Animals are sentient beings, and through their sense of smell they often know what is about to happen to them. Long before slaughter, they frequently squeal, struggle, or make sounds of fear.
Let’s look animals in the eyes. They observe their surroundings but also take in our overall state while watching. They smell the environment, sense what is happening around them, sniff in our direction, and listen to sounds and voices. By looking, listening, and smelling, they create a so-called “olfactory image” that they interpret to understand. Around them and us exists the fluid of our thoughts and feelings, which has guided and continues to guide certain words and actions that carry their own scent and color. The atmosphere of slaughterhouses has its own smell, sound, shape, and color. Within it is information about humans who, driven by their passion for eating meat, seek the killing of animals. The olfactory image they form is always supplemented by our subsequent behavior; they feel the vibrations of our senses, thoughts, words, movements, and actions.
Even animals raised as livestock experience the same pain and suffering, because in the end they are slaughtered.
They also carry, in their olfactory images, information about those who wish to accept them as friends, as beings who love life and have the right to freedom. This gives them hope that change will one day come.
What kind of olfactory image do animals have of us?
We learn by observing and feeling.
