Animal slaughtering... (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gardiner]

Seth & Andrew,

Either you guys didn't read my post very carefully, or I was unclear. Allow me to use the bold to clarify my original post:


Despite the illegality of the practice, it still occurs. Feed containing cattle remains is labeled "do not feed to ruminants" (cows) but in English only which doesn't do much good if the feed is sent to Mexico.

But you're right. Now that the practice is illegal, no businessman would EVER think of breaking the law just to increase profitability. :rolleyes

EDIT: Yes, that last statement was sarcastic but allow me to explain. I understand that enforcement practices are so lax, prohibited activities are almost impossible to detect. And I believe the penalties are low enough to fail to be an effective deterrent.

 

[MickeS]

I'm more concerned with how the animals live than how they die, as basically any death will be rather gruesome and painful, but their lives need not be. I'm trying to eat less meat, and choose meat more craefully, but it's so damn good that I'll never give it up totally.

 

[Chris]

Having lived on a farm, and near a dairy, I have no problem with the slaughter of cows for food. Hell, I've helped cut a side down to steaks as a young'un.

It is the nature of life.

I do, however, miss Tuna that was not Dolphin safe. Seriously, I feel as though the non-dolphin safe tuna tasted better (this is NOT sarcastic), and that for all the cries about "saving flipper" I don't hear anyone crying "save the tuna"

 

[Mary M S]

Human Economics is holding back the use of common sense concerning the feeding of animals.
Give (all animals) the diet they are intended to feed upon in the wild rather than forcing bovines and other herbivore species into zombie mode, our risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy contamination theoretically drops to zero. Why the FDA is hesitant to require these protections has to do with the fact that whole industries surrounding animal production have geared certain directions in the last decades which would cause then to sustain a huge economic hit (with the eternal threat held over our heads of the costs being passed to the consumer).

As I understand it in 97 the feeding of animal protein of ruminant to ruminant was stopped in America. However certain blood products and the renderings of hog and chickens continue to this day to be fed to cattle despite the fact many experts warn against it. (The use of cow blood, chicken waste and restaurant scraps being fed to cattle was banned by the FDA at the end of March 2004.)

Dairy cattle consume more of this animal protein feed than do beef cattle. (want milk?) where high protein is critical to current industry expectations for production levels Vs costs.

There is grave concern that a backdoor loop is being kept open, since cattle can be fed to hogs and chickens. (Viscous circle) then those same hogs/chickens are fed back to cattle. I agree with experts who warn this creates the possibility of still passing infection to beef cattle, through this round about method.

Hard to give up these practices when your industry is used to the quotas of production and to-end-of-market cost benefits these ‘modern’ management methods have created. . Dairy cows double milk production on this high protein diet whereas using soy-based protein (substitute alternative source) is not as effective. Beef cattle whom normally take 3 years to reach market weight when fed their natural diet take only 1 ½ yrs on the carnivore version.

The Rendering Industry (a 3 billion per year concern) would take an enormous hit if they could no longer sell their products in that area. Animal byproducts have to rendered or otherwise disposed of in similar method for sanitary reasons. So the rendering industry wants to turn around and sell that necessary service making it a product rather than a by-products costing the plants high fees for disposal.
44,000 tons of animal wastes are produced each week by meat processors, grocers and restaurants, according to the National Renderers Association.

My opinion our food industries should have NEVER contemplated this ‘thrifty’ use for waste products.
Nature has a way of presenting those of us who attempt to squirm round using greed induced shortcuts with a loud slap up side the head, and a hefty pricetag of consequences to reap on down the terrestrial trail. There are GOOD reasons for many natural laws set in place for species eon’s ago.

If we just cant’ control ourselves messing with species set natures and paths maybe its time to seriously try to clone a few t-rex, (don’t worry about that chaos theory), - if it can be determined rex's will scavenge in vulture-like method. Tourist attraction revenues and rendering plants would have a new client to sell who metabolically would appreciate and thrive on their products!

 

[Chris]

I think at this point, we're pretty sure that T-Rex could not have been a hunter. Too slow, bad center of gravity, he just couldn't have caught dick.

We're probably closer to having the ability to bring back the Mammoth, though..

 

[Richard Travale]

Ha! You obviously haven't seen Jurassic Park.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Not only can I handle it and eat it, I specifically ask if the veal is penned and/or milk fed when I order it. I usually warn the wait staff that I would prefer it that way, so they don't immediately assume I want the "free range" veal. mmmmm, veal . . .

 

[Richard Kim]

I agree. I just don't understand some people's objections to eating veal just because it's a baby cow, when they have no problem at all with an adult cow being slaughtered for their meat.

 

[Chris]

Mmmm. Clay & Lar's Flesh Barn... you pick the cow in the field in the morning, eat it the next day..

(started as a joke on an MST3k episode in Season 2 I believe, before Frank arrived, and became, for a short while, a real idea for a restaurant outside of Hastings, Nebraska.)

 

[John Miles]

My ancestors didn't spend 2,000,000 years clawing their way to the top of the food chain so I could eat tofu.

 

[JonZ]

I think the stuff shown in faces of death was really outdated though. Doesnt it go back to the late 60s?

I eat beef and chicken. I wont touch veal, pork or lamb.I eat chicken more frequently than beef. I have Gout and have to be careful of my meat intake anyway.

My G/F will get us alot of chicken and turkey from a nearby organic farmer.

 

[Erik.Ha]

I love baby cow, and the less it's allowed to move about before it hits my plate, the more I like it...

 

[Mike Broadman]

It's not so much the killing but how they live before they're killed. Baby cows are shackled to prevent them from ever moving to keep the meat tender.

Most people feel eating meat is OK but don't want the animal to needlessly suffer before slaughter. The way calves are treated would qualify as going over the line for a lot of people.

 

[JonZ]

I would agree too.

I have no trouble with killing animals for food,but I do have a problem with bad treatment of live creatures and I think veal qualifies.

 

[RobertR]

People can feel however they like about processing of animals for food. What's not acceptable is for others to attempt to dictate these preferences for others. There's no doubt in my mind that some people would impose their preferences if they had the political power to do so.

 

[MickeS]

When it comes to the treatment of other living creatures, I think it's OK to impose some restrictions. If a person treated their dog the way some meat farms treat their animals, they would be convicted for animal cruelty, yet the meat farms can just go on doing whatever they do... I just don't see the logic in that.

 

[RobertR]

I think it's because logic has very little to do with it. It's an emotional response. There are countries where it's considered perfectly acceptable to eat dogs, and if we thought of them primarily as a food product, they'd be treated as such. If it's a pet, you perceive it one way. If it's a food product, you perceive it another way. But no one legislated that we think of dogs as pets. People chose to do so.

 

[MarkHastings]

The other problem is also the way the animals are treated. "Free range" doesn't mean they're treated properly. The animals are beaten and bullied when moving them from place to place.

This is why it bothers me when people think I'm bad for eating veal. Mainly because you have no idea how ANY of the animals you're eating have been treated.

True, you can almost guarantee that the baby cows were treated poorly, but has anyone ever seen the way they treat chickens? They cram them so thight into the cages, many die from the cramped space.

And like I stated with the fish, for every shrimp that is caught, at least 3 to 4 other fish are snagged in the nets...only to be tossed out (dead) of the boat when finished collecting the shrimp.

And for all the 'specialty' fish (like Red Grouper) that are caught, many coral reefs are destroyed during the harvesting.

So what may seem like a less cruel meal (like fish), may be just as 'evil' as eating veal.

 

[Gordon Moore]

I don't really have a problem with it. Not everyone was born to work at a slaughterhouse, not everyone was born to be a butcher.

For that matter, not everyone can stand to perform an operation, and hence part of why we aren't all doctors.

I think "if you knew how the animal was slaughtered would you still eat it" is a slightly unfair question.

I think animal treatment might be more realistic. Of course animal slaughter will be bloody and slightly gruesome...what else comes to mind when you hear the word slaughter?

I don't think slaughterhouse methods of bleeding an animal are inhumane, rather the opposite and quick. If they say cut up the animal while alive or bled it by a process that took hours for the animal to die and was thought to be really painful, then I think we would be justifiably "up in arms"

Some people don't like it when a fish is finished off by whacking it over the head with something blunt...that appears outwardly inhumane but that's how it's done, you have to kill it somehow. I suppose you could let it suffocate on dry land but that is cruel and unusual.

Either you have the stomach for it or you don't.That doesn't make eating it a bad thing.

 

[MarkHastings]

That's kind of like expecting a person to give up eating rice because the rice pickers are treated poorly.