9
THE VEGAN
prehensive vision. T h a t others can so do surprises me, but for this I am not responsible. I went from the slaughter-house into a second-hand bookshop and to the section of Theosophical books, for Theosophy does teach, as does Buddhism and Vedanta, the One Spirit imminent in all consciousness. N o expositors of less comprehensive vision are to me acceptable, and less than ever, acceptable as teachers after the sudden awful realisation of animal suffering and humiliation I had so recently seen by standing beside that slaughter-house door. I did, however, select a few small books and went down the same street past the slaughter-house. A s I passed, a lorry was emerging with a load of cattle heads and parts of legs with skin and hooves on them. T h e animals I had so recently seen alive were, it seemed, now dismemberedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;there was and could be n o sentiment in the meat trade; it was, like all other businesses, merely a business to be carried on as efficiently as possible. It was some small comfort to me that the pain of these humiliated mother-cows had so suddenly ended, though had the dismembered pieces I saw been those of human beings I could not have felt more keenly, for cattle are harmless and non-carnivorous, suffering all things; while of those who thus exploit them what shall I think? In this incidence, I can but say that to me the harmless, humiliated mothercow was a more majestic, more icomprehensive teacher than any human being could be. <' I was not however to be spared further vision of humiliation, for as I walked along the street, suddenly there came another nine or ten cattle, driven with speed by their slaughterers : in my distress I did not specially note, but feel sure they were cows, for surely bulls could not thus be tamely driven to the slaughter. T h e poor frightened animals dashed .along the street and at a corner, doubtless sensing their fate, tried to turn in the opposite direction, but they were swiftly and efficiently driven into the slaughter-house. I turned and walked back towards the slaughter-house; from within came the sound of blows and fierce cries. W h y should it be considered necessary to increase the terror in these poor animals ? Could they not be spared this final humiliation? They have done nothing in all their lives to deserve this awful end. Surely so long as cows must be killed they should be mercifully slaughtered. T h a t the weapon by which they are killed is presumably instantaneous does not lessen the fact that what precedes this instant death is humiliation of a terrible kind. For none will persuade me that cows are other than deeply emotional and sensitive. Can one imagine a mother-cow violently slaughtering a man? T h e cases when this has happened are almost negligible considering the very good reasons these poor exploited animals have for so doing. A s I stood for the second time outside that slaughter-house, I