Submitted by Justina Miller

Inver Grove Heights

Perhaps you’ve seen a group of people outside the southwest corner of the Quality Pork Processor facility holding signs expressing compassion toward farmed animals. As one of those people, I’m writing to you on behalf of our Minnesota chapter of The Save Movement. My goal is to communicate the intention of our group when we stand outside of QPP. We’ve had many positive interactions with the community during our events, and I want to take the opportunity to thank you for your support and share further our purpose for being there.

The Save Movement is comprised of groups around the world who bear witness to pigs, cows, chickens and other farmed animals en route to slaughter. Our goal is to raise awareness about the plight of farmed animals and provide actionable information in the interest of the farmed animals themselves, our health and the environment. Today there are over 660 Save Movement groups in Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Ireland, Australia, continental Europe, Hong Kong, South Asia, East Asia, South Africa, Mexico and Central/South America.

Three years ago, just before my 30th birthday, I had no clue what the experience of farmed animals for my meat-forward diet was like. In fact, I would make fun of vegans and vegetarians for their dietary choices because, with my limited information, and not caring to ask them why, I felt they were ridiculous. But when I stumbled across the Yulin Dog festival on social media and saw graphic footage of dogs being slaughtered for the Chinese dog meat tradition, I was horrified. As a dog-owner, knowing my dog’s capability of love, joy, fear and pain, I quickly recognized that the treatment I witnessed of innocent, emotionally-capable animals was wrong. There was nothing I could do to help these animals being tortured across the globe, but it made me wonder about the treatment of the animals I myself was eating. After researching standard farming practices, I eliminated my support of animal products in my diet because I realized that if I wouldn’t pay someone to abuse a dog, why would I pay someone to abuse another animal just because they were a different species? No matter how deftly the industry has reduced farmed animals to unseen objects, they suffer acutely in ways that most people are unable to bear to watch. We vote with our dollars, and I didn’t want my vote to support unnecessary cruelty toward animals, who I had always claimed to love.

Since eliminating animal products from my diet, I have seen dramatic improvements to my health. I have learned about the effects of animal agriculture on our health, our communities, farm and slaughterhouse workers, our planet, and in greater specificity, on the animals themselves. I have met many people who selflessly give their time advocating for the forgotten victims of animal agribusiness. I have hope because I understand that there are solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems: global hunger, chronic disease, climate change, and species extinction, to name a few. Repairing our broken food system benefits us all, but we can’t do this unless we do it together. Turning our backs on the animals not only harms them, it harms us all.

There will always be money and jobs in food production, because we will always need to eat. Someday, whether by human choice or scarcity, our food system will move toward the production of foods that benefit, rather than damage, human health and the environment. Thank you truly for supporting our effort to create a sustainable, healthy, and compassionate future.

For more information, please visit thesavemovement.org.