On Sunday, October 2, citizens of Buffalo came together for a vigil at Bidwell Park to honor the millions of animals slaughtered for food. The service was held during Farm Animal Rights Movements’s World Day for Farmed Animals, and their third annual #FastAgainstSlaughter. With chalk, the group covered the busy sidewalk with encouraging messages about veganism and facts about the meat and dairy industries. Some of these messages include, “Eat Your Ethics,” “Humane Meat Is a Myth,” and “US could feed 800 billion people with the grain livestock eat.” Afterwards, they lit candles and shared a moment of silence for the animals mistreated and killed in name of food. The vigil ended with optimistic reflections and hope for the future.

FARM is a Washington, DC-based non-profit that promotes a vegan lifestyle to benefit the animals, the Earth, and public health. Their mission is “to reduce and eliminate the raising, use, and slaughter of animals for food,” and they raise awareness by showing videos, writing letters to various newspapers, and distributing food samples to the public. Their programs include the 10 Billion Lives Tour, Seasonal Days of Action, the Animal Rights National Conference, and #FastAgainstSlaughter. They have both staff and volunteers, including 10 Billion Lives co-operator, Rachel Pawelski, who arranged the vigil in Buffalo.

During #FastAgainstSlaughter, people are encouraged to abstain from food for a day to shed light on the mistreatment of animals in the food industry. It is an act of solitary and encourages self-reflection. Although fasting for a day is uncomfortable, it is nothing compared to the constant conditions of animals raised for slaughter. Chickens are frequently debeaked without anesthetic, and tossing live male chicks in a grinder is still common practice. Animals' tails and testicles are ripped off, and cows are artificially inseminated to produce milk, which involves inserting an entire arm into a cow’s vagina with a syringe. For their shortened lives, animals are either kept in cages so small they are unable to turn around, or packed in coops so crowded they step and defecate all over each other (and these are the cage-free chickens).

The meat and dairy industries prioritize profit over welfare, and conditions are much crueler than they need to be. The most efficient and cost-effective practices are rarely the most compassionate ones, and billions of animals have suffered because of it. Although other animals consume meat, we are the only species that mass produces and elaborately tortures animals before eating them. As for those who say a vegan diet is not natural, Rachel Pawelski says, “We are the only species that takes milk from another species. That’s not natural.”

Temporary hunger is a small glimpse into what farm animals experience their entire lives, and even if you do not choose to fast, it encourages people to stop supporting these industries. After learning about the standard practices that are so widely accepted, some might feel helpless. Animals are tortured and killed every second, and in relation to to huge companies, it seems like there is little one person can do. But it is events like these that spread the message to the wider population. Even with a small group, people will hear your voice and read your messages, and even if only a few people are truly impacted, it starts a new link of future activists. And there has been progress. In 2014, 400 million fewer animals were killed because people consumed less meat. It will take time, but with perseverance and spreading awareness with events like these, change is possible and fewer animals will suffer.