mx365

If we're talking about social injustices, would R.AGE be covering issues about animal agriculture? All of us would like to think that our food is killed humanely, but that's unfortunately not economical for a RM5.5 chicken rice. Or mcValue meal cheeseburger. Modern countries' citizens are acting, but Malaysians would rather think it's not our problem.

Live grounding male chicks aside, animal agriculture is also incredibly taxing on our environment which the government has failed to address. The UN has given us a rather critical deadline before our average temperature increases(12 years), and has also stated that we need to decrease our meat consumption immediately... Our people, despite being taught about climate change in primary school, believes that climate change doesn't exist in Malaysia. It's just the monsoon season, they'd say, while the government scrambles to mitigate floods.

Would R.AGE cover these issues? Or is it too controversial/sensitive even for R.Age?

I would like to think that there isn’t much of a movement with regards to veganism / humane killing of farm animals to warrant a need to bring up the issue.

That's precisely the reason why the issue needs to be brought up. Suffering doesn't end just because you chose to stick your head into the sand. At every second a male chick is grounded alive, a male cow is slaughtered because it won't make milk... For females, laying hens are practically forced to have their periods everyday, and cows are treated as birthing machines to the point of bleeding when producing milk. (Girls, think about what that means, because the entire industry is basically exploiting what you have.)

R.Age said what they do always boils down to rights. We can be arrogant and say they are lesser species, so their rights don't matter. In that case, why arrest people who abuses dogs? It's the same.

Honestly, I don't have my hopes up because if R.Age has to cover this, I think most of their team would just quit because they're a part of it(if they're not vegan). Much more different than, say, exposing pedophilia or bangladesh slavery which they have no part of.

I don't quite agree. The reason why I said that is because once they see how their food is made, it's difficult to not be vegan if you have this 'empathy'. How many of us say a slaughterhouse video will ruin our meal? Even if you convince yourself that all animal produce you consume is from an organic, free-range farm, wait til you find out they're all as cruel as the extreme '1%'. It's just a term to make you feel good about your own choices. 'Laughing cow'? Was the cow laughing when her child was snatched away? Was she laughing as she chased the truck carrying her child away? For the fifth, and probably the last time before she is minced away? A body so spent is no good for steak after all.

If you truly care about animal welfare, then you wouldn't partake in all the atrocities it comes with. There is unfortunately no sugar coating this. It's either you care, or you think you care but are still selfish for your own convenience. I'm really not exaggerating. I actually don't care about animal welfare that much. I don't go "aww so cute" at cows. But I don't agree with the way they are treated. You can watch it for yourself. Or avoid it, like what I did until I forced myself to face my own hypocrisy. I don't think I'm a kind person, but the animal industry? It's far too cruel.

I'm glad that it's considered to be covered then. I do know how resource-extensive these videos can be, as I know you all strive to be as factual as possible...and it paid off.

Most of your works make people gasp in disbelief, and your videos are seen as reliable. Trustworthy. However, the past stories were all about obvious villains. People they obviously vilify.

It is a genuine question whether or not this matter would be too controversial or sensitive, because if you were to cover this, you'd be painting your audience as the villain. You might not be explicitly doing so, but many people would feel personally attacked. Or, well, for better or worse, just ignored because they know your story would make them feel bad. A small team putting all resources on a story that gets ignored or worse, anger half of their audience("vegan agenda! i'm not following your works ever again!"), doesn't seem like the best course of action.

But it is a real issue, and one that needs to be addressed. So far, Malaysia is pretty clueless about the impacts of animal agriculture. One can say they may not care about animals bred for food(they should be grateful to even be born, am I right?), but most don't even know we're eating our way to global warming.

International news don't seem to affect Malaysians much, as we have this mentality that we're not part of the international community. The "12 years" deadline can easily be interpreted as "12 years for Americans, not us". You can see this at work when people start their counter arguments with, "Malaysia so small, can't do anything to affect anything on a global scale".

That's why I think despite all the breaking news about climate change, Malaysia needs a more 'local' news source feeding it to them. That's R.Age. It helps that most of your stories are local issues, so if one were to see your videos on something foreign like 'global warming', it may finally make it click that they are part of the problem, and also the solution.

What if it really was that simple?

The reason why all these slaughters and cruelty happen is because there is a demand for it, and the demand for it is so fast that they have to race to catch up. That means efficiency, like skipping the gas and into the grinder.

By removing all demand, these cruelty won't happen because no one wants it. No one buys it, thus there will be no business. It is just that simple. Businesses exist for profit. No profit to be had if no buyers.

Of course, you alone won't make a dent to it. You alone won't make these businesses perish overnight. But you're also not alone in feeling helpless against these cruelty. That's why in modern countries where more people know about how their food came to be, people are choosing to eat vegan than participate in this horror show. Even now in America where they have milk and cheese everyday, milk has to be thrown out because people are choosing alternatives. Think about how milk is in everything: ice cream, pizza, cheese, 'non-dairy' creamer... now demands suddenly falls? Think about how many people are choosing alternatives! They are staying afloat for now because of subsidies, but a business without profit won't survive for long.

This is how you stop cruelty. You can do a lot when you vote with your money. It just takes a lot of people doing the same thing, and patience for the effects to sink in. Yes, just you, not enough. But you're not alone, and slowly there are more vegans in Malaysia. Hell, we have vegan ice cream, vegan pizza, vegan burritos and vegan thai food in Malaysia now! They won't stay afloat if there's no demand, catch my meaning?

It is daunting to make the first step, because you won't see the effects immediately, so you feel what you do or don't do is useless. That's what the first vegan felt like. Now look at UK. Millions of them in just five years.

Just remember, for each animal product you forgo, you spare a life. Sure, cruelty will still happen, but you reduce it because businesses don't have to slit another chicken's throat for you anymore. Or maybe for your whole family, or your friends? Who knows? We have to start somewhere. It's better than saying you will start when the trend goes up, but don't do anything until a year or 2 later. That's still contributing to cruelty for 'a year or 2' while others are picking up the slack in not contributing to animal cruelty.

We're getting there. Just...slow. That's why we need more cover.Age(hehe).

EDIT: Recent news in Taiwan. Yay!