Over the long holiday, my sister was flipping around and stopped on Fox News channel (I know, I’ve talked to her about this before). Whatever show it was had some PETA guy on, and he said to find out all the bad things that are done to the animals viewers could see a video, Meet Your Meat, at PETA’s website: www.goveg.com .
My sister went to it and watched it. She then made me watch as much as I could stomach. There are baby chicks that have their beaks cut off (though I suppose this is probably better in the long run so they won’t peck each other to death), a cow that was branded with a hot iron on the face, another cow that appeared to be missing an eye :eek: , and a cow that was hung upside down and had its throat slit.
How accurate were the things in the video? I usually dismiss anything from PETA as being over the top and extremely one sided, so I’d like to hear the “other side” of the story. Is all livestock terribly mistreated and abused like the video showed?
I’m not planning to “go veg” even if things in the video are the rule instead of the exception, I just want to know from someone that has more knowledge about the subject than I do.
I dunno about the other stuff, but I’ve heard thats how they slaughter cows (slitting throat and hanging upside down.) I guess theres really no gentle way to slaughter a cow.
I can’t go to the website linked since I’m at work. However, I will say of you go looking for injustice you will find it. Is it possible that animals are treated cruelly? Absolutely…it’s a given. Is it indicative of how ALL animals are treated? Nope.
I actually did ‘meet my meat’ once. I felt I should see it all at least once so I could make an informed decision so I went to a meat packing plant with a friend who was going on a school project. Was it pretty? Nope. Was it grisly? Yes. Still, I saw the cattle get slaughtered. In the case of this meat plant the cow was funneled down a chute where a guy with what looked like a jackhammer zapped the cow in the head. I was told by my guide that there was also an air nozzle in the blunt (maybe as big around as a silver dollar) head that shot a jet of compressed air into the cows brain. The brains thus scrambled the cow, quite literally, doesn’t feel a thing…over VERY quick. After that the cow is strung up by its hind legs and proceeds through the plant to be butchered. Yes, it did have its throat slit to drain the blood but in this case the cow was very dead already.
Ok, all pretty nasty but what do you think it’ll be like? Is this any worse than our ancestors peppering an animal with arrows or spears and running it to ground and then butchering it right there? Personally I don’t think so and also personally I have no issue with being an omnivore. Nature built us to take advantage of meat as a food source. Convince a lion to go vegetarian and I’ll consider following suit. I will note that what I found remarkable at the processing plant was that they used EVERYTHING from the cow. I do mean everything too…not one thing I saw went to waste (including the blood although that room they would not let us into…don’t blame them either as my friend power-puked on the spot when a whiff of the smell came our way).
As for the chicks with their beaks that is indeed done so the chicks don’t peck each otehr to death. While the chicks get some rough handling in this procedure I don’t think getting their beaks snipped off is painful to them.
My understanding is that meat processing is indeed brutal and horrific. Pig farms and egg factories are particularly gruesome. Livestock is minimally protected in the US by animal welfare laws, and so animals are forced into tighter and tighter quarters, given less and less basic quality of life, in order to maximize profits.
There are baby chicks that have their beaks cut off…
I would guess that this hurts as much as having your fingernails clipped.
a cow that was branded with a hot iron on the face…
Well, that’s gotta hurt some, but cattle have been getting branded for centuries. I doubt it’s anywhere near as painful for them as it would be for us.
another cow that appeared to be missing an eye…
Hard for me to imagine that this has anything to do with its being used for meat.
and a cow that was hung upside down and had its throat slit.
As mentioned before, not related to its means of death. Just not pleasant to look at.
All in all, it strikes me as what you suspected, a one-sided presentation designed to imply great cruelty where likely little or none exists.
You’d guess wrong: birds have flesh inside of their beaks. I’d guess it’d hurt about as much as having a tooth clipped off at the roots.
As for the hanging-upside-down-while-your-throat-is-slit, I’ve heard (but have no cites for it currently) that this is sometimes done to comply with strict interpretation of kosher laws, which demand that an animal die from a single knife-cut to the jugular, in such a way that the animal’s body doesn’t fall to the ground (and presumably become contaminated). If this is correct, then this sometimes occurs while the animal is still alive. Of course, I think I read this account in a book written in the late '70s, so I don’t know if this is still done.
Did you ever clip a dog’s toenails? Or cut your own to the quick? A chicken’s beak is fairly inert at the tip, but it’s vascularized and innervated farther in. Chicks have their beaks trimmed to prevent cannibalization, yes, but the PETA point is that there wouldn’t be a problem with this if it weren’t for the overcrowding. poultry farming publication concur, sort of.
Cite? A cow getting branded on the ass is one thing; the face is idiotic. Nonetheless, the USDA required hot-branding on the face, in certain situations, until 1995. This has been banned, and flank-branding is now the norm, and freeze-branding is now permitted.
I doubt that that’s the point. PETA usually presents the worst consequences of factory farming, but they are real consequences – in this case, the increase in disease and disfiguration when cattle are not handled individually and inspected properly.
Actually, kosher beef is slaughtered by cutting the throat, although I don’t think they’re hung up like that until they’re dead.
No, it’s designed to expose the worst (if rare) consequences of widespread practices. Sure, PETA would like us to believe that it’s this bad everywhere, and that eating meat at all is bad; but they’ll settle for exposing and ending the worst abuses. I’m a carnivore too, but I know where the meat comes from.
Not suggesting that everyone should drop meat but I do think think you should have some idea of what has to go on for you to enjoy that Big Mac or whatever.
Not exactly – fish don’t scream either, and PETA doesn’t want people eating fish.
PETA, FTR, objects to the suffering that goes into our diet, and tot he best of my knowledge, nobody has proposed a scientifically defensible theory of vegetable suffering. Cows and pigs and fish have pain nerves; carrots don’t.
(And if someone pulls out that hackneyed pseudoscientific rant, The Secret Lives of Plants, I’ll whap you.)
Ever see what a zebra has to go through to end up as the main course at the lion shindig?
Let’s face it, killing things and death is never pretty. Certainly there are abuses out there but on the whole I would guess the meat industry is all about efficiency…not cruelty. Killing animals and butchering them is a grisly business but no worse than running down your meal and then shredding it on the spot.
I wish someone would breed the animal that Douglas Adams dreamt-up in his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Fed-up with all the fussing about animal rights they finally bred an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of communicating that wish clearly and distinctly. Of course, our would-be hero, Arthur Dent, found the notion of an animal asking him to eat it disgusting and opted for a salad intstead. The main course was very put off by the whole thing and said it knew some vegetables that most emphatically did not want to be eaten and were very clear on that point.
This whole thing is verging into Great Debates: nothing you said above is factual. Can this thread continue dealing with the facts of slaughterhouses, or should it maybe move into GD?
I could cry Strawman, cause, I didn’t exactly say that.
My first comment after “To what end?” was, “I eat meat, I don’t care what the cow goes through. Regardless of what is done to it, it still ends up on my plate.” Meaning that I see no need to read links that Amfet. (No offence to Amfet, as that was not to say what she was linking to was invalid in anyway.)
My last comment (“The only reason we don’t make a fuss out of eating plants is because plants don’t make a habbit of screaming when you cut them up.”)was a joke.
The chicken beak thing IS pretty cruel. Chickens do have nerves and flesh in their beaks, this is why they’re burnt off, not just cut off. The burning prevents the bleeding.
My info is (for the second time today) from my wife the veterinarian.
I eat all meat (although I rarely choose veal) and I like it. In a perfect world I’d like it if the animals led a nice life outdoors and eating natural foods but it’s difficult to eat so carefully. Or it’s too difficult for me at least.
Much of the PETA issue prays upon emotions that are easily stirred. Images of killing death are not easy to look at (sorry if that isn’t factual enough for you but I think it is a fairly safe bet for most people). If you want your hamburger a cow/steer needs to die.
My point about the zebra and lions merely illustrates that. Some things on this planet eat meat…humans included. Why doesn’t PETA make an effort to convert predators to vegetarians? I have seen what a zebra goes through when being pulled down by a pride of lions. It isn’t pretty, it’s slow and the animal is often being ripped up while still alive. Is that worse than a pneumatic hammer to the head? It is in my book.
Short of forcing all humans to be vegetarians I’m not sure what other options PETA would suggest. Nice of them to pluck at the heart strings but some reasonable alternatives (and converting the world to vegans I don’t see as reasonable) to improve the situation would be better.
I adore animals…even the ugly ones and I would be happy to see their lot in life improve by stamping out needless cruelty but I will still have my steak and not be upset by it either.
Ugh don’t know why people get so defensive about this subject. Whack-a-Mole I hope you are not advocating that we all model our behavior after that of beasts!
Don’t want to make this a debate. Only wanted to offer some sites relevant to the OP. Now go enjoy your burger
I love veal but I too balk at eating it now that I know what they do to make veal ‘tasty’. That truly is a practice I’d like to see stopped.
Occasionally I run into a restaurant that advertises veal raised in a humane fashion (not quite sure what that means but I assume at the very least the calf is not kept in a box). I’ll consider eating veal at those places. Maybe my dollar will induce more producers to follow suit. Unfortunately I don’t see that too much yet (partly because I like veal but mostly for the calf’s benefit in this case).
