Recently, Ty Eppsteiner got a chance to sit down with Shane Straight, a local vegan and animal rights activist.TY: How long have you been a vegan?

SHANE: About two years.

TY: What made you decide to adopt this lifestyle?

SHANE: I was raised vegetarian. All my life I thought that being vegetarian was enough. But, as I gradually learned the pain and suffering that I was actively contributing to by eating eggs and dairy, I realized that I couldn’t wake up every morning and look at myself in the mirror without changing my dietary habits.

TY: Most people in this nation look at themselves in the mirror and have no problem eating meat. What made you see something they haven’t? Could our mainstream population which includes extremely learned people who have been alive much longer than you, be wrong?

SHANE: It is not a matter of being wrong, it is a matter of knowing. The meat that people buy in the supermarket has been so far removed from the actual process of killing that most don’t even question how the meat got to their plates. Beef comes in shiny cellophane wrapping from the clean, well-lighted Harris Teeter, miles and miles away from the slaughterhouse.

The simple fact is that most people have no idea how the animals they’re eating for dinner were raised and killed. I have seen cows and pigs screaming as they’re skinned and boiled alive. And those weren’t isolated incidents, just standard operational procedure.

Most animals on factory farms are kept in pens so small that they can’t even turn around. These animals never see the light of day, except on the way to the slaughterhouse. I can’t support that. Most people have read Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and were horrified. America believes that things have changed. They haven’t.

TY: Yes, there are horrible accidents that happen on factory farms. This can’t be denied. But there are regulations. The USDA has set up a watchdog system to make sure these incidents don’t go untended. There is already a system in place to deal with these issues. Can’t we just let the USDA do its job?

SHANE: First of all, I disagree with the term “accidents.” What I have described are no accidents, but rather the logical outcome of the structure of factory farms. Factory farms are meant to turn animals into meat as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Desire for profit completely overshadows any concerns for animals’ welfare.

Animals are seen as part of a business equation, as a product, a commodity, not as living, breathing beings who are fully capable of feeling fear and pain.

TY: Can you give me an example?

SHANE: In the book “Slaughterhouse,” Ken Burdette, a beef-kill knocker at Morell Slaughterhouse in Florida admits that “25-30% of the cattle strung up to be stuck and bled are fully conscious. There is supposed to be a man who shocks the cow before it is stuck to bleed out. The problem is that a high enough shock to conclusively knock out the cow may also spoil the meat. Due to this, the foreman makes the machines give a lower voltage that is ineffective.

25-30% of the cows are dying a slow death hung up by one leg. They try to kick and buck to get away. Due to the danger this poses, workers sometimes chop off half the cow’s leg to reduce its reach. The cows are alive this whole time dying in tremendous pain.”

TY: Doesn’t the USDA enforce against this?

SHANE: Hardly — as far as oversight, federal law dictates that any practice, no matter how cruel or inhumane, is justified if it is considered “standard agricultural procedure.” This lets the factory-farming industry define their own standards with no regard for the animals’ welfare.

TY: This conversation has covered your stance on the meat industry. How do you rationalize your stance against eggs and dairy products?

SHANE: Egg-laying hens and dairy cows actually suffer more than animals raised for meat. In the U.S., virtually all hens are raised on factory farms. At birth they’re debeaked with hot knives. Male chicks are of no use to egg-laying hatcheries. So they’re suffocated in plastic bags, crushed, or gassed.

Later, the “lucky” female chickens are crowded into cages so small that they can’t even move. Because of this, a lot of times the skin on their feet grows around the cage wires. When they can’t lay eggs any longer they’re shipped off to be killed. But their meat is so sickly and damaged that it can only be used in products like chicken-pot pies or soups.

Dairy cows suffer a similar fate. They’re fed growth hormones and kept constantly pregnant so they’re capable of producing milk. Mothers’ calves are taken away at birth.

Many male dairy calves are shipped away to become veal calves. The calves are confined in darkness. They are locked in individual stalls chained by their necks because movement encourages muscle growth and ruins the tenderness of their meat.

The calves are fed an iron- deficient diet to induce anemia. That’s why veal has a pinkish- white color. The dairy cows themselves are milked by machines until their production declines. Then they too are shipped off to the slaughterhouse. In the end, all are killed.

TY: But these conclusions can lead to other paths than veganism. Eating meat is a part of our culture’s diet. Your views thus far seem to agree that the slaughtering of animals can continue if regulations get better. Why are you fighting for total annihilation of a meat, dairy, and egg-based diet instead of better regulations?

SHANE: My personal view is that every animal (humans included) is a sentient being that has been endowed with his or her own life force. Each one of us has been affected and harmed by forces outside our control. If it were up to you, you would choose not to be harmed or suffer or killed. Animals are no different. They would choose the same if they could speak for themselves.