Speaking Up For The Animals In The Factory Farms

Hi, I’m Kim Pin, a friend of Soi Chee’s. I believe I’ve caught a glimpse of you at the charity concert on 22/4. Soi Chee has been very enthusiastically promoting the animalcare t-shirts and recently, your books.

I teach piano at her place and she showed me your books. The first one I picked up was “do we have a choice?”. It was easy to read and i was interested because Soi Chee and I made a pact last year to go vegetarian every Friday. We wanted to do it together because we’d be able to encourage and keep tabs on each other as well! My reason was to minimize my carbon footprint and also for health reasons. As for Soi Chee, it was to reduce the killing of animals. For what it’s worth, we also reduced the intake of meat in our daily diet.

I was particularly struck by the ‘Old McDonald’s Farm’ chapter. I knew the conditions in farms and slaughter houses were bad, but didn’t know the details. I read on in spite of the ‘warning’ at the beginning of the chapter. I wanted to go through with it because i wanted to face the facts.

I was also touched by your anecdotes. I’ll try to persuade my daughter to read your book. She loves animals but i feel her so-called ‘love’ is only partial…she thinks of meat as food, and not as coming from animals! But she has the notion that animals should be treated right because they can’t speak for themselves nor stand up for their rights. Well, I think that’s a step in the right direction, ya?

However, after all said and done, I doubt if i’ll ever become a full-fledged vegetarian. I certainly lack the discipline! But, your book definitely convinced me to try harder to further cut down meat, and I want you to know that.

I will continue to read all your other books and maybe give you some feedback, if you like.

Soi Chee has told me so much about you, it has certainly piqued my interest in you!

Thank you for so generously sharing your books with us.

Regards,

Thean Kim Pin

Well, isn’t that nice? Regarding the chapter “Old MacDonald’s Farm”, it has actually been severely watered down because I was mindful of the fact that many children read my books. What I presented is a fraction of the cruelty that goes in in factory farms – a fraction of the physical suffering, a fraction of the emotional suffering. In my talks, depending again on the audience, the slides are far more graphic and closer to the truth.

All said, there are still many, many people who are not aware of the cruelty that goes on in the farms. Some do not know; some do not want to know because they know they would be quite uncomfortable after knowing. For the latter, it’s a case of “Ignorance is Bliss”, but I’d say ignorance is simply avoidance of the truth and remaining in ignorance does not augur well for one’s intellectual or spiritual development.

One of the proofreaders was aghast after reading this chapter and she was the one who suggested that I place a “warning” at the beginning so as not to frighten the readers. But she also immediately decided to become a pescetarian (eating only fish and no other meat) after reading that chapter!

It’s Saturday today. It’s our “Speak Up” day.

What say you if today, we speak up for the animals in the factory farms to reduce their suffering?

Speak up and ACT by eating less meat today.

Of course we do!

Thank you.