Could you kill your own meat?

U have an interesting avatar cartoon.
I can visualize him 2 different ways:

either, the circle represents his nose n he is facing toward us (no visible eyes),
or
the circle represents his little white cottontail n he is facing away from us.

I doubt that fur does much good.

dlowan, in light of this new PC A2K, I've been very careful to not project, assume or outright accuse.

If you want to take it that way, fine.

Without describing convolvuted situations that carefully omit any mention of a particular person who has posted, it's enevitable that someones view would be mentioned.

I'm not going to sit here and try to figure out how each word I type should be expressed to as not to potentially step on someone's toes. What you said and I followed up on could have been said by any number of people, you just happened to be the one who said it.

comment: There's been literally dozens of times that you dlowan have said things that have very much offended me, but, knowing you're on of the golden people here, I knew there'd be no sense addressing it. I will continue not to address it when you offend me, since as everyone knows, you can do no wrong. And that's all I have to say about that.

In other words, get over yourself.....do ozzies "do" "get over yourself?"



Getting back to the topic....

Since this thread began, I realized I needed to put my actions in alignment with my words....it's been interesting.

Actually, I've found I've become less interested in food in general, unless I'm actually feeling physical hunger.

I think it's because I've decided not to take the easy way out whenever I even have an appetite, and grab some quick, conveninet meat.

Honestly? Each time I think about eating, and choices run through my head, I'm surprised at how unimportant meat seems. When it has crossed my mind, I think about being the one standing over the animal and killing it, watching it die, and that's more than enough to stop that thought.

It is difficult to force oneself to ask the questions we've always taken for granted. I think this is what it's all about for me.

Not the meat in particular, but what else have we conveniently not asked ourselves because dong so would be hard?

When I sit down to a good meal
( I am about to make a reservation
at One if By Land, Two If By Sea, for its resplendent Beef Wellington )
it never occurs to me to consider the condition of the food
before it got cooked.

However, when ordering fish or lobsters,
I have chosen not to select from any aquarium on premises.
I don t wish to impose a death sentence upon some little fellow.




David

But isn't the point that even if you are not picking the animal out of the aquarium you have still imposed a death sentence.?

Oh, get over yourself Chai.

And I wasn't offended, I simply thought, and still think, you are talking through your bum.

And you ditto say things I consider offensive frequently, but I either say something or get over it, I don't need to pull this crap about whether or not you're too golden to say anything. Mostly I don't say anything.

Jesus, find a new violin.

Pffft

Well, in light of the fact that the restaurant is an on-going operation,
even if I don 't order it (suppose I 'm out of town),
that food will still be available to whichever customers happen by.

The animals were raised as food.
Thay 'd never have been born, except for that fact.

Life feeds on life. Just by living our daily lives we are responsible for the destruction of other creatures. Own a cell phone? You are killing gorillas. Eat corn? You are killing butterflies, moths and eventually fish. Bought some Valentine roses from South America? You have contributed to the destruction of rain forest. We all part of this web. There are no innocent people in this world. We have all killed or helped kill something.

Butchering animals is a hard job. Doing it on the scale and with the methods we have developed goes way beyond what nature intended. I'm not opposed to eating humanely raised or wild meat, I just wish more people thought about how our commercial animals are treated in their brief lives and would boycott the worst offenders of this nasty food chain.

There is not a single commercial Ag-biz slaughter house that will let anyone in other than employees. They know it would create a mass gag and vomit from the public. This is one area we do have a choice and I wish more people would make the right one.

As to the question - I have done it, it's not pleasant and I'm happy to let local farmers and hunters do it for me.

Can we try to talk about the topic, now that we've both had our say, and agree we don't think much of each other?

You've made your point that you've thought extensively about this....

What about others?

So far, it seems the consensus seems to be "I don't think about it" Well, except for a couple of hunters, and I'm satisfied with the way they have expressed their feelings.

I'd like to know what others think, when they do go to that place they may have never explored before.

My question, which is how I take the title of this thread is "Could you slit the throat of an animal, watch the life go out of its eyes, go from a living feeling thing to being dead, and then eat it?"

If you can't....why?

If you can....why?

I'm really curious to know what's below the surface of "I like hamburger"

If you've never thought about it, look at it now and see what you come up with.

Good answer, thanks

Yeah, we are are responsible for destruction daily. I've been considering how to minimize my own contribution to it.

I'm not innocent, but awareness is a first step.

That sounds reasonable.
I have no information about how animals r kept pre-slaughter.

I can, and I woud, if it became necessary.
I 'd rather shoot him, than apply your designated technique.
(On the other hand, maybe its easier to open a carotid artery.)

A good example is the first part of Micheal Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma". He buys a beef steer and follows it through it's life, although he is not allowed to watch the slaughter. He also doesn't get to eat it because it is mixed in with thousands of other beef carcasses and becomes unidentifiable. He also covers the cruel factory pork industry with it's inhumane tail docking and crowding methods.

Do the animals have any state or federal legal protections ?

Even if thay do,
it 'd be hard for them to hire a lawyer.

Nope. It is all approved by our Gov't with the help of lobbyists.

Isn't the debate gradually changing in the US?

It is here, re factory farming and such...thugh I don't think we have the sort of awful feedlot thing you guys have for cattle.

Pigs and chickens are raised in great cruelty...but I notice more and more free range meat available, and the pig and poultry people are under increasing pressure.

One truly terrible thing here is the live sheep trade...Msolga has a thread on the terrible cruelty the sheep are subjected to on the voyage, and when they are killed on arrival.

Our animal cruelty laws are gradually strengthening, for example lab practices that I stopped continuing with psychology because of (and was seen as a total idiot for objecting to) have been banned for years now.


There was recently a very mind-numbing situation in which dogs were forcibly removed from a home because of unfit conditions, while a whole bunch of children were allowed to stay....(though not for long, after that publicity!!)

Yes, finally. Although big companies like Perdue and Jimmi Dean are still writing the rules in Washington. The USDA is their "bitch". Organic has become a very fuzzy term thanks to the new rules. They make it hard (read:impossible) for small operations to operate. Good book: "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal" by Joel Salidin. It's the story of how one farmer wants to do what is right, but the law will not let him.

There are a good number of people starting to demand change by voting with their money. It's hard to know what is true via labels, but it is possible to buy humanely raised meat now where just ten years ago it was close to impossible- unless you knew a small scale farmer who sold it on the quiet.

i hate this, i just bought 3 packages of land o frost turkey and chicken for sammiches.

i cant wait until im at the point in life where i can buy only organic food and meat where i know the animals are living clean healthy lives. man buying pure organic food, might i even dare to say, growing my own organic food, would be awesome.

even tho im in an apartment, i think i should start a garden anyways, ill have to make a plan for that, anyways

omg in washington state, we got meat from a local guy, when i came back to las vegas, wow what a gay switch when i look back now, i ate some hamburger, and it tasted so GROSS, so weird, i cant explain it.

the organic, or whatever meat tasted a little more plain, but it tasted a lot more , damn whats the word, fresh, clean.. iono.