AGAINST FACTORY FARMING
Lynda Stoner Interviewed By Claudette Vaughan

Lynda Stoner is a veteran of the modern day animal rights movement. Her compassion for factory farm animals is exceptional. She has been instrumental in being part of actions for the downtrodden animals. In her modeling career she refused the blood money to promote fur and refused work in TV that conflicted with her strict cruelty-free ethic. She is very well known and very well liked in the animal liberation movement in Australia. Never one to miss an opportunity to speak up for the animals, here’s Lynda’s interview with the Abolitionist.

Abolitionist: The animals, our fellow earthlings, share a common destiny with us on this imperiled planet. This is our religious issue so would you please take the opportunity to share with us your views on animals and why you have worked so hard for them over the years?

Lynda Stoner: I am optimistic about the future of our planet. I am also optimistic about humanity's growing awareness of treating other animals with respect and compassion. I think there have been quantum leaps in consciousness in a relatively short time and that will only continue to increase. Awareness of the damage being done to our planet is also growing because of the internet and films addressing those issues, even the current children's film "Happy Feet" has an environmental message. I know this will escalate. I was brought up with chickens and a cat and dogs and it was an anathema to consider they may be harmed in any way. They did their thing and I did mine and the times we interacted were joyful. Animals are so vulnerable to human ignorance and cruelty. They suffer in so many ways for humans and all of it needlessly. There is something about this movement that grabbed my non-religious soul. It will always be a powerful force that dictates most of my life choices. As this is the religious question it may be relevant (or not) to mention that I am spiritual but I do not adhere to any organised religion.

I believe in a Universal force. This though is not why the animal rights movement is my passion. We all make choices and the bottom line should be not knowingly contributing to harming anyone or anything. That includes animals, people and the planet.

Abolitionist: How did humans get eating animal flesh so very wrong and how could normally logical and people of goodwill turn non-human animals into mere milk and meat machines?

Lynda Stoner: Humans evolved eating a variety of substances. However whatever Neanderthal ate should not reflect what we as "evolved" animals now eat. During the second world war factory farming of animals began as a means of getting the most food from animals with the least possible input of human labour. From the 1940s until now the progression of squeezing as much from animals for human use has escalated to the point where farm animals are seen by many as machines. They are genetically altered, mutilated and taken to the edge of exhaustion and suffering. Most of this has been allowed to occur because prior to the internet and the growing animal rights movement the majority of people were simply unaware of the truth behind their food stuffs. All factory farming is kept as far removed from the consumer as possible. It is no surprise that farmers do not want the public to see the abject suffering behind food choices.

Furthermore meat is presented to consumers in the most sterilized and impersonal way possible. Even the terminology is obscure and misleading, words used to obfuscate -not pig meat but 'bacon' and 'pork'; not cow meat but 'steak', 'chops' and 'mince'.

Abolitionist: Is animal rights in your view a return to responsibility?

LS: Animal rights is a growing awareness. People are now better informed and I believe predominately uncomfortable with directly contributing to suffering. Of-course as with everything there are exceptions to a rule.

Abolitionist: With modern intensive farming practices wroughting havoc with the land, with animals and with poisoning the food chain we humans reap what they sow and what will that be do you think?

LS: I believe we are already living with the consequences of having exploited animals and the planet with what we thought was impunity. Global warming has been contributed to in a large way by greenhouse gas pollution - one of the largest factors of that has been the production of meat. The production of dairy products and meat also causes land and water degradation and pollution (land and airborne). According to a new report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent (18%) than transport. Manure from livestock Generates 65% of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming (23 times as warming as CO2) produced by the digestive system of ruminants and 64% of ammonia which contributes significantly to acid rain.

It is staggering to learn that livestock now uses 30% of all available land surface on this planet.

Abolitionist: Is it necessary to debate something as undeniable as Do animals have a consciousness? to all but those with vested interests in shutting down the modern animal rights movement?

LS: I believe it is important to keep dialogue going. To you and I and those who have changed their lifestyles based on developed education and awareness not eating dairy and meat are the only sane and compassionate choices. However I was not born into a vegan/vegetarian family. It took reading Peter Singer's "Animal Liberation" to change my life in accordance with compassion I had for animals. I had previously not been aware of the truth behind my diet. For me it took that one book. For other people it may require additional reading or watching a DVD or having discussions with vegans...each of us comes to this place at our own evolution. I believe people should be encouraged into this movement and not alienated by hostility and judgement. It would serve us to recall that the majority of people in this movement took some years to get here.

Abolitionist: How and why did you become a vegan, Lynda?

LS: I have been a vegetarian for 3 decades. I was influenced to a vegan lifestyle by being around vegans in Animal Liberation. What tipped me over was having to do a paper on the dairy industry. I discovered that my deluded images (selective education) of dairy cows contentedly roaming around hillsides with their babies could not be further from the truth.

What I learned is that dairy cattle suffer more than any other animal used for human food production.

In a healthy environment cattle can live in excess of 25 years. A dairy cow is spent at 5 years of age. After an overwhelming toll of pregnancy and hyperlactation she is then slaughtered. The modern dairy cow has become a breeding and milking machine. Mastitis, lameness and respiratory problems are only a few of the conditions cows suffer. Added to which she has to endure the constant grief of giving birth to her babies and having them taken away at just a few days old. The calves themselves suffer from being taken away from their mothers and sent to slaughter for "veal" - another comfortable term that keeps consumers at a distance from the reality that they are eating baby animals. Calves of-course are also bred up to continue the awful cycle of the dairy cow.

An unexpected and not looked for benefit of being vegan is that I am far stronger and healthier than I was when I ate eggs and dairy products.

Also it is a bizarre concept that we are the only animal on the planet that suckles from another species when we have been weaned.

Abolitionist: Why is milk murder and how did you eliminate dairy from your diet?

LS: I eliminated dairy from my diet by first drinking soy instead of cow milk. I had stopped eating eggs a couple of years prior to that. There are soy/rice/etc substitutes for all dairy products. Some are easy to enjoy and others took a little longer for my system to appreciate.i.e. soy yoghurt - now I thoroughly enjoy it! I went from being a huge cheese eater to my stomach now recoiling even from the smell of cooking cheese.

Abolitionist: Apart from factory farming one of the greatest sources of suffering inflicted on farmed animals today takes place during transportation to the slaughterhouse. Can you talk about that please?

LS: Transportation of animals already in a perilous state is always going to be cruel. Battery hens for example have brittle bones caused by confinement and over-production of eggs - by the time they go to slaughter around 56% of them have untreated bone breakages and fractures.

Getting the hens out of cages as quickly as possible is of-course going to cause terrible damage, they are hung upside down and moved to crates where they are shoved in and loaded onto trucks. Broiler (meat) chickens are baby birds already suffering diseases of old age. They have been genetically selected for quick growth and the toll on their bodies includes leg abnormalities (90% of birds have an abnormalities in their gait), heart attacks and respiratory disease. Of over 300 million broilers slaughtered 600,000 will be dead on arrival at the slaughter yard. 9 million will have broken bones on arrival and 13 million will have dislocated hips. Other traumatic injuries include ruptured lives and crushed heads. A high percentage of the birds die from heart failure from the stress of being caught, loaded and transported. Similar for turkeys.

Sudden Death is a high cause of mortality as with broilers. Turkeys suffer genetically-induced leg weakness leading to hock burns and ulcerated feet. Turkeys are large birds easily frightened so when catchers move into grab them leg injuries occur and again when they are shoved into crates and transported to slaughter where their heavy bodies (some weighing as much as a 9 year old child) are hung by their injured legs. All animals that are rounded up for transportation to slaughter or for overseas markets will suffer stress and fear as a minimum consequence.

Abolitionist: "Free range" animals also want to live. Can you talk about your views on "free range" and "organic" animals please?

LS: Yes, free-range animals want to live. There is no getting away from the fact that at the end of their lives - which are infinitely better than their factory farmed peers, the end result is the abattoir.

Abolitionist: What do you say to those who say they can't go without meat?

LS: To those who say they can't do without meat I respond that they are simply choosing to eat meat. Empirical evidence shows that vegans and vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters. Latest findings even show that children who choose not to eat meat end up smarter than their peers by the time they reach adulthood. To those who say they can't do without meat I would ask them to reconsider and help alleviate terrible suffering of animals, help rescue the planet and in so doing their own health will benefit. Great reasons for giving up meat. And understand that once you have there will come a time when even the smell of it will make you want to gag.