical current before their throats are slit. Occasionally, however, the stunning doesn’t work and the creatures are still conscious when lowered into a “scalding tank” of hot water that loosens their skin. Then there are the dairy cows sent to slaughter while pregnant. When they’re gutted, sometimes a foetus will fall on to the excrement-covered floor of the slaughterhouse before being beaten to death.
It’s no surprise that many people prefer to think their food comes from farms where animals frolic on lush pastures. The reality challenges meat-eaters’ view of themselves as compassionate, or at least not wantonly cruel. People claim to love animals but are happy to pay for their slaughter and mistreatment.
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