Welcome to Small Bite Sound Bites, a midweek segment of food for thought podcast where I,

your host, Colleen Patrick-Gudrow, share short, succinct, thoughtful responses to typical

questions, myths, and misconceptions related to plant-based eating, veganism, and animal

protection.

You can support this podcast today by going to joyfulvegan.com slash donate.

This is something I'm sure you've heard before that eating animals is a natural part

of the food chain, other animals do it and we can and should be able to as well.

When we justify our consumption of animals by saying it's a natural part of the food chain,

we are ignoring the fact that animal agriculture is not close to anything that happens in nature.

It is actually the opposite of what's natural.

We artificially breed animals in order to kill them, which is macabre enough, and we kill

them long before their natural lifespan is up.

So just as an example, dairy cows endure a constant cycle of pregnancy, loss, and forced

lactation until their bodies are so worn out and depleted of calcium that they're sent

to slaughter at four or five years young.

Beef cattle reach slaughter age in the industry by 24 months young, so just two years.

Cattle, whether they're dairy cows or beef cattle, the species can live 20 years or more.

So they are killed in this artificial system years before their quote-unquote natural

lifespan would be up male calves born to dairy cows.

They don't have a purpose in an industry that exploits the female reproductive system,

so they're killed at any time between one day young and 24 weeks young to be sold as

veal.

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