Meet Your Meat

Okay. So I'm not a tree hugger or an active PETA member, but I watched some insightful PETA videos over the past few hours, and they were EXTREMELY disturbing. I would post links to them so you could understand where I'm coming from, but first I would rather hear a moderators voice on that because eve though I'd be posting them for an educational/insight purpose, they are pretty graphic. I'm pretty sure the answer would be no, its best not to post them. Any who, the title of the topic is actually the title of one of the videos. So I will help you meet your meat!

I'm not a vegan, but I don't believe I'll ever be able to look at my hamburger or a thanksgiving turkey ever the same again. When you think of where your hamburger came from, you might possibly be naive and think of a happy cow grazing in a field, but thats not the case. Most animals used for meat are born and raised in a small box where they live their whole life. Many have puss-filled wounds or even cancer tissues when they go into the slaughter house (We cannot contract the same kinds of cancers as animals, so they still meet USDA standards). Most times the truck doesn't even have a ramp, they're just shoved off the back. They are hung upside down and put on the processing line where the slaughtering process begins, when they're STILL alive. Some are already so weak that they have to be pulled and shoved off of the truck.

Chickens and turkeys are worse. They're put through a giant steaming machine to remove feather while they're still alive. The live their whole life in a pen surrounded by feces and other dead chickens. The hormones they're given make them grow so fast and the muscles in their legs hadn't fully developed, so they can't even move to get food and some starve to death.

Pigs have it just as bad. They're put through a hair removal/steaming machine while they're still alive, too. Pigs that don't grow fast enough to keep up with the rest are killed either by electrocution or shot in the head with a bolt gun. They're legs are also weak and cannot carry they're weight.

My boyfriend said that it didn't bother him because they had to die some way or another, but these are the animals that feed and nourish us. Wouldn't we want them to be treated a little more kindly and with be a whole lot healthier?

I know maybe, just MAYBE it was something you already knew or it just doesn't sound that bad, because its a fact of life. But you don't really know what you're eating. These animals are filthy, neglected, malnourished, sick, weak, old, or already in the process of dying when they're turned into our food. I understand there are so many different slaughtering processes and its hard to keep up with a demand for food and money, but now I don't know what brand name meats to trust.

Now I understand why there have been so many diseases and recalls on the meats at wal-mart super centers and everything. My boyfriend is very wrong. I'm scared to eat meat now because of all the diseased meat being recalled lately AND I just saw this? Raising healthy animals and giving them some form of human death before slaughtering them is a fact of life, not eating tainted livestock that could ultimately spread disease and kill thousands of people. Whats even worse is the people who work in the slaughterhouse and here these squeals and howls of these dying animals every day. They probably always wreak of blood, as they should.

If you can read this and say "whatever" no, it does not make you heartless. It is sad but like my BF said, its a fact of life. Its been going on for years. However, it does mean that you must not be totally aware of this situation. Its not just about animal rights or save the poor animals, its about saving OURSELVES as well. After seeing about the turkey and chicken, I can honestly say I understand now why two different batches of chicken I bought within the past two months went rotten way before the sell by date.

I didn't put this in the debate thread because I'm pretty sure most people would read this and agree with me. But I was to hear what everybody else has to say about it. Could this really be the reason why disease has been found in our meat products lately? How do you feel about meat now after reading this? Did you already know about this? What do you think we can do about it? And any other feedback you can think of would be nice to hear, too!

 

(Don't think you should post the videos. There are kids on here. xD)

As for what you said, I totally agree. I am not a vegan or anything like that and I don't know if I ever could be, but what we do to animals just so we can eat disgusts me. What your boyfriend said is true, I guess, but I hpe he realizes how terribly these animals are treated just so we can have our turkey dinners.

 

Wow. Not only cruel to the animals, but cruel to us. and they put them through machines while they're still ALIVE. Sure, i'd understand if we were all starving but we're not. And tonight we're having pork. How to talk my way out of this one...?

 

Well don't totally ban meat out of your diet for this.

And despite all the cruelty, we do kinda fair better on all the protein in meat .We don't need to eat meat to survive, though. I just don't understand why we as humans put these animals through a worse death than they could suffer at the paws of a predator out in the wild.

We certainly have better technology and brain capacities than the hunters in the wild do. Hell, tribal people in the jungles and out in the savannas of Africa are more merciful in killing animals for food than we are.

 

Those PETA sites show specific places and it is not certainly the way all animals are raised and such. There are farms I have seen aplenty where the cows, pigs and chickens all have room and graze outside etc, and are not bound to being in boxes. Some farms really do need people to raise attention to their activities so that this mistreatment can be stopped, but it is not -all- farms and there are regulations obviously not being followed.

Here, when we found out a chicken coup was treating the chickens very poorly, causing them to be in feces and underneath the area were dead chickens etc, we had pictures and people rallied together and forced this behavior to change or else we would not buy eggs and such from that grocery chain anymore. It forced them to clean it up and stand by better practices.

I do not know if I ever could become a Vegan as all of them look sickly to me and in the end, you kill plants too, which are usually alive to some degree as you take them home, so I'd rather not debate over the point I crave certain foods and that's how it is. I know that if I had to go hunt for food, I would. That's the way it goes. However, we all can raise our awareness on how these animals are treated and doing so does get people to notice and act to change them. I saw it happen here a few times when some farmers got 'lazy' and money grubby. It can be done. Boycotts hurt them like crazy.

 

Well, it's very sad and quite unfortunate, indeed. It really disturbs me when I hear about all the disgusting things that go on. And how the animals are so mistreated (to use an all-around word).

Would I want it to be better? Yes, of course. Would I want them to be treated MUCH healthier so the food is actually 100% natural and healthy? Of course, no doubt. But sometimes it takes more than protesting and demand to get things done. Whether it gets done or not, I hardly eat meat anyway. Maybe a TV dinner or two a month, or some fish/chicken every so often, yeah... but I have known this for some time now. And it's the reason I haven't been eating certain meats so much.

All I can say: poor animals. D:

 

Well, we probably know which companies are the ones doing it. The ones getting all of their meat recalled! D:

And not pointing fingers, but I would believe that the cheaper meat companies would do this. Why else would their meat be just above USDA standards and so cheap? I don't know this for sure, just forming a conclusion based on what I know about the economy and what I learned from the FFA. I will do some more research on the companies who do this, though, so I know what meat companies to boycott.

But wouldn't you think the higher quality & better tasting meats treat their animals better?

 

I have always hated how animals are treated...I sometimes don't want to eat meat because of that...however, there are certain qualities and such inside of meat that would give you nutrients otherwise not found (unless in pills...which isn't exactly as well as meat). However, finding a place where the meat that's sold came from animals treated well is possible, at least I believe I heard of some...

So basically, it would be more compassionate, right, to buy meat where the animals aren't mistreated, although sometimes, you just have to eat what you have...since your body requires those nutrients...it just depends on your choice...on what you want to do or not...I believe that abusing animals should be stopped however, and there ought to be something done to stop them, which there should be some people trying already at least...​

 

You are onto something here. Some of the cheapest things usually are cheap for a reason. They can kick it out at mass production because of what they cut corners on. Some of the worst places are like that which I've seen. Here I tend to buy things local if I can because you can just go see the farms if I drive out an hour or three in directions and know how the animals exist and all. As with many things in life, you get what you pay for.

 

Well I live in a pretty large town, possibly on its way to becoming a city with the increasing population, in the very north Tennessee so there isn't much of a local selection, if I am correct. Sometimes its hard for me to boycott cheap meat because even though I am 19, I live with my brother and go to school, but don't work. He's the main bread winner and whatever meat he buys we eat. He always looks for the better quality meat of all the cheapest, though.

I loved it up north in Chicago, though. In my area we had an actual meat store where everything was fresh cuts & from a local farm that everybody knew. Its actually the only store I had ever been in where I kinda enjoyed the smell of raw meat. It was all perfectly fresh.

 

all of those PETA videos show the most gruesome ways of killing animals, and nothing that is commonly used. i know alot of meat factroies are now/planning on useing gasses that knock the animals out, and then kill them.

 

That is from an extremist's POV, in some if not most cases.

I'm not saying it happens, it does. But there's a reason why I blatantly refuse to buy anything from places other than Hannaford and places like a store nearby called the meat house.

They TELL you exactly where they got the meat. They aren't looking for a quick buck, but they raise an honesty policy that keeps their store going. I always look from the ones that they say is free range, and the ones that they say are the ones who are treated humanely and die humanly.

The turkey's I eat for thanksgiving and Christmas are free range from Vermont. The people actually kill them from behind to reduce the stress for them. They're actually ten times better than the ones that are from the Purina and other farms. I also buy chicken from the hannaford where you can ask them and they tell you free range. Same for beef. I still refuse to go anywhere else for meat I want.

You just have to ask around. There's places that still follow the hundreds of years tradition of cruelty free areas. You can ask your friendly butcher nearby.

I don't suggest the places like wal-mart and other places like it, though.

 

Meh, I prefer to live off snacks, like protein bars, chips (not fatty doritos), and all kinds of "Healthy" snacks,
I guess its because I play too much DDR, I needz the energy...
but anyway, I do like some meat

Anywho...
Yes, it is really cruel what they do to get the meat from the animals... that's just disturbing

I really don't like turkey in the first place... (meh, they get killed by the billions before thanksgiving)

 

About that if you think about it, kids in a recent reality show where they had to live like frontiersman.

Part of that, of course...

Was killing chickens. And note: Some of these kids were like eight or nine years old. They were freaked and grossed out of course, but they still ate the food when it was placed in front of them.

I think some don't care, some are vegans for the rest of their lives, it's up to them. But the thing is, if you ask the local butchers, they will tell you where you got it from. Not places like Wal-Mart, hell no...

But a local supermarket locally owned, or honest butchers. I have a ton around this area, you ask them questions and they will tell you straight out where the food comes from.