The Blood of Angels Read online

  PERFECTING THE HUMAN SPECIES

  A BLOG ABOUT THE ANIMALIST REVOLUTIONARY ARMY AND ITS ACTIVITIES

  THE ARA STRIKES!

  I’m too young to have personally witnessed the tobacco lawsuits. For those who don’t remember the events of the early 2000s here is a brief summary.

  The connection between tobacco and lung cancer is well known to all of us, and smoking is now restricted to private homes. It seems inconceivable to us that this smelly habit that’s dangerous to oneself and others was quite common just a few years ago. Cigarettes and other tobacco products could be bought openly from any ordinary store (!).

  At some point people started to question the ethics of tobacco producers. Why should they be allowed to make and market a product that was a clear danger to public health? If a toy came on the market that had, for example, a high level of phthalates, it was quickly recalled, even though the health risks were minuscule compared with those of tobacco. And yet tobacco remained in the stores.

  Finally, a few consumers who had been made ill by tobacco rose up and demanded compensation from the tobacco companies. The lawsuits went on for years and years. The tobacco companies paid doctors to testify and even present research showing that the connection between tobacco and lung cancer was not a straightforward one. They paid lawyers to try to prove that smokers who got ill were fully aware of the risks of smoking, and were thus themselves responsible for their illnesses (which was a rather paradoxical stance, considering the above-mentioned claim that the risks were unclear).

  *

  Now you may be asking yourself why a blog about animal rights is talking about smoking.

  The reason is that since the 2010s research has shown clearly and undeniably that the consumption of large quantities of red meat and meat products leads to increased colorectal cancer and type-2 diabetes.

  The recommendations are clear: eating more than 300 grams of red meat or meat products per week significantly increases the risk of these diseases. Our present food culture holds as self-evident that there ought to be some animal protein in every meal or it’s not a meal at all. The present average meat quota is one to two times that recommended weekly allowance. A couple of slices of ham with breakfast, spaghetti with meat sauce for lunch, steak for dinner. It’s quite common for a Finn to eat a kilo and a half of meat every week – five times the recommended amount.

  Why don’t we talk more about this? Who is withholding this information? The papers used to run regular features on how to quit smoking. Where are the articles about how to quit eating meat? (I’m not talking about the occasional vegetarian recipe, but rather articles with detailed information on the dangers of meat and instructions for the reader on how to give it up.)

  Who will the first person be who rises up against the meat producers and demands compensation?

  When will there be warning labels on meat packaging? We put information on cigarette packets about the dangers of tobacco, so it’s an obvious step to take for exactly the same reasons. Who will be the first Member of Parliament to take the first steps towards achieving this?

  How many people know that a child under fifteen kilograms should eat no more than one hot dog per day to avoid the health effects of nitrites?

  I’d like to see a meat counter with a sticker on every single package of steak, hamburger and pork chops – not to mention the sausage and ham – that says: ‘THIS PRODUCT CAUSES CANCER AND DIABETES. USE IN MODERATION.’ And in smaller text below that: ‘This package contains 80 per cent of the recommended risk-free weekly allowance.’

  I think it would be so, so nice if kids who knew how to read looked at their parents with wide eyes at the store and said, ‘We shouldn’t eat that, should we? It causes cancer,’ and their parents had to explain uncomfortably that ‘Yes, but it’s quite good for you in small quantities,’ just like they had to explain their smoking to well-informed children in decades past. Many parents would no doubt lie, make up some clever explanation. ‘Oh, that’s just a lot of faddish nonsense. Eat some more stew, sweetheart.’ But the thought would nevertheless be in the back of the child’s mind, simmering.

  Since the demand for meat would probably decrease significantly once there was more information, intensive meat production would not necessarily be needed any longer. The treatment of animals would improve and the quality of meat would increase for those who still wished to eat it in small quantities. The price would also adjust to an appropriate amount as meat became more of a luxury item.

  Because there is as yet no such bill for the promotion of human health, the ARA plans to strike a blow for the cause. We’ve printed 100,000 stickers that read ‘This product causes colorectal cancer and diabetes’. On a certain day, at exactly the same time, 500 ARA members will be at the largest local markets around Finland, putting these labels on 200 packages of meat and meat products. We will attempt to make the action as unobtrusive as possible by placing unlabelled packages on top of those with labels so that ideally the action won’t be noticed until the labellers have left the store, allowing customers to find the labelled products before the staff do.

  The stickers are highly adhesive, so they won’t be able to remove them without destroying the packaging.

  We’ve announced the time for the action to several information sources sympathetic to our cause. Representatives of these publications will just ‘happen’ to be on site at the time of the demonstration, and some participants have been given instructions to get caught in the act so that they can give a statement to the press about our message.

  And if any of you reading this are representatives of the authorities, the meat industry or the retail market don’t bother rushing to the phone.

  Because it all happened three hours ago, and I would guess that the hubbub will be starting right about now.

  LEAVE A COMMENT (total comments: 94)

  USER NAME: Tirsu

  Yes!

  USER NAME: Progs rock

  This person is able to write his blog posts and plan his sabotage because his forefathers ate meat and grew enormous brains and used those enormous brains to develop ways to acquire the animal protein they needed. If society hadn’t followed this road E.H. would be expressing himself from a tree. ‘Eeee ooo ooo ooo ooo!’

  MODERATOR: E.H.

  I completely agree that the human body and efficient brain activity require protein. But there is no evidence that animal protein specifically is necessary. Perhaps our esteemed commenter should re-examine the adequacy of his own brain-building nutrients.

  USER NAME: Shame on you

  As a long-time conservationist I can tell you that the ARA has done nothing but harm. Right now organizations that are taken seriously are ending up having to continuously defend themselves on top of everything else they have to do because of these self-serving dilettantes who never think about anything other than bolstering their own egos. These people are REALLY far from nature. They’re absolutely narcissistic navel-gazers wallowing in self-pity. Plus they’re publicity hounds.

  USER NAME: An attorney will be contacting you

  This blog and the moderator E.H. have made it their life’s mission to sabotage a law-abiding business sector, to spread slander and defamatory propaganda. There will always be weak individuals who go to these extremes. I just read in the Market Times that shares in meat production have fallen significantly in the past two years. Who will be to blame if the viability of our domestic food production is weakened? Meat producers will soon have to pass these extra costs on to their customers. What good will it do anyone if inflation gets out of control? The intentional demonization of an important field of food production is extremely socially irresponsible and calls for legal remedies. And there will be legal remedies if the present government does their job.

  SHOW ALL 91 COMMENTS

  DAY SIXTEEN

  Marja-Terttu looks at me, waiting.

  ‘Eero was a Singer. He lived and breathed it.’

  She trembles involuntarily at my
choice of words.

  ‘I know. Ari told me.’

  ‘He and members of his cell got a media-sexy idea. He would free his own grandfather’s cows.’

  ‘Ari told me that, too. But … freeing those thousand-kilo hunks of meat?’

  ‘They probably weren’t planning to free the grown animals. Probably the calves.’

  Marja-Terttu wrinkles her brow.

  ‘And … that’s when the terrible accident happened?’

  ‘So Ari didn’t tell you everything? I’m not surprised.’

  ‘What do you mean everything?’

  I close my eyes as I speak. I don’t even know what words to use, because

  we’re approaching the target quietly, dressed in black, not making a sound, a rushing in our veins, the August night dark enough to hide the four of us. The fence around the property is quite basic, nothing our wire-cutters and wits can’t get through. I’ve drawn a map of every part of Hopevale Meats from memory. It was easy to visit the place on some pretext or other because I’m a relative coming to say hi to Grandpa. Now I know the indoor feed-lot like the inside of my own pocket, know how to turn out the lights, know that there’s no staff here at night, know where the calves’ stalls are, what they look like. At first glance they look like babies’ cribs, but these are made of cold metal pipes welded together into baby jail cells packed tightly together, one and a half square metres of floor space for each cage, a thin layer of trampled straw over the concrete floor, two fold-down feeding racks attached to the bars, coldly efficient. The cages are lockable but aren’t locked. The worst part is crossing the yard where we have to slip quickly past the lamp-posts and disappear among the shadows of the feed-lot wall. I know the window we want. I have the glass knife, Tirsu has the masking tape, every motion and gesture practised to keep it to a minimal number of seconds. It’s silent as a grave and we don’t see anyone. Somewhere inside a bull calf stamps and moos sleepily. We run, crouched down, our hearts pounding. When we get there we see the window. I nod. Tirsu hands me the tools, and then SOMEBODY STARTS YELLING and it splinters the solidity of the night and there’s light light light in my eyes I can’t see anything and then there’s someone, two, three big men, big as hell, one bald-headed one says ‘Well, if it isn’t Hopevale Junior! We finally got our hands on the fucker.’ How does he know? How does he … What’s he got in his hand? Oh God what’s he got in his hand? And then Ari is there even bigger behind the glare of light, and I understand as I run away and the others are running, too, scattering, found an escape route, my feet like two pistons, the edge of the darkness is right there and I cross it and I’m safe Oh God I’m going as fast as I can they can’t catch me, then there’s a light from behind me and a black shadow in the middle of it and there’s a HIT HIT HIT between my shoulder blades as I cross the into the dark into the dark …

  ‘Ari knew,’ I say. ‘Not just about the action. He knew that Eero would be there.’

  Marja-Terttu just stares at me.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Yes. He got a tip from somewhere. Meat producers have to have their own channels now, moles in the movement. Having paid security or staffing the place every night would be a lot of trouble and expense if it were just a matter of guesses and rumours. He got in touch with Pro Good Life. The proggles. Promised a good reward for stopping the attack, gave them a free hand. Completely free. He stressed that.’

  ‘Even though he knew Eero would be there?’

  ‘He decided to teach the boy a lesson – a real, tangible lesson. But there were a couple of things he didn’t know – he didn’t know that the Goodlifers, especially the higher ups, had a few grudges. And a few concealed weapons. And that they had not just adrenaline but also a dose of amphetamines pumping in their veins.’

  It was Ari who’d done it, run into the yard, pointed at the dark form escaping, aimed the powerful LED light in his hand straight at Eero’s back, yelled something encouraging, Stop him, Stop him, and then a shot rang out. One shot, two, three.

  *

  The man who taught me to love. Taught me to appreciate things. A man I looked up to, sometimes almost worshipped. I can see in his face that he thinks he did the right thing, but he’s done an irrevocably wrong thing. All I can see in his face is horror as what he’s done dawns on him, as I run him down, this bull of a man who’s destroyed my life, run with all my strength and all my fury, climb the wall of my father with straining limbs, a wall that was once my rock, and I let my feeble hands, used to sitting at a desk, make fists and pound against that wall of meat, and maybe I find something to put in that hand, maybe it’s Ari’s own flashlight, and I swing it and let if fall on the top of his head again and again, and I realize that I want to hit him above the eyes, his neck, his forehead. I really want to kill him. And I would kill him if someone didn’t grab me by the shoulders and then around the neck and knock me to the ground.

  PERFECTING THE HUMAN SPECIES

  A BLOG ABOUT THE ANIMALIST REVOLUTIONARY ARMY AND ITS ACTIVITIES

  HELLO PROGGLES!

  Some readers have asked me what words like ProGL, prog or proggle, mean, because they seem to come up in the user names of many commenters (or perhaps the multiple names of a single commenter).

  ProGL, proggle, or prog are all short for Pro Good Life. Pro Good Life is not an organized group but a sort of resistance movement – specifically, resistance to the Animalist Revolutionary Army and other animal-rights organizations.

  PGL’s point of view is that animals are intended for human consumption – although they don’t explain who or what intended, promised or commanded such a thing. They believe that it is a basic human right to eat the flesh of mammals, birds and all other animals without any restrictions. PGL sees nothing wrong in the industrialized production of meat for human consumption. They also agitate strongly for a meat-based diet and argue that humans can’t live a healthy life without large quantities of animal protein.

  PGL’s activities are assumed to be at least partially funded by the meat industry. They also seem to have political connections to advocates for factory farming.

  It will be interesting to see what kind of meat industry lobbying we’ll be hearing about now that the US beef industry is starting to become desperate about bee-colony collapse. PGL, like the bloodhounds they are (at the ends of their handlers’ leashes), are howling now about how meat should become a Finnish cash export.

  *

  LEAVE A COMMENT (total comments: 117)

  USER NAME: Seppo Kuusinen

  It would be utterly irrational from a Finnish economic standpoint to even try to drive down meat production at a time when events in the world are creating a large natural demand. PGL is doing excellent work because they are able to support these businesses, and they have the backbone to respond to the baseless claims of animal-rights fanatics.

  MODERATOR: E.H.

  Yeah, there’s a steady ‘natural demand’ for weapons in the world, too, which makes producing and selling them an automatically ethical act, right?

  USER NAME: Proggle pride

  If you Singer propeller heads had your way we’d have quite a mess on our hands. Unimaginable suffering. If humanity gives in to Singer propaganda and terror, like having vegetarian meals in schools, it will all be downhill from there. I’ll give my kid money on veggie days so he can go to the hot-dog stand. At least it’s food and not fodder.

  USER NAME: PRG rules

  So what do you want us to do, crouch naked in a lean-to gnawing on frozen swedes?

  USER NAME: Never forget

  Van der Graaf, the one who shot Pim Fortuyn, was an animal-rights activist. That tells you what kind of people vegetarians are. That murder has still not been avenged.

  USER NAME: Tirsu

  Why not play your trump card and point out that Hitler was a vegetarian, too? Sigh.

  SHOW ALL 111 COMMENTS

  DAY SIXTEEN

  Marja-Terttu is in a hurry to leave. Stopping by Hopevale wasn’t on her itinerary. Sh
e has to go to her hotel, check out, rush to the airport; she’s scheduled her own son’s funeral between the two closest available flights.

  She asks me to check on my console to see if her flight’s on time. And it is. It left from Sydney a long time ago, has already stopped off in Bangkok and is making a wide arc of carbon dioxide jet trail through the Asian night sky where the smoke of millions of tiny campfires have already blanketed the atmosphere in any case, preventing the extra heat from dispersing into space. Or so her son has informed me. But I’ll spare her that. I can at least spare her something.

  And while I’m fiddling with the console – ordering a taxi now – Marja-Terttu finds something before I can stop her. I left it on the table. A printout. An enlargement of part of a photograph.

  She peers at it, frowning, then smiles. ‘Eero. It’s a little blurry, but I recognize him. Where was this taken?’

  For a moment I’m very, very quiet.

  ‘Right near here.’

  She looks at me pleadingly. ‘Is this the only copy?’

  I know what she means.

  ‘You can have it.’

  She thanks me, effusively, with some struggle, then makes the same gesture preceding a hug that she made in front of the chapel and I respond the same way I did then – pretend to misunderstand and clasp her hand.

  She leaves.

  I sit down and click over to the news feed.

  The USA and colony collapse are still the top headline.

  In addition to almonds America’s other nut harvests have suffered noticeably from the disappearance of the bees, including peanuts, the newsreader explains and adds the somewhat contradictory fact that peanuts are not nuts but legumes. And that we should keep in mind that peanut butter has been one of the most important sources of inexpensive protein in America’s poorer households.

  The newscaster tries to lighten the bleak tone of his text: not everyone will mourn the loss of broccoli, a vegetable that George Bush senior famously hated and a crop whose harvests are also collapsing. He adds, apparently remembering the seriousness of the subject matter, that carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins and onions have now become luxuries in North America. As have apples, apricots, nectarines, pears, plums and peaches. Strawberries, blueberries and cranberries – including wild varieties – are also becoming more and more scarce. A few growers are hand-pollinating their fruits and getting astronomical prices for them. Pineapple, however, is still available.