Happy Cattle?

There is a sign off of I-35 I see every time I pass between Dallas and Austin. It reads "Robertson's Real Beef Jerky" in bright white letters against a deep red background. Under the billboard sits an expansive field -- filled with cattle. A funny irony I thought at first glace of the sign -- surely Robertson's wouldn't have wanted to show consumers literally the cows that were going to be slaughtered to make this so-called "real beef jerky." But the sign has sat in that exact spot for three semesters now -- over a year and a half. It is no mistake. Now realizing the deliberate choice Robertson's made, I turn my head away when I pass the sign. It only seems a morbid and offensive tactic to sell meat.

Robertson's Real Beef Jerky...Does this image make it any more appealing?


But Robertson's is not the only company that seeks to present an "authentic" version of the animals they slaughter as an advertisement ploy for their animal products. Other companies often present images of animals in open fields, calmly chewing grass or roaming along. Certainly, if they showed the cages or slaughterhouses, we would be far less inclined to consume their products.



In "Am I Blue?" the author makes note that these animals become "for us merely 'images' of what they once so beautifully expressed. And we are used to drinking milk from containers showing 'contented' cows, whose real lives we weant to hear nothing about, eating eggs and drumsticks from 'happy' hens, and munching hamburgers advertised by bulls of integrity who seem to command their fate'(8). These "images" are significant because they demonstrate how we justify the often cruel decision to eat meat. Moreover, these images have become necessary because the truth is, if we had to slaughter our own meat, we might all just turn vegetarian.
One advertisement campaign, in particular, comes to mind. The tagline goes something like this: "Great cheese comes from happy cows and happy cows come from California." The video below depicts so-called "happy cows" singing in an expansive, green field.




The ridiculousness of this video is hard to deny. Here we are presented with an "image" of the life of a "happy" cow so we can feel better about eating them. The commercial is perhaps even more morbid than the Robertson's billboard sign because it presents an image of a cow's life that is not even remotely existent. Certainly, California's cows are not singing in free roaming fields -- they are being slaughtered in factories. It is a completely dimented vision of what a cow feels, where it lives, and how it comes to be slaughtered and then placed on shelves in grocery stores.
So what do we lose by transforming these animals from living beings to mere "images" of what they once were. This question becomes one of the central topics in Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As the line between animal and machine becomes increasingly thin, Milt notes the one distinction that remains between the two: "Living animals do die; that's one of the risks in owning them. We're just not used to it because we see all the fakes"(78). Whether it be a pet or the very cattle that we eat, humans seem extremely reluctant to face the death of animals. It seems strange to say that it is because of compassion for animals that we create campaigns that only present "images" and not facts. But if we did not feel compassion for animals, there would be no place for advertisements like Robertson's or California Cheese's.



If everyone saw the images of animal's real environments, the way they are actually treated, or the way in which they are brutally and inhumanely slaughtered, the compassionate certainly would not be inclined to buy beef jerky, cheese, or any other animal product.






Where these "happy" cattle end up -- slaughterhouses


But these are images we will never be shown by media. We're not used to seeing the images of animals dying because all we see are the "fakes" -- animals that not only look artificial, but talk and act like humans.

So here we have all these companies advertising "real beef jerky" and "real California cheese" with no reference to the real lives of animals. But the truth is, it is ultimately our decision whether to believe these images or look beyond what is presented to us. Finally, it is our choice to stop eating meat and decide to give these animals the "happy" lives we so wish they had.