Above is one of my favorite recent pictures.

Whoa, chickens! How cool!

Those are laying hens, and those chickens are laying eggs, eating a natural diet, and clawing about for bugs. They live out on a farm northeast of Dallas.

I am really sick of reading, or watching television programs, about how bad the animals who produce our food are treated. I am not an animal activist, or a vegan, or a die-hard vegetarian, but I am sickened by cruelty and laziness, and I now believe that is the norm in our meat processing plants.

We are so far removed from our food sources. Do we even care that living beings are beaten and mutilated? I do.

Can you ignore the stories of cruelty and torture? I can't.

I was in tears for two days after reading a story on MSNBC. com about the mistreatment of pigs destined for a Hormel meat plant. My God, how do we raise people who can be so mean to an animal who has done nothing to them? These aren't wild children pulling the legs off grasshoppers or the wings off butterflies. These are adults who thrive on being cruel.

Click if you even dare to read about the PETA report on pig abuse.

We have been buying eggs from the pictured chickens that range freely and we will be from now on. We need to research the meat options, but it looks like we can get free range meat from the same farm. Yes it costs a lot more, but we can do this. Maybe we need to eat a little less meat, but we sure as hell don't need to buy food from plants that employ disgusting so-called "people" who get a rise out of torturing living beings.