Personal Conflict.

I don't think I realised how difficult this project would be when I fist started. I've been all over the internet, all through youtube, and have seen some pretty horrible things. I don't know how well I'm actually going to be able to handle all of this. I've seen a kittens head get cut off, and monkeys having drugs pumped into their stomachs through thick tubes in their nose. Its truly horrific, and to think that some people don't care, or are simply unaware of this is... sad. I'm stuck in an internal conflict, where one part of me wants to be strong, to watch all this and understand rather than be unaware, so then I can help other people see. But then the other part of me wants to cover my eyes, to not watch all of this, because of the effect it has on me personally. I don't know if I can handle this or not. I'm sitting here and I honestly wonder, how could anyone do this to an animal? You'd have to be heartless to be that cruel. How could someone beat a dog? All they want to do in life is love, and recieve love. How could a person look into those eyes, and proceed to break its neck? Its so ridiculously wrong. Gaah. D:

Decision Time

I finally decided on some questions that I will use for my project. I was pondering over my previous questions when I realised that the food industry wasn't really something I was interested in researching. I was reading about the recently released documentary "The Cove" which is a movie about the mass slaughtering of dolphins off the coast of Japan, when I came up with these new questions.
- How do people define animal cruelty?
- How are some peoples morals and views about animals influenced by culture, family, and where they were raised?
- What are some local cases of animal abuse in Bali?
- How does the food industry tie into animal cruelty?
- What is being done over the world to combat animal cruelty?
- What else can be done to eliminate cruelty to animals?

I have already started research, and I'm honestly not sure how strong I can be for this. Even just the news stories are horrific. Some of the videos on youtube are... emotionally scarring to say the least. My heart aches when I have to watch and read through all of this, but I don't want to be shielded away. I want to know what's going on, and I want to know what can be done to change it. My question is; what will it take for other people to open their eyes and see the reality of what is happening here?

I think I found my questions

I had a thought just now when I was reading Pak Joel's last comment.
One of my biggest questions when we were watching Food Inc. was "Could honest, ethical farming sustain our society today?" I wonder if I could come up with some questions based around that, around the Food industry today, as much as I said before that I didn't want to research food.
Some of the questions I could use are:
-Where does the food my family eat comes from, and how is it produced?
-What are the main sources of food in Bali? Where do the main products come from, and how are they produced?
-What are the main food companies over the world? How do they produce their food, and where is it produced?
-Out of the major food companies, how many produce their food ethically, and how many produce their food unethically? What are their claims on this, and what are the market shares on these companies?

-What are some feasible long-term solutions to the food problem?

Sorting out my headspace;;

Some Questions I've had in mind that I need to sort through are:

- Are there any animal rights extremists? If so, what do they do and what is the reaction of the public and the governments?
- What are some major problems with the relationships between humans and other species?
- Have these issues been recognised by the public and government?
If so, what major action has taken place, and how are the problems looking to be solved?
- What are some major controversies regarding animal rights?
- In Bali, what are some predominant beliefs about animals and how are animals treated in the Balinese culture? And is anything like that changing now that western culture has been introduced?
- How does culture influence the treatment of other species?
- What is and what can be done to combat some of the major issues between humans and other species?

The Second Visit to the Chicken House

Today we visited the chicken house again, hoping for some more productive results. The owner of the "farm" was there, and he answered some questions for us. Some of the things we found were::

*There are 2500 Big Chickens
*There are 2000 smaller chicks
*There are 12 square meters of space
*It is Rp.13,000 for one chicken
*The chicken food is called DB-1 Crumble
*The chickens grow until they are 45 days old, when they are slaughtered
*Food is provided by a "trusted source" to the farm once every week
*The chickens get fed twice a day
*The chickens are slaughtered in the traditional way, by the cutting of an artery rather than total decapitation
*The buisness has been running for three years
*Every week an injection vaccine is given to the chickens
*Vitamins and vaccines are given in the water
*If the chicken is sick, they take it away and medicate it before being sold
*The small chickens at the farm were 18 days old
*The large chickens at the farm were 24 days old