Double post, sorry.
Spavined Gelding said:
** Antibiotics present another problem, but it does not have anything to do with the supposed ill effects of animal protein feeds. The vast number of meat animals and dairy animals are keep in confinement lots and buildings, not on the open range. Once a disease breaks out in one of these facilities it goes through the whole heard like corn through a goose. Antibiotics are routinely given as a prophylactic. Antibiotics have been over done and there are resistant strains of disease developing which requires even greater amounts of antibiotic to supress. It becomes a vicious cycle that will cause major trouble sooner or later. In the mean time the farmer is confronted with following a practice that will cause trouble at some time in the unknown future or abandoning the practice and watching disease destroy his heard and his hope for any financial security. I do not accept that there is any connection between the practice of feeding animal based feeds and the use of antibiotics. **
SG, I agree with you, to some extent. But, I think that feeding herbivores foods which are not in their natural diet (such as animal proteins) can make them sick. I do agree with you that the MAIN reason why cows must take antibiotics is because they are kept indoors in close confinement. I just think that ANOTHER cause of their sickness COULD be from the meat consumption.
By the way, when I say meat, I am refering to any product produced from animals, including protein concentrates.
Here is a quote from the rancher Howard Lyman that supports my theory about the animal protein making the cows sick:
'Whereas my father and grandfather raised cattle almost completely on grass and roughage, ** I now cut out their grazing rights and fed them only roughage, grain, and protein concentrates. This diet also, unfortunately, upsets the cowfs natural digestive system, which was designed for grass. **
As a consequence, many of my animals suffered vaginal and rectal prolapses-- organs that belonged on the inside of the cow fell out. It was too expensive to call a vet every time this happened, so I spent countless hours stuffing twenty-five pounds of cow back inside the animal and then sewing the wound, the whole force of a six-hundred-pound heifer straining against me. I have been out of cattle farming for fifteen years now, and I will go back to it the day I wake up with a burning desire to perform another bovine rectal prolapse operation. ’
** Spavined Gelding ** said:
** 'I will accept the idea that feeding animal protein from animals that might possibly have Mad Cow Disease is a bad idea…
This is not to accept the idea that animal protein feeds present any generalized public or animal health risk… ’ **
No one is quite sure of the original cause of Mad Cow Disease. Some people believe it is from feeding Scrapie-infected sheep to cows.
Others believe that it is simply from forcing cows to be ‘cannibals’… feeding cow meat to herbivore cows that has caused this unexplainable biological effect.
The view that it is an effect caused by cannibalism is widely held by many individuals and also many BSE research groups including The Spongiform Encephalopathy Research Campaign, the British Medical Journal, and the World Health Organization.
Spavined Gelding also said:
** ‘I have some trouble thinking that the LA animal shelters are shipping car loads of dead cats and dogs to the great feed mills of the Midwest for processing into calf starter, bone meal, fish meal and high protein animal feed.’ **
This is a fact: The city of Los Angeles alone sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month.
I agree that its hard to believe, but its true. I’ve read it in Howard Lyman’s book and seen the reference/endnote for Los Angeles Animal Control Services.
Also, from a site in the UK (The Spongiform Encephalopathy Research Campaign) http://sparc.airtime.co.uk/bse//
**'The rendering plant floor is piled high with raw product- thousands of dead dogs and cats… **
pigs and horses; whole skunks; rats and raccoons --all waiting to be processed.
Animals are frequently shoved into the pit with flea collars still attached organophosphate-containing insecticides get into the mix as well. The insecticide Dursban arrives in the form of cattle insecticide patches. Pharmaceuticals leak from antibiotics in livestock, and euthanasia drugs given to pets are also included. Heavy metals accumulate from a variety of sources: pet ID tags, surgical pins and needles.
Even plastic winds up going into the pit. Unsold supermarket meats, chicken and fish arrive in styrofoam trays and shrink wrap. No one has time for the tedious chore of unwrapping thousands of rejected meat-packs. ** More plastic is added to the pits with the arrival of… the green plastic bags containing pets from veterinarians. **’
It’s a bad idea feeding meat (or processed meat) to herbivores that humans will eventually eat, because of the pollutants concentrating effect.
It works like this. Plants absorb pollutants from their surroundings. Herbivores eat the plants, but the pollutants (pesticides, heavy metals) tend to stay in their bodies. Carnivores eat the herbivores, and the pollutants are concentrated even more. All that crap will eventually end up in our bodies, which makes us feel all joyous and wonderful.