Date of Birth - Day of Betrayal
To me slaughtering, harvesting, killing or what have you is the action.
It is all an act if betrayal.
That is how to the very core in terms of animals used for meat.
To exist, livestock they must be betrayed.
Except for the small percentage of breeding animals and the even smaller percentage of breeding animals retired and kept as pets all these animals are betrayed.
I think that mindset is key for compassionate care and conscientious animal husbandry.
No pig, chicken, calf, lamb, etc deserves to die.
Most humans make the choice to get various proteins and nutrients from animal products and the result of that decision is death.
Recognizing this betrayal of the animals will and desire to live is important.
How we treat the animal during life and through death is key.
This is my passion.
My niche is raising pigs but there is internal conflict...to live they must die an unnatural premature death. Many animals are slaughtered before sexual maturity.
Because the death is unnatural it must be humane.
More on "humane" labels later...
It's an uncomfortable fact, but absolutely true. I suppose if you look at it that way, even harvesting a plant you grew and nurtured from a seed, such as a carrot, lettuce or onion -- something that you have pull up and kill in order to eat -- is similarly a betrayal. But it would be awfully hard to live on gleaned food, such as fruit.
ReplyDeleteI don't view plants as sentient beings and can use them with no guilt that I have caused them fear or pain. I certainly don't practice humane planting ;)
DeleteI don't view plants as sentient beings and can use them with no guilt that I have caused them fear or pain. I certainly don't practice humane planting ;)
DeleteI actually view it on a sliding scale. At the top are cows, sheep and pigs, next down is chickens, below that is fish, under them are things like shrimp and snails, and bottom is plant life. It's sort of in order of where I think consciousness is, although I realize this is an extremely subjective thing. But I try and eat from as close to the bottom as possible, taking from the top only when necessary for my health. That's my personal ethic, I'm sure others are different and that's OK.
DeleteLivestock are prey items. Left out to fend for themselves, they would be eaten, probably alive, by myriad predators. So, I guess if I were a prey item (cow/pig/chicken/sheep etc) I would prefer a gun shot to the head where it ended then and there, to being eaten while alive. The difference here is that we care for the animals until that time. How we take care of them is what matters, and as important is as pain free a death as possible.
ReplyDeleteWe have a local butcher for our cattle. They aren't a large scale place and they are very humane, very clean, and you can watch the whole process if you want to.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find disturbing about horse slaughter in this country and Canada is that the people involved in the slaughter want to have it both ways. TB and Standardbred trainers want to use enough drugs on the horses to make sure they'll run even when they're injured or in pain. They don't follow any withdrawal periods before slaughter or even care if the drugs and meat are safe for human consumption, then they want to claim the horses are just livestock and that because people in other countries want to eat them, it's okay. The EU finally got wise to it and has banned horsemeat from the USA.
Then, the meat buyers are notoriously slimey and dishonest. They want to be able to take "used up", lame and ill horses that they get for free or next to free and sell them for meat prices. They show up at farms and stables with a child, or a woman they claim is their wife, and claim they are getting the horse or pony for their kids or family and it will have a good home. That isn't good for either the horses or the humans who eat them. Then they transport them in inhumane trailers that were built for cattle, slaughter them in methods meant for cattle. Many slaughterhouse employees are injured because so many horses regain conciousness after they've been stunned. Temple Grandin has studied horse slaughter extensively here, in Canada and South America and was totally appalled by it.
And while we do raise cattle and a few lambs for meat, we are very very careful about where we take them, we deliver them ourselves. I also don't eat a lot of meat. I don't ever buy pork or beef from supermarkets. We've gone without beef for 2 years because we sold out and I wouldn't buy it. I not only want their death to be painless, I don't want them mishandled or frightened before that. We raise some cattle that I think are beautiful, awesome animals and I want them to be appreciated.
There's a food chain. There always has been, and always will be. The idea that plant based diets exist without killing is silly. Perhaps if one grows 100% of their food on their own property, the killing is decreased. Large scale veggie production kills many, many living beings. Bugs, small rodents, deer, birds, etc are all killed through the planting and harvesting processes. How humane is it when a ground hog or fawn is killed by a combine?
ReplyDeleteIt takes a much larger volume of vegetables to provide the same nourishment as meat. Therefore, it could be argued that eating meat lessens the killing in one's diet.
Do I feel guilty for eating meat? No. I'm a human, and I was meant to be an omnivore. I am supportive of animal welfare. I am not supportive of animal rights, because the goal of all animal rights organizations is to prevent the killing of any animal (at the bare minimum) or to prevent any type of use of any animal products (at the extreme level).
Bravo, Meredith. You are absolutely right. Eating meat IS a choice and not a dietary necessity for humans. I love your statement that this, "...mindset is key for compassionate care and conscientious animal husbandry". Animals are individuals whose lives are important to THEM. They are sentient beings with emotions who feel physical pain and fear, at the very least. If people choose to raise them for food, we owe them a good life with species appropriate surroundings so that they can engage in their natural behaviors and a swift, humane death. And I agree with you that despite some research showing that plants avoid adverse stimuli, the evidence does not support a conclusion that they are sentient beings. I also think that the argument that large scale vegetable farming results in some wildlife deaths is a red herring designed to keep people from looking at the consequences of meat eating.
ReplyDelete