response to Lindsay Utz, Morgan Currie, Ryan Jeffery, Eli Kaufman, Eric Zimmerman, and Noella Boudart's post Happy Meal
Blood is still spilled
Commented on February 18, 2008 by - shewster
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response to Lindsay Utz, Morgan Currie, Ryan Jeffery, Eli Kaufman, Eric Zimmerman, and Noella Boudart's post Happy Meal
Commented on February 18, 2008 by - shewster
Most of the standard practices used in today's factory farms are so abusive to animals that if you inflicted them on your dogs and cats you'd be guilty of animal cruelty. Now there's a new product on the market, “humane meat” and its from animals treated less badly. It's something people want very much to believe – that they can eat meat, eggs, and dairy products and not be complicit in the suffering of the animals they consume. But the question remains: Can meat ever be humane? I don't believe so. Whether meat and eggs are labeled organic, free range, cage-free, etc., the animals are still bred by the billions, mutilated (cutting off the tails of pigs and the beaks off chickens and turkeys is allowed under the “Certified Humane” label) and eventually loaded into trucks for a terrifying journey that ends in a brutal slaughter. The terror and suffering of the transportation and slaughter process cannot be overstated. Animals are not, and cannot, be“dispatched as humanely as they were raised” as Christina Waters asserts. And here's an interesting fact: Under current labeling laws, poultry and eggs can be called “free-range” if the birds have access to the outdoors. A producer providing 50,000 chickens with 10 inches of outdoor access can label their products “free range.” Deceptive and manipulative? Yes. Humane? Absolutely not.