The treatment of animals in the western world

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Don't watch the video if you are sensitive to nasty, inhuman, evil behaviour.

http://www.meat.org/index-1.asp?c=MYMblogaddr112106


What those farmers do is sick. Even though I'm thinking right now that we should have them all executed, I can't help to think that (most or) all of us share a bit of the blaim. The western society just consumes too much, which leads to extreme measurements being taken by the producers to meet our demand.

 

I wont take a look at that...

But, yes, I wouldnt mind if serious harm came to some individuals for what they do to feeling creatures. And, yes, we are all to blame for we dont do enough to spare animals the suffering.

 

I'm very sensitive about evil behaviour, even more than Minsc is.
So thanks for the warning, I didn't/couldn't watch that after I saw a video about how they make fur clothes, a guy shawing off the animals SKIN when it was still living, beating it up when it moved.
After the shaving was done, he threw the dying creature to another guy who kicked it into a pile of blood.

Boo shall burrow through your black little soul!

 

I'd have everyone know that these are not the conditions in all farms throughout the world and that most farms realise that happy animals actually produce the best meat, eggs and food.

"If you drink milk you're promoting the veal industry." After saying that all male cows are put into small cages at very young ages and are subjected to massive stress from being from their mothers.

I understand that there are horrible things that happen to animals and I seriously think that there need to be standards in place but remember that the web site hosting this video is a website dedicated to vegans and vegan ideals. The image given is that bad things happen to all animals so you shouldn't eat them, eat their eggs or drink their milk.

Considering how I've worked in a slaughterhouse and on a farm I can honestly say that not all meat/milk/egg production is like this.

 

Evil behaviour. Come on, get real. These neo-peta groups put the absolute worst on a film (and I'd be surprised if they even scripted some of it).

Stop being hypocritical. You want your meat, but don't want to pay the additional cost for 'humane treatment'. These creatures are a product, they have one function in life and could not survive without intervention by man. Have you ever been around livestock? Do you know what it takes to raise these things? Farmers cannot develop feelings for the animals -- they have to remain distant.

 

I didn't get to watch the vid because of technical difficulties my computer's not competent enough to overcome.

But yeah, animal rights...I've had Peter Singer's Animal Liberation in my bookshelf for almost a year now and I originally postponed reading it until I'd become vegetarian. Now that I don't eat meat, I just haven't had the opportunity to open it up. But I'll read it eventually.

But sure animals should be treated better. Unnecessary suffering is something that should be avoided at all costs, but I don't really care about the animals as such. Suffering is the lifeblood of this world sometimes...

I'm only saying this, because addressing the rights of the animals isn't exactly the best possible angle to start treating animals better. It is a way, but as a path to treating animals better it takes a very alien way of perceiving things, a point of view most people don't have. And getting labeled as an animal rights activist doesn't help the cause, since too many animal rights activists have taken completely wrong approach to the problem and given the cause a bad name.

I don't eat meat simply because it is not only a thing that I don't need to sustain my body. But then there is the fact that growing large herds that need a lot of surface area, for the animals and for the feed is simply idiotic, especially if the ends are to satisfy our hedonistic needs to give our taste buds that delicious tingle of a fresh beef. It's even worse if the cattle is used for burgers. This surface area could be used much more productively, but of course it wouldn't give the same monetary payoff for multinational corporations. So, we'd have more food, but the big businesses would have less money. Crying shame that.

This atrocity comes only from thinking sentient beings as the same type of resources as inorganic ones, and harvesting inorganic resources isn't that problem free either. Industrializing living beings. All for the money.

Thank goodness this activity isn't replicated in all of the farms around the world, but it is terrible for humanity itself to have this type of thing going on at all, even if you wouldn't give a damn about the animals.

 

I seriously doubt that the treatment portrayed on the video is anything common, occational violent acts against animals happen just like they happen against other human beings. All unnecessary violence against animals is wrong and would be criminal in most western countries. All in all I think that conditions on some areas could be improved but in the end the cold fact is that domestic animals live for our food/clothing/entertainment etc.

 

Whenever someone tells me animals have human rights I snap. I can't help.

Yes, we ought to treat animals well. I do, for my part. Most ranchers do. But still, a cow bred to be butchered in a large staple, well, it's how it is. There is nothing to be squeamish about. I think the people who enrage themselves most about it are most detactched from it. Ever seen a pig being slaughtered by a butcher? I did. It's a helluva mess. Well, if you're feeling repulsed you miss something - this is normal for the rural world. A part of life. I think it helps seeing it that way.

The problem emerges when animals are merely seen as an element in an industrial process. Which, in our times is inevitable. We'd have malnutrition if we'd be an agrarian west. I find it utterly wasteful when premium meat is thrown away - after all, to get some 500kg of filet, you need to kill some 40 or so cows. But that's something else.
Eat what you kill, and use the rest, and you can justify killing it. That, however, is difficult in a society built on specialisation, and work- and burdensharing.

That said, I didn't see the video, and I will not.

 

I think that's an important observation. Treatment of animals mirrors the way we treat our own kind. It shows our overall state of developement. Nothing to be proud of.
The day we stop killing - through force, neglect, indifference - will certainly be the day we refuse to degrade and consume living, feeling creatures. True appreciation of life, instead of this peculiar sadism.

 

what the video showed, that of it that i could see, was a very biased view on animal treatment, what it showed wasn't nice, but what it failed to show, was that this dont take place on all farms.

the chickens for instance, this is what we in denmark call caged chickens (best translation i can do), while we also has the word, free roaming chickens, the later has a lot more space to move on and get out more. every form of meat in denmark is marked, so you can see the conditions under which the animal was raised, so you can choose what to support through what you buy. naturaly the better the animal has it, the more it cost to raise it. so eggs and meat from free roaming cost more then the former.

honestly i dont really blame the farmers, we the consummers support it, by buying the cheap meat and eggs. secondly while its not nice to warch, you must remember, this is food, not humans, so while it might sound cold, they arent really supposed to do anything but be killed and eaten.
that said, the complete encroachment and beating of them, im very much against.

 

After reading the above posted comments, I admit I didn't even bother to click on the link.

When I first saw the thread I thought it was going to go in the other direction and show how many westerners care more about their pets then other human beings. That to me is more disgusting than animals bred for food.

 

Not if you watch the video...

 

OMG! I'm finding myself agreeing with Ragusa!

Breath... breath... one at a time...

 

Dont fuss, Ragusa. You made some sensible points regardless.

 

I've seen most of the clips from the video before. If I remember correctly, some of them are from the UK, and the people who perpetrated the crimes (and yes they are crimes) were prosecuted successfully.
Unfortunately, because casual farm labour tends to pay very badly, positions are often filled by people who really don't give a Sh*te about what they do and will get their kicks however they can. I think it is one of the better things that animal rights activists do in exposing these individuals so the law can act accordingly.

I'm not convinced the Eastern world treats animals any better.

 

Standard/"humane" method of slaughtering a pig. Stun it with a bolt-gun, stab its throat, let it bleed to death.

Mutton. Slit its throat then snap its neck.

Cow/cattle. Similar to pig.

As for the branding/castration and such to use pain killers would pretty much make the industry non-profitable. Not to mention that, yes, it's painful for maybe a day and in rare cases a few days but it is only done once in their life and to invest so much money into pain killing procedures to only be used once per animal is just financially stupid.

The occurances shown are few and far between, most are illegal and others have a negative voiceover using words like "tortue" and "tormented" when the reality is far from it since both words imply the pain/distress caused is intentional.

 

When there is no bolt gun, you can also beat the animal on the head with the blunt part of an axe. It will then be dazed, and before it will regain full consciousness it will pass out due to bloodloss. That's as painless as possible under the circumstances.

Fun fact: In Germany animal protection legislation was introduced under the Nazis. Background: They propagated 'humane' killing of animals as opposed to 'cruel' butchering after jewish traditions. Protecting the poor animals, cows if I remember the propaganda film right, from those bloodthirsty cruel Jews became a tool for demonisation in their propaganda.

My point: The scenes in the video are used in a similar way. Despite the different direction of the message, is nontheless an agitating piece of propaganda, aimed on generating a particular emotional response.

Hint: I doubt it is an accident that it is published it on a vegetarian site.

 

Which is odd, considering that "kosher" means literally that the animals are butchered in a way in which care is taken to make sure the animal doesn't suffer.

 

Since when does propaganda concern itself with such trifling details?

 

Heh. Good point.