This may have been posted before but it was my first time coming across it. It shows the inhumane treatment of animals for food. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-513747926833909134&q=peta+video please think organic. (happy animals) J
Slap em across the head, slit their throats... it is all the same to me as long as they are seasoned well!
Not to make this D&D but I always find it funny when people refer to the way we treat animals as inhumane. Aren't animals by definition inhumane? You make your dog sleep outside? How inhumane? Eat from a bowl with no utensils? Inhumane! Walk on all 4's? Inhumane! That said, animals should still be treated respectfully, just not like humans.
I used to not see organic meats or veggies at all but I am starting to see them more and more at everyday locations like Wal-Mart and Krogers.
The waiter approached. "Would you like to see the menu?" he said, "or would you like to meet the Dish of the Day?" "Huh?" said Ford. "Huh?" said Arthur. "Huh?" said Trillian. "That's cool," said Zaphod, "we'll meet the meat." A large dairy animal approached Zaphod Beeblebrox's table, a large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type with large watery eyes, small horns and what might almost have been an ingratiating smile on its lips. "Good evening," it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, "I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in parts of my body?" It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters into a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them. Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox. "Something off the shoulder perhaps?" suggested the animal, "Braised in a white wine sauce?" "Er, your shoulder?" said Arthur in a horrified whisper. "But naturally my shoulder, sir," mooed the animal contentedly, "nobody else's is mine to offer." Zaphod leapt to his feet and started prodding and feeling the animal's shoulder appreciatively. "Or the rump is very good," murmured the animal. "I've been exercising it and eating plenty of grain, so there's a lot of good meat there." It gave a mellow grunt, gurgled again and started to chew the cud. It swallowed the cud again. "Or a casserole of me perhaps?" it added. "You mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?" whispered Trillian to Ford. "Me?" said Ford, with a glazed look in his eyes, "I don't mean anything." "That's absolutely horrible," exclaimed Arthur, "the most revolting thing I've ever heard." "What's the problem Earthman?" said Zaphod, now transferring his attention to the animal's enormous rump. "I just don't want to eat an animal that's standing here inviting me to," said Arthur, "it's heartless." "Better than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eaten," said Zaphod. "That's not the point," Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. "Alright," he said, "maybe it is the point. I don't care, I'm not going to think about it now. I'll just ... er ..." "I think I'll just have a green salad," he muttered. "May I urge you to consider my liver?" asked the animal, "it must be very rich and tender by now, I've been force-feeding myself for months." "A green salad," said Arthur emphatically. "A green salad?" said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur. "Are you going to tell me," said Arthur, "that I shouldn't have green salad?" "Well," said the animal, "I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am." It managed a very slight bow. "Glass of water please," said Arthur. "Look," said Zaphod, "we want to eat, we don't want to make a meal of the issues. Four rare steaks please, and hurry. We haven't eaten in five hundred and seventy-six thousand million years." The animal staggered to its feet. It gave a mellow gurgle. "A very wise choice, sir, if I may say so. Very good," it said, "I'll just nip off and shoot myself." He turned and gave a friendly wink to Arthur. "Don't worry, sir," he said, "I'll be very humane." It waddled unhurriedly off into the kitchen.
Would it be inhumane to leave all bovine creatures in the wild to be torn apart alive by wolves? Mother nature is more brutal and unfeeling than the guy at the slaughterhouse. Welcome to Planet Earth. (it was intellegently designed , you know)
Perhaps inhumane isn't the right word. Or it is the right word and you're just using it wrong. Inhumane generally means "lacking pity or compassion" When an animal is torn apart alive by wolves, you feel pity for that animal. When an animal is killed by the methods used in the video linked, by default one can not have an pity or compassion for that animal to treat it such, at least not in my book. Watch the video and then ask how it in anyway has any similarity to "Mother Nature," or how it isn't inhumane.
I won't give up meat completely, but I will cut down on animal protein and try to purchase organic/freerange stuff whenever I can.
We get the free range when we can. On the otherhand, organic vegetable people can kiss my ass. What's wrong with trying to create a vegatable that can grow in harsh conditions so that starving people around the world can have some food???
Who me? Nah, I love me some meat. Only speaking from personal experience, the concern is mainly in the indirect impacts. How pesticides get into the soil, make it to the oceans, etc., etc. And from a personal level, I am concerned about long-term impact on my health from those and other genetic alterations. Now obviously starving people probably won't be concerned about those things. I don't see anything wrong with your premise either. Heck, I think it would great if we could just grow meat, too.
I was a vegetarian for awhile and wrestled with the morality of eating meat. I came to two conclusions. The first was that if I went to someone's house and they had meat it was rude of me not to eat it because it was an in your face a moral superiority on my part. The second was that since our bodies are designed to digest a certain amount of meat and there are certain proteins that we can't synthesize without eating animal products that we should eat meat. At the sametime though I think we should eat more organic and shouldn't be eating a lot of meat. At the same time we should respect the animals that have given their lives for us and as foolish as it sounds every now and then I will say a prayer and burn incense for the animals I've eaten.
If dogs and cats had opposable thumbs and hind legs were constructed to walk upright we might want them to use utensils and to walk on 2 legs.
~yawn~ what does one really expect? The only thing i do not like is all the steroids and crap that are given to them. I think this is appropriate for this occasion:
Took 2 very fat bambies over Christmas. I promise they were killed, gutted, skinned & butchered - and will be consumed - in a humane & delicious manner.
