Stop Eating Us!
I would like you to imagine that all the creatures on this
earth
Had gathered at a meeting and were protesting for all they’re worth.
And that with their banners held high, were hollering their discontent,
Which I duly recorded, and here — with much sympathy — present.
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“It’s high time that humans were put on trial for crimes
against our kind,
For they've a history of butchery and callousness, I remind.
The proof? Just look at their shop shelves, in their fridges and
freezers too,
For they’re bulging with body parts that they boil, roast and barbeque.”
“Yes, that’s your brothers and sisters, and your mums and dads, don’t
forget,
With the exception of course of those ones that they take as their pet,
For on the one hand they pamper and take us to a pet boutique,
And on the other, they slaughter us, and then gorge on us all week.”
“They also fatten us with food that many of their own
kind need,
And then when we are looking healthy, they slay us — betrayal indeed!
What gets to us is, they have their own food —
veggies, grains, nuts and fruit,
So why polish us
off? After all, they do have a substitute.”
“But oh no — it’s us that they want, for they’ve a taste for flesh and
blood,
Hence why we're destined for a bullet, and a quick violent club.
Or death by whatever other means they very cruelly enlist,
Like a nasty slash across the throat, or a sudden wrenching twist.”
“And then they talk about love with our bodies sitting on their plate,
And groan over all the violence — yet, over us salivate.
They deplore wanton killing, and yet, stab us with their knife and fork,
And the very next day, with a loaded gun, more poor creatures stalk.”
“Yes, they cut us into pieces, treating us as if we’re just
meat,
When we're living creatures also, and not food for humans to eat.
They’ve perverted their taste buds, and have justified killing as well,
All in order to devour us — when with them too — we’re meant to dwell.”
By Lance Landall
2. Yes, It's Time
It’s time that every thinking man and woman shunned the callous act of eating flesh, and all the reasons why,
For what reasons could possibly be valid, and what sound person such barbarity would want to justify?
And to think that such cruelty is carried out when there is other food available and far more healthy,
Which surely speaks of some kind of criminality, for a creature’s a creature and thus deserves mercy.
Oh, how folk love those things that harm them, and flesh food certainly does, for inside us such wasn’t meant to be,
It riddled with the unseen, and therefore is far from clean, regardless of its type or pampered history.
And we, clearly herbivores by intention, and why I’ve sought to mention, that eating flesh is plain folly,
And why those who’re eating such are dropping like flies or are suffering from some undiagnosed misery.
By Lance Landall
3. A Two-Faced Approach
Take some animals and call them pets, and people love them to bits, even pine over their sad departure,
But take some animals and call them livestock, and people happily eat them, think nothing of their slaughter.
Yes, though pets and livestock are one and the same — in other words, living creatures — they’re viewed quite differently,
Somewhat like only valuing certain humans — the others dispensable, though part of humanity.
Well, such thinking and behaviour isn’t for me, for there’s something about this scene that refuses to gel,
And rather, hollers hypocrisy and inconsistency, and lays the foundation for many an ill.
For choosing to eat one and kill another, has a terribly schizophrenic ring, (no slur intended),
And why in my mind, such a seemingly two-faced approach to the animal kingdom should now be ended.
By Lance Landall
4. Meat? No Thanks
I’m a vegetarian because I believe that being so is wise,
Given that meat consumption (over the years) has seen ill health rise.
And therefore, I thought that via this poem I would mention a few facts
That partly led to my decision, and that my decision backs.
To begin:
The dental structures of humanity possess certain features
That convey beyond a doubt that we are herbivorous creatures.
We’re unlike the carnivore who seeks out and then attacks their prey,
Tearing their victim to pieces with those sharp fangs that they display.
Human intestines are very long, thus giving time to extract
All those nutrients found in plant foods (which our hungry enzymes attack).
A carnivore's intestines are short, allowing quick expulsion
Of decomposing, putrefying flesh; which fills one with revulsion.
Flesh-eating animals far more hydrochloric acid secrete,
Which readily breaks down flesh, which is the regular food they eat.
Such acid we secrete far less — therefore, taking longer to digest
This flesh food never meant for us, and via which, trouble we ingest.
Any animal that is killed while it’s in a state of fear,
Will flood its system with adrenalin, which the meat-eater will share.
This strong stimulating agent, a person's blood pressure can raise,
And when our blood pressure's raised, such invariably with our health plays.
When one eats an animal, they’re also eating its urine too,
Which is trapped in the creature's kidneys, for kidneys such passes through.
You see, when an animal is killed, their waste is halted in its track,
Which, via the likes of kidney pies, one’s body will badly attack.
By the way, it isn't just those kidneys that harbour toxic waste,
For each animal’s body with urea is generously laced.
Urea, my dear friend, is the halfway stage from waste becoming urine;
A very toxic energy waste I wouldn’t want added to mine.
Meat owes much of its flavour to this toxic waste that's produced
By muscles that (when activated) cause such waste to take up roost.
Thus, urea, uric acid, and urine are poisons to avoid,
Otherwise, given time, friend, you will see your health being destroyed.
In the liver or the fatty tissue of those creatures that folk eat,
Are many harmful elements, far too many to here repeat.
Therefore, meat-eaters eat in minutes what’s collected over years,
Which is why (sooner or later) ill-health painfully appears.
So many diseases are transmitted from animal to man,
Which a lack of care and hygiene can epidemically fan.
BSE (also known as mad cow disease) and the swine and bird flu
Are warnings that all should be heeding lest worse scenarios brew.
Animals and animal products are clearly making folk sick,
Hence why a non-flesh (and vegan) diet is a better one to pick.
Why invite high blood pressure, arthritis, and atherosclerosis,
Or gallstones, heart disease, cancer or osteoporosis?
Yes, I’m a vegetarian, and have been so for many years,
Despite receiving some opposition, some pressure, or some jeers.
For I have seen so many people whose great love for meat has led
To many years of misery and their last days spent in a bed.
By Lance Landall
You might like to read my page "Why I'm A Vegetarian" where the dangers of a flesh
diet are covered.
5. Addicted?
I can’t help feeling that many are addicted to meat,
Hence why this injurious food they’re continuing to eat.
And why they’re sometimes hostile to those who’re saying, “Refrain,”
Embracing instead the meat industry’s misleading campaign.
The proof? When forced to go without their meat, they find it hard,
Like smokers who cigarettes and smoking try to discard.
They still hanker for their meat, and over its loss complain,
Which, in my eyes, reveals how hard they find it to refrain.
You see, they’ve acquired a taste for meat, which has taken hold,
A habit, perhaps addiction, unwilling to be controlled.
One that attempts to justify a need for meat — a lie,
'Cause meat isn’t needed — plus, it kisses good health goodbye.
Yes, old habits die hard, but as they say, “No pain, no gain,”
’Though in this case, breaking such a habit, frees one from pain,
For there’s evidence that shouts that flesh food isn’t healthy,
And that it’s flesh food’s worst properties that make it tasty.
Well, tasty to some, that is — who seem held within its grip,
And who via their strong resistance an addiction let slip.
Well, so it seems, for if it weren’t so, they’d hardly act as they do,
But rather, weigh the evidence, and then what’s best pursue.
By Lance Landall
6. Love Them, Eat Them?
Please don’t tell me you love creatures if you eat them, 'cause surely those who truly love creatures wouldn’t,
Let alone the fact that if you've absolutely no reason to, one could therefore say you shouldn’t.
And no, we don’t need meat in our diet, such simply a perpetuated myth, an advertising ploy,
'Cause not only has it been proven that we don’t need meat, but that one’s very health meat will destroy.
And likewise, please don’t speak of your love for humanity if you’re prepared to take somebody’s life,
Or, for that matter (when it comes down to your fellowman), indulge in violence, abuse or strife.
'Cause just like saying you love creatures, yet eat them, such surely amounts to an untruth, hypocrisy,
Not that I’m implying intentional wrong on your part, but that one can’t escape the irony.
And the reason why is, because you’re saying one thing and doing another, something that won't gel,
'Cause such behaviour's quite the opposite to what you’re saying, and is sure to shout that all’s not well.
What we say is either correct or it’s not, and if it’s not, then we have actually misled,
And this, knowingly or not, but what must kids think if they’re told to love creatures and yet such are fed?
Such is somewhat like trying to legitimise stealing from the rich to give to the poor, which we can’t,
'Cause stealing's wrong full stop, and why saying we’re not thieves whilst stealing will clearly show that honest we aren’t.
Hence that hole in the “I love creatures" statement when such is accompanied by the eating of them,
And an even bigger hole appears when at the same time, untruths and hypocrisy such condemn.
By Lance Landall
This poem was upgraded 11 February 2020.
7. Poles Apart
To take the life of something that has feelings, seems so wrong to me,
And creatures do have feelings, often acting affectionately.
They interact with each other, and with us, intelligently,
And clearly display an array of emotions, spontaneity.
To take a creature’s life just for the sake of appetite, pleasure,
Must surely, in some way, the content of one’s heart and mind measure.
After all, humans have the ability to reason, think things through,
And therefore, one would assume the more humane thing would choose to do.
It seems rather bizarre to me how humans dote over their pets,
Then shoot, skin, and gut other creatures; hook, spear, and catch fish in nets.
Surely in the minds of the young especially, such doesn’t gel,
And more so when we’re saying to them, “Don’t act violently, don’t kill.”
Given that other food sources are available; adequate too,
Why would anyone such a cruel and retrograde thing think to do?
It’s hardly enlightened behaviour — rather, such hardens the heart,
And as far as love, kindness and compassion go, it’s poles apart.
Yes, better the home where no flesh is eaten.
By Lance Landall
8. What's Good For The Goose...
When tigers kill a human, and enjoy their new found meal,
Humans react with horror, and disgust do not conceal.
And yet, they themselves, happily kill and devour creatures,
Which has me wondering what their children such teaches.
Why’s it abhorrent when creatures kill and devour us, yet,
Not so, when we kill and eat them — secondhand nutrients get?
After all, flesh is flesh, life is life, and killing’s unjust,
And surely a crime, given, flesh eating is not a must.
Acquiring a taste for dead creatures, who suffer from ill health too,
Seems not just barbarous, but desire that has gone askew.
For who would risk devouring what might injure or destroy,
And aid and abet those factories that killers employ?
Aren’t we acting like tigers, killing and eating flesh food,
And aren’t we more the villains, when such food we could exclude?
Surely it’s no less abhorrent tigers dining on us,
Yet, when they do — knowing no better — listen to all the fuss!
By Lance Landall