Kudos to the BDN for putting the slaughter story on the front page (Jan. 25). I hope awareness of this barbaric inhumane behavior stops by educating the public. I know people who love to pretend meat is magically manufactured like Ring Dings instead of coming from live animals that have to be murdered. They also pretend meat is necessary when most of the world is vegetarian.

I haven’t eaten meat for 21 years for two reasons: conscience and compassion. Isn’t it funny how many pretty words slaughterers use? They like to call it processing and dressing. How about cleansing?

I think Dateline ought to run a show on the “process” of a live frightened animal from beginning to the bitter end of where it ends up on the carnivore’s fork. Let’s not stop there. Let’s see all the diseases people get from years of eating dead carcasses that were fed hay laced with pesticide and pumped full of growth hormones.

George Bernard Shaw said it best when he said: “While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?”

I hope we see more compassion arise as a result of this great article in the Bangor Daily News.

Kelley Hashey

Bangor