Large cattle owners are familiar with the tradition of branding your animals in order to prevent a mix up in a nearby heard or even people stealing your livestock. This has existed for many years and only gains a minimal amount of attention. Branding is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt and Roman culture then after moving up to Spain and then advancing throughout the world.
Branding is the act of burning a logo or symbol associated with the family or farm usually both. The brand is forged out of iron and heated up. In modern technology electric rods can be used instead of having to wait for the metal to get hot enough to scar the animal with the logo. Instead of using extreme heat you can even freeze brand which requires the use of extreme coolants like dry ice or liquid nitrogen. For freeze brands, the metal is made up of copper or brass in order to remove heat from the branding location at a rapid pace. Some farmers have given up this practice and moved on to ear tags or other more humanly viewed practices like tattooing. But the original practice of branding comes at a cheaper cost and lasts for longer periods of time.
Branding does not hold the same extreme necessity that it used to in post-modern society. The current use of branding or tagging is to keep track of livestock numbers as well as document the causalities of the animals before slaughter. If the death is even documented. Death due to living conditions or treatments before slaughter are common within the farming industry and come as no shock to those working within this business.
Animal rights activist apart of the group 269life have spoken out worldwide and some have even taken the extreme step to subjugate themselves to the pain of branding. The comfort of animals who are viewed as livestock and nothing more than our next meal seems to be pushed out of the forefront of our minds as we so easily forget. Their mission is to advocate the exploitation of animals and "bring the pain and horror other animals face each and every day out of the suppressed darkness and into the realm of everyday life."
Our efforts should be to stop treating the animals like products and instead view them as what they are: living creatures that deserve to be treated with compassion rather than violence and hate. In order for us to expect to live in a world that isn't filled with hate, shouldn't we try to limit the amount of negative emotions that we can actually control?
I personally have held conversations with individuals who state that they love animals and can never do harm to one, but still go order that double bacon cheeseburger for lunch. When they are placed with a controversial video that shows the behind the scenes to that meal they instantly turn their gaze to something else and try to talk themselves out of feeling guilty. One person had told me that we only do what makes us feel good about ourselves, but I cannot see how convincing yourself that something that causes a living creature pain can be anything good in any light you put it in.
Yet branding and slaughter both have to be done by hand so maybe it just takes a special kind of person to be able to do that without feeling guilty or not being able to hold down their own lunch. Whether it be that cheeseburger or anything causing fewer casualties.
It'll be interesting to see how long the practice of branding will remain in our society as well to see the result of the many animal rights activists efforts. Is the value of tradition more important than the reduction of pain inflicted on these animals?
