Ronen Bar (vegan): Bringing Animal Suffering to Light, Part 1 of 3

In 1998, the UK animal rights organization Uncaged, now known as the Centre for Animals and Social Justice, a Shining World Compassion Award laureate, designated December 10 as International Animal Rights Day. This date corresponds with the annual celebration of Human Rights Day, thus reminding society that animals also deserve freedom, justice, and respect just like humans. In honor of this important upcoming occasion, this three-part show features an interview with the brave Israeli journalist and vegan animal advocate Ronen Bar and shares the story of his mission to highlight the immense suffering endured by animals killed for food. “I became vegan, I think 14 years ago approximately. And it was out of compassion for the animals. I started reading and hearing what's happening to animals on factory farms. And first, I didn't believe it's possible. I went to see with my own eyes whether the harsh depictions of this reality on websites of animal rights organizations were true. And unfortunately, I realized that it's even worse than what you can see on websites when you see it with your own eyes, when you feel it, when you smell it, when you see it. I went vegan.” “I'll just give one example, the Australian cattle industry that people thought, and unfortunately some still think, is very humane and they (cattle) live in open spaces in the vast country of Australia. But we went undercover there and showed that the reality is a very, very cruel industry. Just to give one example, they de-horn the cattle with no painkillers and some of the baby calves die because their mother gets sent to the abattoir. There is no one to take care of the calf, no one to feed it. So we watched a few calves just starve to death over a few days. That was exposing the Australian cattle industry.” “I saw this when I worked at the biggest abattoir in Israel. You don't have to do anything for the animals to suffer. Just being there with unfamiliar smells, other cows that they don't know taken by a truck to a place which is unfamiliar. They feel something bad is going to happen and they bellow, they scream. You don't have to do anything for that. So this systematic cruelty is about the genetics of the animals. It's about the fear of being dragged to an unfamiliar space. I think that's the hardest thing and that's the most cruel thing about the industry.”