Nice, huh?
I’m reading Diet for a New America (love it!) and the discussion of the way that we treat animals in our culture has been really interesting. I found this quote and just had to research it.
The official position of the Catholic Church has long been that animals don’t have souls. During a Church council in the middle ages a vote was taken on whether women and animals have souls. Women squeaked by. Animals lost.
Honestly, this seems to be pretty debated when I looked it up online. I know that I have quite a few Catholic mamas who read my blog, so please let me know if you can confirm or deny this claim 
The internet opinion seems to be pretty split on whether or not it happened.
Whether or not this is true, this book has really given me some food for thought on the animal rights issue. I’ve always said that my veg*nism is due to health reasons, not animal rights. The more that I read about factory farming practices, the more upset I am. Animals are not treated with dignity or respect. They are treated in ways that would cause the humane society to seize the animals if it were a home. Its sick. Really sick.
This week we have new baby birds outside on our front porch. The mother and father bird (I’m assuming? There’s two of them.) have been carefully taking turns feeding and watching their babies. Its been so cool to watch and the kids have been so excited to see the birds grow each day. Its been really neat. I’m sure it is what made me extra sensitive to this quote
Male chicks, of course, have little use in the manufacture of eggs. So what do you think happens to the males? How are the little fellows greeted when, having pecked their way out of their shells, expecting to be met by the warmth of a waiting mother hen, they look around and seek to begin their lives on earth?
They are, literally, thrown away. We watched at one hatchery as ‘chicken-pullers’ weeded males from each tray and dropped them into heavy-duty plastic bags. Our guide explaines: ‘We put them in a bag and let them suffocate.’
That sucks.
Reading about their living conditions, lives, and treatment really struck me. My kids still eat eggs. The fact is that I could never go and do this to an animal, yet I pay to have it done all the time. :sigh: I have thinking to do.
