Animal cruelty - are we hypocrites?

There is no excuse for animal cruelty. Animal cruelty directed at cats, dogs, donkeys and other family pets always produces an outrage from concerned community, and rightly so! A kitten kicked around a railway station, a kitten hung from a Gold Coast fence with fishing line, dogs mistreated, donkeys neglected, kangaroo joeys left to die when their mothers are shot for meat - these incidents screen on the nightly news while we are eating our evening meal, and we are all sickened. If we weren't sickened by these cruel acts, there would be something amiss with our human makeup.

But what's on our plate for our evening meal? A tender, healthy chicken breast? Or chicken nuggets for the kids? Or a crispy chicken schnitzel burger from the local takeaway?

We all know how inhumanely Australian chicken products are grown - we live in an age where information is freely available. Chicken meat comes from cruel factory farms. Broiler chickens can legally be confined to a density that gives each bird less space than a single A4 sheet of paper. Just imagine the outroar if a pet owner was discovered keeping pets in such an unacceptable manner!

Chickens are bred to grow three times faster than nature intended - the birds are slaughtered at just six weeks of age, producing the large, plump breasts we purchase at the supermarket deli or butcher shop. So heavy is their weight, that their immature skeleton often gives way and the bird dies where it falls unable to drink or eat. And it is also reported that millions of these unnaturally heavy birds die of heart failure.

We humans are removed from the actual acts of cruelty, but we actively contribute, by purchasing the products. This, however, rarely occurs to us as we sit in front of the television and condemn those who have been discovered treating pets and domestic animals cruelly.

Eggs - we all know that Australian mass produced eggs come from thoroughly disgusting places: battery hens spend their laying life in a cage crammed with up to four other birds; each hen stands on a space smaller than an A4 sheet of paper; this space is a bare cage with thin sloping wire underfoot. Tiered rows and rows of these cages are housed in huge artificially lit sheds, with no fresh air and no sunlight.

Fortunately, we now have the opportunity to purchase more ethically produced eggs and chicken meat. But when we buy a packet of biscuits, or piece of cake with our coffee, or countless other products on the market, we are eating battery farmed eggs, and thus, contributing to the cruel treatment of the hens.

Again, we all know this, yet we separate one act of animal cruelty from another, choosing to ignore our part in everyday animal cruelty, while condemning someone else.

And pork! The horrific conditions in which Australian pork is bred is periodically reported by animal activists to remind consumers. Pregnant sows are housed in individual metal stalls with concrete floors that are barely bigger than the body of the animal. The pig is unable to even turn around. She has to feed her young in this condition, with no chance to nurture and bond with her young. Sows are continually impregnated until their bodies can no longer physically cope.

What's on our plate at dinner time? A delicious grilled pork loin chop? A luscious leg of ham for our Christmas gathering? Eggs and bacon for Sunday brunch?

We'll tuck into our beautiful meal without a thought for our part in the unimaginable daily animal cruelty of producing these food items. And yet, we will be sickened and struck with disbelief at hearing of or seeing pets etc subjected to cruelty. Yes, we are hypocrites.