Alright, for those of you who don't know about Peta, I'll explain it. Peta is a website were they expoilt the cruelty to animals to attempt to turn us all into vegans. They have the strong belief that eating meat and meat related products is wrong. The also believe that anything that has anything to do with animals is wrong. Let me put it to you in another way. Pamela Anderson is their "spokesperson." The most I've ever seen Pam do is flip her hair in another ditzy video or show that she is flaunting her hugely fake breasts in. What kind of oganization who wants to be taken seriously hires someone like that to speak for them? I wouldn't.
Peta shows many different things on their website they show links to animal rights sites, links to vegetarian sites and they have these cute little pages telling you (subliminally, of course) to become a vegan. The other thing that turned me against them was their featured videos. These videos are actually clips of hard core animal abuse that they catch on film when one of their members goes into the place where the abuse is occuring and they videotape it. Hmmm, lets think. If I saw a horse getting cut open while it was alive would I a) stand there and video tape it, B) run over and beat the people silly and then get the horse medical attention or C) laugh. Well I thought the obvious answer would be B but according to Peta they should just stand there and videotape it. Yeah that sound exactly like what an animal rights activist would do, NOT.
I think webites like Peta grossly over exaggerate the amount of cruelty that goes on all around the world. They exploit the animals pain through videotapes to try and get us to eat only vegtables. Why? So that the poor little animals that they just stand around watching be dismembered, will have a nice world to live in. Well here's something to think about. What ever happened to things such as eating right. Humans are naturally meant to be omnivores, and if you don't like that then stop filming animals in slaughter houses. If we didn't kill them in the slaughter houses then they could always die a number of different ways. What is the point of standing around videotaping them die. Do you really think that will stop people who have been eating meat their entire lives, from eating it now? Probably not.
Websites like this make me sick for a number of reasons. They make it seem like they are oh-so-innocent and have never eaten any animal or animal products in their lives. Well guess what, animal waste is spread onto vegtable feilds so unless you plan to starce yourself, its not going to happen. People always will eat meat. It is the way life is supposed to be. Our natural diets included meat why whouldnt we eat it? And I'm not knocking vegetarianism. That is a personal choice. I have honestly never had any of my vegetarian friends or relatives bug me into become vegetarian. Peta is just in your face, and exploiting the death pain and suffering of animals for their own mission. I don't think they even care about the animals. I think they just want us to become exactly what they are. Unfortunatly for them, whole human race isn't a bunch of assimilationists, who wants to follow around some airhead, filming animals dying and eating nothing but brussel sprouts.
If you don't believe me about the videos feel free to check them out. I have to warn you against it though, They are more blood and guts than I have ever seen. They actually disgusted me and nothing much does that anymore. www.peta.com
You must be an idiot to think cruelty videos are made up or exaggerated. It takes a great deal of courage to stand by and film such terrible cruelty in an attempt to expose it. What would they achieve if they walked in and ran around like an idiot? That is hard to expose anything if you did step in and stop it. The abusers would say nothing happened and it would all continue.
Did you see the recent HBO undercover special on the dog dealer? That was done by an animal protection investigator which resulted in massive fines and the closing of the animal abuser.
Free speech is critical, but stupidity is a shame. Just because you can blog doesn't mean you should. If this site is progressive Tom DeLay must really be your mentor.
first off what i said was that instead of just standing by and watching they should do something about it, not that they should run around like idiots and i never said they made up or exaggerated the videos. What I actually said, if you had read properly was that they exploited the suffering of these creatures to attempt to turn us into vegans. As for your little HBO special thing, i don't watch a whole lot of tv so no i didnt see it, and imagine that it was NOT a Peta undercover special... hmmm... topic = Peta not HBO. Stupidity is a shame, too bad you don't take your own words to heart as i just crushed your arguement. The fact that you have to resort to petty insults in response to something that is my opinion just shows me that again you are not listening to yourself or thinking your actions through. No offense but next time give me an arguement that is worth my time to respond to.
Ms. Sawyer,
I am not and never have been a member of PETA. I am a horse owner and I took my own personal time to fly to Texas and document the slaughter of horses. They do not allow anyone to film the actual killing, and that alone speaks volumes. You can, however, stand on the adjoining property and watch the horses being driven to their deaths, and you can stand within feet of the kill box and hear the thrashing of the horses when they are improperly stunned.
My video is posted on the web at:
www.kaufmanzoning.net/horsemeat/AmericanHorse.wmv (low res)
You can use the same link with .mpg if you have a highspeed connection and the quality is much better.
I say please post your experience and video so people can judge.
John Holland
Horse owner
I think what PETA does is heroic. Revealing the horrors of factory farming to the public is a great service to those who are not aware of the terrible abuse, suffering, and inhumanity that goes into our meat. There is nothing inevitable about people continuing to eat meat. And all of us are works in progress. Past meat eating doesn't make a resolution to stop or eat meat any less valuable. Simply because absolute diet purity may be out of reach doesn't mean we have to continue to support what goes on in factory farming by continuing to eat meat. Becoming vegetarian has been one of the best decisions I've ever made for myself with great benefits of health in body, mind, and spirit. I appreciate PETA's work that helps inspire more to a more enlightened and healthful approach to eating.
Sincerely,
Sam
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
--Thomas Edison, inventor
I somewhat agree with you - PETA is rather hopeful in trying to convert everyone to veganism
Cruelty to animals is one thing. However, these guys take it way too far. PETA slaughtered more domestic pets in the aftermath than was killed in Katrina in New Orleans - they claimed it was more "humane" to kill the animals rather than have them transported to other shelters around the country or possibly reunited with a family.
I saw them once, outside a KFC protesting about how they treat their animals. Now I'm quite sure that KFC doesn't defeather and deep fry chicken while they are still alive. I do know that the content of the chicken is questionable - back home in australia, they're the biggest customers of a rabbit farm - but their mistreatment is rather exaggerated.
We, as humans, are supposed to eat meat - it gives us the proteins and nutrients that are necessary for our healthy living. Calcium is essential to everyone, especially women. I went to uni with a girl who studied health sciences and she was so adament about getting the daily intake of calcium because it is now when we are developing and growing that it absorbs the most. Plus, our teeth are designed as such to facilitate meat eating.
Now, I have friends who are vegetarian and I respect their decision - but it's not for me. Plus, if we're vegan, eggs, milk, wool, and any other animal by-product is a no-go.
I'm for the other organisations that fight animal cruelty, like the RSPCA and such. PETA to me is a bit of an extremist joke.
The chickens are kept in cages so small that their extremities stick out. The cages are so stacked against each other that these extremeties become deformed. The extreme close quarters and packing of these chickens lead to chickens pecking each other and injuring each other, killing each other, and blinding each other. Sometimes they melt their beaks off to prevent this from happening and without any pain killers. The chickens literally live in their own squallor, day in, day out. They are raised in these conditions until they are slaughtered.
Citizen Press Revolution
Although what you say about peta is true, they do indeed exploit animal suffering. However after that pretty much everything you have to say is nonsense. It is clear that the full extent of your research on the topic was a brief vist to peta's web site. Anybody reading this who knows anything about peta is going to think you are pretty stupid.
Jeff
"Needed: People for the Un-insulting Treatment of People"
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) do not have a clue when it comes to drawing analogies that strike a chord with other people with whom they would like sway to their cause.
Earlier this week in an open demonstration on the UC Santa Barbara campus, PETA erected a large billboard that created quite a stir. The billboard had images and a message comparing the lynching of two black men to the killing of animals for food. When a PETA spokeswoman offered her defense of the exhibition, emotions boiled over, especially among African-American students.
Not long after the controversial exhibit was put up, something blew it over. It's unclear whether it was a gust of wind or something else. The PETA protesters quickly decided that it was time to pack it up. UCSB police were on hand during the shouting match, but both sides were peaceful.
This is not the first time PETA has put their foot in it. This organization compares the treatment of chickens for food to the Holocaust. These tactics employed by PETA are prime examples of when over-reaching as an art form becomes detrimental to ones cause. Do ya' think?
Bloglink:
http://maxine-log.blogspot.com/2006/04/needed-people-for-un-insulting.html
YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
Well you sure are brave, you don't leave a name and your arguement just made me change everything about the way I think. Wow... you are just so reliably intelligent. Hey everyone lets listen to this guy!!! *note sarcasm*
Jessica Sawyer
PETA is hypocrite central. They kill animals too -- and then raise millions of dollars lecturing everybody else about NOT killing animals. See www.PetaKillsAnimals.com
Yeah... I don't doubt that cruelty exists in factory farms et all, but I do doubt it coming from PETA, since they recycle old (and with it possibly inaccurate) footage without disclosiong the original source, and age.
This is moronic. The facts:
KFC refuses to take the advice of their own animal welfare advisory board--members of which have resigned due to the fact that the board's existence is a farce--which advises improving the slaughter process so that chickens are not conscious while scalded before defeathered, advises to not cut chicks' beaks off (they are full of nerves and like cutting your finger tip off), etc.
I don't know where any of you live, but any animal shelter that I ever go to definitely has no shortage of homeless, unwanted animals. The idea that PETA does anything but a loving service by giving so, so many animals a peaceful escape from a world that does not want them is incredible. I hope that no one who argues against euthanizing unwanted animals does not have any animals bought from pet stores or from breeders.
To argue that the heroes videotaping the horrific torture of animals available on peta.org should have put the cameras down and intervened is very, very childish. Once the individual steps in he or she may be physically assaulted, the footage will be confiscated, and the torture will go on with no evidence of it, and people will not know what routinely happens to them.
Humans certainly are no carnivores. No true carnivore suffers from heart disease, cholesterol buildup, etc. As "carnivores," our teeth are pathetic. Look at a cat's teeth, for example; THOSE are teeth of a carnivore. Ours are unquestionably those of herbavores, as are our intestines. Carnivores have short intestines so that the ingested flesh doesn't start to rot inside the body. Our intestines are very long so that, indeed, flesh starts to rot inside.
First, KFC don't touch chickens themselves. They have suppliers that do this for them, so if you are going to throw around the blame for actual animal cruelty, get the target right. Second, I have heard conflicting reports on this claim, can you pleae provide a source for this infromation on cutting beaks?
This is more than an idea, don't live in denial, PETA has done its fair (or unfair, I should say) share of misdeeds to tarnish its name amungst the commonfolk.
Funny, I never found, anything rottin in there... maybe because it is more of PETA's bullshit.
Humans are no carnivores, this is true, but that is because we never were taught that were were... in fact we for the most part were raised and tought to be omnivores. Jeez, some of the brains between PETA supporters, makes me wonder if they even passed biology. We are omnivores, OMNIVORES. we eat BOTH meat AND plant matter.
The fact that you are so defensive is really the first step. I see this reaction all the time. I'm not saying you're a carrot away from being vegetarian, but the FACT that you are up in arms about veganism and what Peta "accuses" you of (blindness to torture, animal cruelty, lack of empathy), is one more step to enlightenment. Sounds like hippy bullshit to me too....but I was you. And now I'm vegan.
I don't approve of Peta's measures to control pet population using the example of the apparent "scandal" of putting animals to sleep. But if they hadn't they would have languished in that area's shelter and been put to death by less humane methods because the shelter was too poor to afford the medication. (gassing, etc)
The humane society does not advocate killing animals. Are they not hypocrites too? Shelters and humane societies all over the country put THOUSANDS of animals to death every day....so throw your stones elsewhere.
I reference the documentary about speciesism called Earthlings. It's floating around on google video and it isn't produced by Peta. The first 30 minutes or so is about this issue of the skyrocketing pet population and the disposability of pets because they are somehow undeserving of respect.
Funny that you wrote about this becasue a girl on my newspaper staff is obsessed with PETA and animal abuse. She wrote an article for the paper and naturally her sources were entirely from a PETA handbook. Needless to say, one of our AG teachers wrote a letter to the editor that crushed her story. I will give you a short overview of what he said.
What PETA documents are isolated incidents. They say KFC abuses animals, when one place KFC bought animal meat from did, that is out of the hundreds KFC buys from and that was one time. The incidents they document are just as isolated as saying that members of PETA are terrorists. FYI many of them DO support terroristic campaigns! Plus what they say is animal abuse in many times is NOT! They cuts off birds' beaks etc to keep the chickens safe so that they do not attack one another. They cut off pigs' tails becasue if they do not they will chase their own tail, bite it off, and the blood atracts other pigs to attack it etc...there was more to his response, which I can post what she said and he said in entirety in another blog, lol, tomorrow when I get to school and can acess the Journalism files. But that is the gist of it.
It's outrageous that someone outside of the corporate "agri-business" world would attempt to call painful mutilations of animals--no pain medication given when body parts including tails, teeth, testicles, beaks, and horns are yanked out of the body--a "good" thing to keep them "safe" in the abhorrently crowded, filthy, noxious factory farming conditions where, indeed, they do attack each other. Cage me with 8 people for weeks and months on end without the space for any of us to lie down, turn around, or all reach our food supposedly provided, for weeks and months on end, then I think we'd all be fighting before long, too.
If the horrors that PETA caught on videotape are so "isolated"--including some at what had been their "KFC Supplier of the Year" slaughterhouse--then how come they won't institute the guildelines recommended by their own supposed animal welfare advisory board? How come those members have resigned in disgust after they realized that they existed in name only?
People, seriously--PETA is not the enemy. Look at your own lives and lifestyles and look at what you're supporting if you eat meat. Stop attacking the messenger.
Your argument: hilarious.
Let me make a few brief points. First of all, your main concern about videos. Why does PETA film cows being hung upside down and dismembered while they're still concious, instead of helping that animal right there? For a few reasons. Mainly, documenting that kind of grotesque abuse and releasing it for thousands to see is far more beneficial for animals in the long run than helping that one cow. Thousands of people will see that video and go vegetarian, thereby saving an exponential number of animals over the years. If the investigator was not filming and solely focused on helping that one cow, only one cow would be saved, and nobody would have seen the abuse that she endured. Also, many of the things documented in undercover investigations are NOT illegal, so there is nothing that the investigator could have done. Animals raised and killed for food have minimal protection under the law, and chickens for example have NO protection. But while they are not illegal, they are still horrifying and powerful enough to turn people vegetarian, because they don't want to support such ridiculous abuse - which is the purpose of video.
Next, PETA exploits the animals pain? What? PETA is a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is the reduce the amount of suffering in the world. As an activist, I'd like nothing more than to stop protesting things like KFC and fur. I don't do it because it's a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I do it because people are still abusing animals in horrible ways. If this cruelty didn't exist, I'd be free to spend my time fighting for other causes. If I was an animal suffering in a factory farm, I'd want nothing more than for an organization like PETA to document what I've been through, so that people will actually know about it. PETA would not be "exploiting my pain". They'd be helping me.
"Do you really think that will stop people who have been eating meat their entire lives, from eating it now? Probably not". Yes, in fact, I do think it will stop people! Several years ago I watched a video documenting factory farms and slaughterhouses, and I went vegan that day. Because I couldn't possibly continue to support these industries, knowing what the animals I'm consuming go through. I'm now a full-time animal rights activist, and I see people change their eating habits every day because of these videos. So I can answer your question with fact rather than under-thought opinion: yes.
And lasty, PETA does not "make it seem like they are oh-so-innocent and have never eaten any animal or animal products in their lives". I don't know very many vegetarians that have been that way since birth. The vast majority used to eat meat, dairy, eggs, whatever, but after finding out the extent that these animals suffer, changed their diet. The point is that you can change. Nobody is condeming people for not being vegetarian their entire lives.
The one thing I agree on is that if people don't believe you about these videos, definitely check them out. I challenge anyone to watch a raccoon-dog being skinned alive while she is still concious, then thrown onto a pile of dead animals, still blinking, breathing, and panting - and then not agree that fur is wrong. Or watch a video of cows being branded and castrated without pain killers, having their throats slit while still concious; pigs being scalded alive in hair-removal tanks; baby chicks having their beaks cut off without pain killers - and then not think to themselves, "maybe I can try some fake meat tonight instead".
Humans certainly are no carnivores. No true carnivore suffers from heart disease, cholesterol buildup, etc.
- actually, cholesterol and such are caused from other things in our diet that we add to natural foods, such as artificial flavours, chemicals and extra fats. They aren't the result of eating meats.
As for me, I'm going to continue eating meat. Not every meat producer is barbaric in their treatment of animals - PETAs examples ARE isolated incidents from certain companies. It shouldn't be generalised to include ALL meat industries.
I mean, it's silly. Are you going to stop eating fish because we let it "suffocate" after cruelly hooking the lip of the poor unfortunate and pulling it out of it's natural habitat to flip helplessly on the floor of a boat?
What about creatures like crabs or lobsters that get thrown into the boiling pot when they're still alive? Does PETA care about them?
How else are we going to kill cows if we don't cut their throat? Hope they die of old age? Insert a potential meat-damaging drug and let them die in their sleep?
Ethical treatment of animals - yes.
Abstaining entirely from meat because of the actions of a few - hell no. I like my steaks and my lamb and my pork and my chicken and my fish. And I know that there are a good number of people out there whose very life depends on the meat industry and they treat their animals very well.
Just boycott the ones who don't and they'll get run out of business, not boycott all the meat industry companies. That's just stupid. That's punishing the people who are doing the right thing too.
Heh, well, I'm glad that SilverDragonn has turned all known medical science on its head by informing us all that we don't need to worry about increasing our cholesterol levels by eating tortured animal flesh! (And pretending that we're infant calves with four hooves and four stomaches by drinking cows' milk and eating solidified versions of it.)
SD, it's becoming increasingly impressive how far technology is taking us and what we're able to do with it. Exactly which planet, pray tell, are you communicating with us all from? You are terribly misinformed about what happens on Earth. It is standard operating procedure for respective animals to be mutilated without any hint of pain relief by way of castrations, dehorning, debeaking, tail-removal, and teeth-removal. That's what's standard and not hidden. Time and again PETA and other organizations release hours upon hours of footage of animals being tortured for your palate. Just a couple more examples:
http://www.wegmanscruelty.com
http://www.cok.net/feat/paefi.php
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/undercover_investigations.asp
Yeah, you've made it clear--you're going to continue eating tortured animal flesh and maintaining your body as a graveyard of misery. Congratulations. For everyone else, do you want to read first-hand testimony from just one of KFC's former slaughterhouse employees?
http://www.kfccruelty.com/a-tyson1.asp
In response to the question over whether I'm going to stop eating fish because they're left to suffocate, the answer is no...only because I did a few years ago. It probably shouldn't be a big surprise. Don't forget the part about them also being crushed to death and--in the cases of deeper-sea fish, suffering the agony of being decompressed. (You know how it feels in your head when you go down several feet in a swimming pool or a lake, et al? Imagine the reverse from so much further down!)
To answer the question about whether PETA speaks up for lobsters who are boiled alive and scream when they are so, the answer is "absolutely."
To answer the question of "how else" we're supposed to kill cows if not by cutting their throats...oh, man, could you miss the point more?? But I will say that PETA has been really promoting a method of killing called controlled atmosphere killing for chickens where their oxygen is slowly replaced with carbon monoxide and they, essentially, go to sleep before they are slaughtered. Surely you wouldn't take issue with such a method vs. the current one which has their legs broken as they're violently hanged upside-down, taken through inefficient stun baths (inefficient because it's a lot cheaper to keep the voltage down which doesn't effectively stun them) and then have their thoats slit before they're dropped into scalding tanks for feather removal, often still conscious. (The same goes for pigs, by the way.)
Guys, seriously. If you even agree that "PETA's heart is in the right place," then you already got. We're not talking about family farms here where there used to be some semblance of humanity extended to farmed animals. Family farms DO NOT EXIST anymore in any meaningful capacity. Facoty farms are where it's at, and I think "it" has already been pretty vividly defined in this blog and I don't think that anyone, even the dark dragon here, would consider it to be okay.
You obviously have never been to any other country other than america.
There are plenty of family-owned and company-owned farms that kill their animals humanely. And many others in poor world countries that do it without painkillers. Hell, I know a guy who gets his wisdom teeth removed without painkillers - are we being inhumane to him?
You have taken this way way way too far. Yes, I said that bad treatment of animals is horrible. But You go to every bloody farm, every place that sells meat, that sells milk or other animal by-products and tell me that each and every one of them is treating their animals inhumanely. Because it is a huge generalisation on your part to believe that bullshit. Only a few do so - and they are the ones who gain the media attention. Compare it to Enron - are you going to say that all companies will cheat on their shareholders because of the actions of one company? No, it's idiotic. Same thing here.
I don't know about you, but I'd find it extremely hard to find products that aren't made with animal products or by-products. I'm lactose intolerant, but I'm not giving up milk because it comes from a cow. A cow actually LIKES having its udder relieved; if you've ever been on a farm and milked a cow, they love it. I knew one that would wait patiently at the shed every morning so that we could milk her.
How is THAT inhumane? Not milking a cow gives them undue pain and can develop infections because of the curdling of the milk. Now, I'd say milking the cow and not wasting the product is better than not milking it.
By the way, I was correcting someone on their quote that cholesterol comes from meat. Which it doesn't. Next time, attack what I have ACTUALLY said rather than what you think I have said. It makes you look less like an idiot :)
PETA just makes a bad name for themselves because of their unrealistic expectations of people to give up all meat, as well as their dated videos, dated ideals, and overzealousness - I can only have to point out to the thousands of euthanised animals that had their bodies dumped in dumpsters after the flooding of New Orleans to show that their views of "humane and ethical treatment" are quite skewed.
Dragon, the idea that small family farms are of any consequence in the greater picture of where animal parts (plus eggs and dariy products) come from, at least in the U.S., is pretty sad, particularly to those family farmers who are watching themselves becoming extinct.
Of course all who try to inform the world about the nasty things going on behind closed doors are always answered with claims like "only a few do it." Ignorance is bliss, indeed, but not for those who suffer every minute of their lives, human and nonhuman alike. You're doing no service to the animals, the other readers of this blog, or yourself by continuing to keep your eyes and mind closed pretending like you know what happens in standard factory farming. If you get your animal flesh and other 'goods' from small independent or family operations with 'more humane' practices, then I won't even TRY to convince you to go vegetarian. I'm guessing that you get yours from the supermarket, though.
Some other notes, though:
Call KFC and ask them if the birds *who breed those killed for the buckets* have their beaks seared off. If you record them saying that they're not, give it to PETA and KFC will be in a lot of trouble. (Obviously you won't do that, but my point is to show the seriousness of this situation.)
Cows currently give 10x as much milk daily that they would in nature and it's not uncommon for udders to drag on the ground. Ask any human mother how they would have felt if they produced 10x as much milk than they already did, which isn't always the most comfortable thing.
You ask how milking cows, otherwise, is cruel. Cows are typically warehoused in large buildings without ever seeing the outside, save for maybe their trips to the slaughterhouse when they no longer give milk, even after repeatedly artificially impregnated only for their babies to be taken away from them after a day or two, causing them to bellow and cry for days and even fight when the calves are being separated from them. (If you don't CARE about those cruelties, then that's up to you. But you asked how the dairy industry is so cruel.) By the way, there's a fair amount of pus in all dairy caused from infections, especially from the frequent hookups with the automatic milking machines. Yum!
Give me solid evidence of all that you claim. I want statistics, I want scientific research, I want the facts rather than your hearsay that such stuff is happening. Because I have been on a farm, I have worked on a farm, I KNOW a lot of people who are farmers and NONE of this happens.
Give me scientific research instead of the doctrine that PETA and other idealists regurgitate up. Tell me how many farms in the US are being inhumane to their animals. Show me that all are doing it. Back it up with facts rather than stories.
Isolated stuff DOES happen. One good example - prisoner abuse in Iraq. Are we going to say that the military abuses their prisoners because of a few episodes at one time? What about the detainees at Guantanamo bay that cry out that they are being abused? Are you going to take these small pieces of information and make judgements on the US military, and the US people themselves because of such? No, because you're in a solid mindset that humans are evil to animals. I KNOW this is not the case.
Point in fact - the RSPCA in Australia have a large number of chicken farms where chickens are able to roam free-range, and their eggs are collected.
Ok, tell me how that is mistreating them.
The RSPCA is an organisation that works to better the condition of animals under human consumption - it fights for free-range eggs, for humane killings, and for greater community knowledge. It doesn't advocate giving up all animal products entirely. PETA does that - it goes about this animal suffering thing in the wrong way.
Go look up the RSPCA site in both the UK and Australia. THAT is the way it should be done. And look what they have gained in return. What has PETA done? Nothing. Therefore, it is a useless organisation that is just filled with idealists who would rather prolong the problem than think of any acceptable solution.
Lol, oh no. Now look what you have done! PETA is going to storm Red Lobster, great! LOL!
I'm grilling up a big, fat, juicy, medium rare ribeye right now---and I'm going to savor every bite. :) mmmm mmmm good.
As promised, this is what my uninformed contemporary wrote about eating meet via a PETA pamphlet:
In each mouthful of flesh that you had for your last meal there was Cholesterol and saturated fat. These alone are the leading causes of bloating, indigestion, acne, and sinus problems, and these substances can only be obtained by eating meat, but this should be the least of your worries. There are a few details about the side effects of this food that companies are neglecting to tell you. In every bite there are antibiotics, steroids, feces, filth, torture, pain, and misery. Not to mention, people who eat meat should personally claim responsibility for the abuse, torture, and death of a few thousand animals.
Need some statistics? Vegetarians are fifty percent less likely to develop heart disease, they are forty percent less likely to develop cancer, or meat eaters are ten times more likely to be obese than vegans are? Meat consumption, alone, has been linked with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, asthma, and impotence.
People who eat meat are also more vulnerable to everyday illnesses like the flu. Also, thirty-three percent of people who eat meat are classified as obese and fifty percent of young adults have some sort of atherosclerotic damage, which is a leading cause of heart attacks. However, only two percent of vegans are obese.
Leading health experts agree that being vegan or vegetarian is one of the best things you can do for your body. As a matter of fact, meat-free diets are rich in complex carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, vitamins, and minerals that provide the needed nutrition for adults and children alike.
Dr. Frank A. Oski, former director of pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University, says, “There’s no reason to drink cow’s milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves; it was not designed for humans, and we should all stop drinking it today, this afternoon.
This is what one of our Ag teacher wrote in response. Funny Stuff:
I am writing in response to the Opinion Section column entitled: “Meet your Meat
Leave it to a mouthpiece for the ag industry to justify painful mutilations as "for the animals' own good" in the context of our having put them in such blatantly unnatural hellhole conditions. For those who believe that God gave us stewardship over these animals, then I hope they don't expect God/Jesus/Whoever to give them any more mercy in life or death than they've extended to these animals.
It would be laughable that people call these horrific cruelties "isolated situations" at the same time as acknowledging standard operating procedures as routine unanesthetized mutilations if it weren't so damned sad.
The video that this ag teacher wrote about from 2004 wasn't of 'one' slaugherhouse worker torturing chickens but many of them doing so routinely. Their supervisor would enter the area and see them doing that, and then they would stop and let him pass, and then resume. They violently threw chickens against walls; they stoped on chickens; they tore limbs off chickens; they literally squeezed shit out of the chickens as if they were whoopie cushions. This was also the plant that KFC had deemed their best supplier of the year, showing that apparently this is the best that KFC has to offer by way of their suppliers. How come each time these things are exposed people call each one an "isolated incident"? What world are you all writing from?
This ag teacher needs to do what he's promoting and do some research of his own, because he's either terribly ignorant or is just doing his best to spin the facts away from truth and towards justifying his unjustifiable industry.
i'm a vegetarian and i hate peta. they are serisouly the most immature activists i have ever heard of. and i never thought about how those videos were captured...your very right on that one. i also beleive that people were meant to eat meat originally, now we have the science to live just as healthy without it, but its a lifestyle choice, and i hate when vegetarians get mad at people who eat meat. everyone has a right to eat whatever they want
All great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-Albert Einstein
Hey Jessica - try an experiment - for perhaps 10 days eat only colorful salads & fibrous fresh fruit - drink the best water that you can get - "Garden of Eden" style - let us know whether your thinking changes at all.