hi I’m Carla d’ambrosi and today I’m
going to be talking about moving past me
Paul McCartney once said if
slaughterhouses were made of glass
everyone would be vegetarian I took the
courage to look through that glass and
now I do not eat meat the word
vegetarian means a person who does not
eat meat fish and sometimes other animal
products especially for moral religious
or health reasons I myself have been a
vegetarian for almost a year now I
remember one day I was sitting on the
couch going through an Instagram account
called animal revenge I came across a
video of a cow being flipped upside down
I can still remember the way the cow
screamed in pain and terror I have never
seen anything so horrible the cow is
just screeching with terror that was
when I swore I would never touch another
piece of meat again and to this day I
have kept that promise not only to
myself but to those poor innocent
animals who are screaming in pain as we
speak
I’ve grown up in a house where eating me
isn’t something we did very often my mom
has been a vegetarian since she was 16
vegetarianism has always been an option
in her house but was never forced upon
us being exposed to this lifestyle in a
way shaped the person I am today
when I was a little girl I know it
someday become a vegetarian in the
future after watching the video that day
I began to search for the truth about
what I ate I was so shocked to see what
truly happens behind the walls of that
slaughterhouse to see to realize that
these animals are put through so much
pain and terror to end our to end their
life is truly shocking animals arrive at
the slaughterhouse after being
transported for hours and hours and
sometimes days in the most unhygenic
very cramped and inhumane conditions
they’ve had nothing to eat or drink for
over 24 hours
they’re crammed in the trucks in the
cold in the heat separated from their
young they don’t understand what’s going
on when the truck finally stops they
think maybe it’s for something they eat
or drink
they’re wrong they’re taken into a
building they’d never seen before
as I’m familiar sounds of and
mouths it has the smell of death it
stinks of blood animals bred for me to
the exact same pain and fear as our own
pets a cow will pay the chicken to know
differently than your own pet you dog
your cat your bird your hamster they all
feel the same inside the slaughterhouse
there’s a horrific noise it makes the
panic grow stronger the animals are
forced into the building by someone
holding a stick that gives them electric
boats those who refuse to enter our hate
cake shoved and dragged in often
resulting in injury they watch they
smell they feel as one by one they’re
shot with a bolt gun this does not kill
them it only stuns them within seconds
the poor animal is on the floor
unconscious not every animals will abuse
this one though the next one goes up the
stun gun fires a boat to its head this
causes the poor animal extreme pain but
it’s not over yet
it’s hoisted up and hung upside down
while it gets its throat cut during all
this it’s conscious around 40% of all
slaughterhouse animals are not stunned
effectively meaning they are conscious
throughout the whole process there are
pigs that are put into tanks food with
steaming hot water and burn to life is
this really how we want to get our meat
because this is a true story behind how
hamburgers or chicken nuggets or pork
chops end up on your table but besides
the inhumane treatment of animals there
are other reasons to go vegetarian did
you know to reduce with one pound of
meat it takes between 2,500 and 5,000
gallons of water in exchange to produce
one pound of lettuce it takes 15 gallons
of water to produce one pound of chicken
it takes a hundred and fifteen gallons
going to produce one pound of tomatoes
it takes twenty to balance but what does
this have to do with anything all this
ties into your carbon footprint there
are seven hundred and eighty three
million people in this world who do not
have water with all the water that goes
to the livestock industry we could end
thirst around the world but this
industry is not only affecting our water
resource the livestock industry is
responsible
eighteen percent of all human caused
greenhouse gases by eating meat you’re
causing more environmental damage than
you’re aware of beef produces 11 times
more greenhouse gases than potatoes rice
and wheat combined one of the main
causes of deforestation in the Amazon
rainforest is cattle farming people are
cutting down trees in our most precious
rainforest just to make them for our
cattle by cutting down and avoiding
excess meat consumption you can save
over six thousand gallons of water and
reduce your carbon footprint but cutting
meat out of your diet also has its
health benefits a study done by the
British Journal of cancer of over 35
thousand women shows that women who ate
the most red meat were at higher risk
for cancer than the ones who didn’t eat
as much red meat another study shows
that people who weighed around 250 grams
of red meat processed meat or poultry in
more way over five years than the ones
who didn’t eat as much eating Ram meat
also increases your chances of getting
heart disease and hardening of the
arteries by cutting meat out of your
diet you reduce your chances of getting
kidney stones and lower your cholesterol
level cutting meat out of your diet is
hard I must admit
our society caters to me eaters and
especially in Argentina where me is a
huge part of their culture it’s not
something you can do all at once and it
takes time to cut meat out of your diet
Foley often when I go to parties I can’t
eat anything because the typical party
food is hamburgers and hot dogs and I
often have to take time off the pizzas
it’s not something you can do all at
once and it takes time to cut meat out
of your diet Foley being a vegetarian
you save around thirty land animals a
year if you multiply that by let’s say
200 people that’s really six thousand
animals saved
where’s seven billion people on this
planet and yet every year 56 billion
farm animals are killed for our tables
twelve billion of those animals are
wasted and go to garbage that’s an
extraordinary amount of living creatures
born we wasted an incredible amount of
living creatures who did not get to live
their natural lifespan an incredible
amount of living creatures whose
suffering and death was completely
unjustified and
Cerie so next time you order steak pork
chops or chicken
please stop a minute to think about
what’s lying there on your plate please
think about how it got onto your plate
thank you
[Applause] [Music]