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Old January 25, 2013, 02:56 AM   #24
FrankenMauser
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Join Date: August 25, 2008
Location: In the valley above the plain
Posts: 13,402
This is a topic I could spend hours (maybe days) discussing. I'll try to keep this short...

I very much prefer eating only animals that I know were healthy, and were slaughtered properly. For that reason, I avoid beef, turkey, and chicken; and try to minimize my pork intake. I'd be lying to everyone, including myself, if I said I don't eat commercial meat; but I do try to avoid it.

A few years back, my wife was asking why I hated commercially-raised animals so much. While explaining that the reasons depend on A) how it's raised, and B) how it's slaughtered, I showed her a few videos. Standard commercial 'chicken houses' and beef feed lots nearly made her sick, which I made worse with some data on the hormones, diseases, chemicals, and antibiotics they're loaded with. But, it was a video of mass compressive asphyxiation of pigs that pushed her over the edge.

Seeing a hydraulic wall crush 40 pigs at a time, before dumping them - half of them still alive - battered, bleeding, covered in feces and vomit, and (the live ones) screaming, onto a conveyor belt... that really got her attention. She didn't knowingly eat pork meat for at least a year.

Since then, my wife has not only NOT had a problem with the idea of sending a bullet through an animal's brain or heart, but she has become a staunch supporter of ethical hunters being some of the most humane killing machines.
She also doesn't complain when I go out of my way to track down a free-range chicken, or spend 3 hours calling around to find a local farm with grass-fed beef. (Or some well-treated suckling pig. )


If I could raise my own livestock, I would. My wife and I would LOVE to be able to raise our own Pronghorn, but that's not likely to ever happen.


And, just one last thing I have to say...
My biggest problem with beef is not the animal or the methods of slaughter. My problem with beef is the feed. Corn is evil, and cows should not be eating it. With a proper diet, up to 80% of disease in commercial beef would be gone.
(I'm sorry. I had to. I hate corn. It tastes great, but our agriculture and beef industries are completely screwed up because of Corn subsidization.)
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