An inflatable barn lined with cages sat on Cal State Long Beach’s upper quad yesterday, filled not with cows, horses or donkeys, but instead with a disturbing presentation.
Inside the red tent, a graphic video of animal cruelty from meat processing plants played on a loop.
“[The piglets] were all in one big pen, being stabbed with spears,” Marissa McIntyre, a communication studies major, said. “The screams of terror were really hard to hear.”
Peta2, a youth division of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), hosted the “Glass Walls” tour, which travels to campuses across the country and advocates for animal rights, encouraging young people to pursue vegetarian and vegan lifestyles.
Peta2’s staff and volunteers encouraged students to walk through the tent from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to learn about the suffering that animals can endure before they end up in supermarkets. In the video playing inside the tent, Paul McCartney, the former Beatles lead man and activist who narrated the video, ended the presentation with a quote used in titling the event.
“If slaughter houses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian,” McCartney said in the video.
Ken Mortvillee, Peta2’s college campaign assistant, said the procedures occurring everyday in slaughterhouses aren’t well known to young Americans.
“[While alive], chicken’s beaks are cut off with hot blades, are kept in dark, cramped, feces-covered sheds and finally hung by their hind legs, and their throats are cut while still fully conscious,” Mortvillee said.
Mortvillee said that the growing awareness about animal cruelty has had a lasting impression on student’s lifestyles. He said that a 2009-10 feedback study by Bon Appetit Management Co. showed 12 percent of students identify themselves as vegetarian, a 50 percent jump from four years prior.
“I was a vegan in the past,” senior animation major Stephanie Tsur said. “But current constraints of money were the issue why I couldn’t continue.”
Mortvillee said there’s a misconception that vegan food is always expensive. Rice, beans and vegetables are cheaply available, he said, and the price of meats are rising, only further encouraging students to make a lifestyle change.
Not all students said that the presentation had a lasting effect on them. Freshman theatre arts major Connor Tribole said that he might hold off on eating a hamburger for a day.
“But I’m getting a burger tomorrow,” Tribole said. “It’s delicious. The Bible said that animals were put on this earth for man to eat, and I’m not going to stop.”