Eat meat? Ask first!

The recent recall of tainted beef (143 million pounds), the largest in U. S. history, raises numerous serious questions. These intelligent and sentient beings are tortured not only in the slaughterhouse where they are severely mistreated, but also on the way to their reprehensible death, in this case, caught on videotape. "Downers," (around 200,000 cows a year and one million pigs) who can't walk, are beaten, shocked, fork-lifted into trucks, or left for dead before they even get to the death chamber. One slaughterhouse worker said of food animals, "They die piece by piece."

Around the world people want to know what they can do to make the world a better place for humans and other animals. One easy thing to do is to stop eating meat, or at least ask where the meat came from and to make the most humane choice. And schools can also do much to increase our "compassion footprint" by refusing to buy meat from slaughterhouses who persecute animals and to teach students to do the same - to ask where the meat came from when they go shopping or when they dine out. This is an easy thing to do and will go a long way toward making the world a more compassionate place for all life.

So, when someone is overwhelmed and can't figure out what to do to add compassion to the world, tell them to "ask first." It's such an easy thing to do.