Should Coral Reef High Stop Auctioning Their Pet Pig Bacon?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the ethical implications of Coral Reef Senior High School auctioning a pet pig named "Bacon" for slaughter as part of a fundraising effort by the Future Farmers of America Club. Participants explore the moral considerations of raising animals for food, the impact on students' perceptions of animal welfare, and the broader implications for educational practices regarding agriculture and animal husbandry.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants argue that auctioning "Bacon" teaches students insensitivity towards animals and promotes a harmful understanding of animal welfare.
  • Others suggest that raising animals for slaughter can provide valuable lessons about food sources and agricultural practices, challenging misconceptions about meat production.
  • A participant expresses concern over the lack of information available online about the auction, questioning its legitimacy.
  • Some participants share personal anecdotes about raising animals for food, highlighting varied emotional responses and lessons learned from those experiences.
  • There are calls for the school to consider the emotional attachment students have developed towards "Bacon" and to allow her to live in a sanctuary instead of being slaughtered.
  • One participant expresses a personal desire to buy "Bacon" if they lived nearby, indicating a different perspective on the situation.
  • Another participant references a philosophical viewpoint about naming animals intended for slaughter, suggesting that emotional connections complicate the process of raising animals for food.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus; there are multiple competing views regarding the appropriateness of raising animals for slaughter in an educational setting, with some advocating for animal welfare and others supporting agricultural education.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying degrees of personal experience with animal husbandry, which influences their perspectives on the ethical implications of the auction. The discussion reflects a range of opinions on the educational value of teaching students about food production versus the emotional impact of forming attachments to animals.

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Stop Coral Reef High From Auctioning “Pet” Pig for Slaughter

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Please take action before March 16!

Coral Reef Senior High School’s Future Farmers of America Club is raising a pig, derisively named “Bacon,” with the intention of auctioning her off to the highest bidder in order to generate funds for the school. The auction is set to take place at the Miami-Dade County Fair on March 20. PETA became aware of the event after being contacted by students at the school who, after becoming attached to “Bacon,” are desperately trying to raise funds to save the animal’s life and send her to a sanctuary.

Encouraging students to raise an animal, letting them grow fond of her, and then teaching them that it is acceptable to dispose of the animal to make a quick buck desensitizes them to the suffering of others. The manner in which “Bacon” was raised at the school does little to “train” the students to work on factory farms and, in fact, misrepresents the reality of the current practices used on intensive feedlots.

Coral Reef Senior High School is a new, $32.3 million facility built on more than 59 acres of land. The school generates thousands of dollars from soda and candy sales and other fundraising activities. There is no need for the school to resort to cruel and insensitive teaching practices that foster insensitivity and apathy toward the well-being of animals.

Please write to the principal of Coral Reef High School and School Board member Betsy Kaplan, urging them to put an end to curriculum and fundraising activities that use and dispose of live animals. Tell them to listen to students who demand that “Bacon” be permitted to live out her life at a sanctuary and save her from her current path to slaughter. Help force the Miami-Dade School Board to enact a policy that puts an end to lessons that condone violence and disrespect for life:

School Board Member Betsy Kaplan
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
1450 N.E. Second Ave.
Miami, FL 33132
305-995-1334
bkaplan@sbab.dade.k12.fl.us

Adrienne F. Leal, Principal
Coral Reef Senior High School
10101 S.W. 152nd St.
Miami, FL 33157
305-232-2044
ALeal@coralreef.dadeschools.net
 
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Originally posted by Be Happy!
Please write to the principal of Coral Reef High School and School Board member Betsy Kaplan, urging them to put an end to curriculum and fundraising activities that use and dispose of live animals.

sangeeta,

it's great that you are involved in assisting these students who have evidently come to a different realization than what they have been expected to.

i have written to the principal and the board as per your post and enclose that letter below.

in friendship,
prad


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To: Adrienne F. Leal, Principal
Cc: Betsy Kaplan
Re: Bringing the Bacon home

With regards to the fate of Bacon, may I suggest that there is more at stake here than the life of one pig or the precedent set by showing mercy to a creature that was admittedly purchased for the pending fate that awaits him.

In education, our goal should not be to churn out automatons that compliantly conform to the existing system. Rather the whole purpose of education is to develop character in those we teach through meaningful experiences, that they may contribute towards making that system a better one.

In working to send Bacon to the sanctuary rather than to slaughter, some of your students have demonstrated the qualities of resourcefulness, perseverance, courage and even compassion. They are fighting on behalf of one who can't, even though they themselves will reap no reward for their efforts.

Since Bacon was well cared for by the students, why not dignify their commitment and affection? There will be other pigs. However, this one, will symbolize much more than the mere auction monies involved. What will be shown is that your school can make an exception and not let the efforts of some of its dedicated students go in vain; that the hardworking can surmount difficult obstacles; that there are still many who recognize the fiery independence of those who take a stand for what they believe in.

It is written that 'when God measures a person, He puts the tape around the heart and not the head'. Some of your students have very large hearts that will no doubt test the limits of even God's tape. Surely, in their honor, allowing Bacon to go to the sanctuary is the worthy thing to do.
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physicsisphirst, that was beautiful!
 
I find it interesting that I can't find any reference to this on google or on their website. I was wondering what the other side to this is, but now it's smelling of a hoax.
 
Story in the Media

Originally posted by Hurkyl
I find it interesting that I can't find any reference to this on google or on their website. I was wondering what the other side to this is, but now it's smelling of a hoax.

Here is the story on NBC news in Miami...it is far from a hoax, it is very real to the students fighting for Bacon's life, and unfortunately even more real to Bacon herself. :(

http://www.nbc6.net/education/2907952/detail.html

I trust you will find this a worthy cause for your time.
 
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Screw that, i love bacon! heck if i lived out there i would buy her myself.
 
A school is the worst place to do something like raising a pig for slaughter, because it teaches disconcern for other creatures.
 
Not neccesarily. Although I'm not sure that school is the place to teach children about raising and slaughtering animals...it is a reality. It beats the misperception that getting your meat from a sterile cooler at the grocery store gives.
Years ago, when my youngest daughter was 5 or 6, I had a pig given to me for my birthday (to raise for meat). At the time we were also raising laying hens, ducks, goats for milk, cheese and to make soap. So, it was a natural addition to our little homestead. When our pig, who we aptly named "Dinner" became full grown..and quite a nuisance (that's another story though)We had the butcher pick him up and take him back for slaughter. Now, when we went to pick up our packaged meats...the kids knew what it was and where it came from. Well, the older boys weren't phased a bit and were looking forward to eating thick slabbed bacon, ham and ribs etc...my youngest daughter however was not so excited. In fact to this day she won't eat meat and we no longer raise ANY animals for slaughter as a result of her somewhat silent protest. So, I'm not sure we can always predict what something will teach our children but..one thing is for sure, many children haven't a clue where the meat in their fridge and on their plate comes from. Perhaps, this is not such a bad lesson after all. *shrug*
 
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My mother grew up on a farm. Her dad had the philosophy, never name an animal you're going to eat.

Njorl
 
  • #10
Originally posted by Evo
physicsisphirst, that was beautiful!

Thanks Evo. I hope it will do some good. It can be pretty lonely when you go against the mainstream.
 
  • #11
Originally posted by kat
So, I'm not sure we can always predict what something will teach our children but..one thing is for sure, many children haven't a clue where the meat in their fridge and on their plate comes from. Perhaps, this is not such a bad lesson after all. *shrug*

You may a good point of course. We have dissociated ourselves as much as possible from doing the dirty work.

We get others to do the dirty work in places we never have to see. I think it was Paul McCartney who said 'If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.'
 
  • #12
Originally posted by Njorl
My mother grew up on a farm. Her dad had the philosophy, never name an animal you're going to eat.

Njorl

That is understandable. Names draw us closer in identity and stir our conscience.

Animal experimenters apparently number their victims.

People do that sort of thing to each other too and where you would least expect it. At a vocational school where I used to teach, the general trend was to look down on the students who had been labelled 'dumb' in various ways. At 'normal' schools we usually referred to the students as 'our' kids. Here we called them 'these' kids. The particularly bad lot of behavioural problems that were kept out in the portable were referred to as 'those' kids. We did call them by their names though
 
  • #13
This is a Future Farmers of America class right? Dont Farmers raise and kill animals for food? Isnt that what they should learn?

If killing animals is a problem for some kids then maybe they should take a different class like home-ec or something.
 
  • #14


Originally posted by physicsisphirst
Rather the whole purpose of education is to develop character in those we teach through meaningful experiences

Isn't part of building character learning that you sometimes have to encounter difficult experiences in life and live up to the burden of facing your responsibilities regardless of how hard that may be at the time?
There isn't much that will build character more effectively than having to face up to a difficult task that you don't want to deal with.
We should be teaching our children that, although compassion is an important trait, integrity also includes sometimes finding the strength to put your personal feelings aside to fulfil an obligation.
 
  • #15
And the angel of the lord came unto me, snatching me up from my place of slumber.
And took me on high
and higher still until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself.
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest.
And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil.
One thousand
nay a million voices
full of fear.
And terror possesed me then.
And I begged
"Angel of the Lord
what are these tortured screams?"
And the angel said unto me
"These...
are the cries of the carrots.
The cries of the carrots.
You see, Reverend Maynard...
tommorow is harvest day.
To them...
It is...
THE HOLOCAUST"
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared
"Hear me now
I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness
they have a life
they have a soul!
Damn you!
Let the rabbits wear glasses!
Save our brothers!"
Can I get an amen?
Can I get a hallelujah?
Thank you Jesus.

This is necessary.
Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life
"Disgustipation" Reverend Maynard James Keenan
 
  • #16
Honestly, if prok products weren't so damned tasty probably would be a vegetarian.
Actually, a fruitarian.
It's really pig alone that keeps me eating meat.

But I still love the song!
 
  • #17
Compassion is a more important than value than mere duty or "responsibility." Perhaps, brutal dictators have really strong work ethics?

When you find out that you are doing the wrong thing, it is your responsibility to stop doing what was previously considered your responsibility. One example (with a strong parallel to the current discussion) in a set of many: You work for the Soylent Greens company and just realized what the food that you are preparing actually is...

I would say that exercising compassion is our most important responsibility.
-----------------

As for the carrots thing, do I really need to address that? Do you really think that that is a valid argument or are you just cracking jokes?
 
  • #18


Originally posted by one_raven
Isn't part of building character learning that you sometimes have to encounter difficult experiences in life and live up to the burden of facing your responsibilities regardless of how hard that may be at the time?

It depends on the responsibility, doesn't it? Just because you are expected to do something, doesn't mean that you should do it.. It hardly looks like not killing Bacon will bring your pork industry to rack and ruin either.

If these kids feel obligated to saving this pig whom they have befriended, then that is what they should do regardless of what is expected of them.

as for the poem - ?
 
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  • #19
Originally posted by kawikdx225
This is a Future Farmers of America class right? Dont Farmers raise and kill animals for food? Isnt that what they should learn?

If killing animals is a problem for some kids then maybe they should take a different class like home-ec or something.

Possibly not. It may have been a project sponsored by them in the school. Either way, some of the students evidently didn't accept the fate of their friend.
 
  • #20
Originally posted by Michael D. Sewell
I am NOT doing anything wrong. I do NOT eat carrots.

who is this carrot man?
he should be recruited for the cause!
perhaps a breatherean?
 
  • #21


Originally posted by physicsisphirst
Just because you are expected to do something, doesn't mean that you should do it..
It's not simply that they are expected to do it unfairly out of the blue.
They knew what was going to happen.
They voluntarily signed on for the program, and knew what they were expected to do.
They should be held up to the responsibility to uphole their obligation.

Originally posted by physicsisphirst
It hardly looks like not killing Bacon will bring your pork industry to rack and ruin either.
That's hardly the point.

Dan,
I thyink it is obvious that your absurd parallel is not even close to the same thing and an unfair comparison.
 
  • #22


Originally posted by one_raven
It's not simply that they are expected to do it unfairly out of the blue.
They knew what was going to happen.
They voluntarily signed on for the program, and knew what they were expected to do.
They should be held up to the responsibility to uphole their obligation.
I disagree. If they went into this uncaring, I think it's wonderful that they learned to feel compassion for this poor animal.
 
  • #23


Originally posted by one_raven
It's not simply that they are expected to do it unfairly out of the blue.
They knew what was going to happen.
They voluntarily signed on for the program, and knew what they were expected to do.
They should be held up to the responsibility to uphole their obligation.

my understanding is that is not what happened. the kids were asked to look after the pig. i don't believe they signed up for anything, but perhaps sangeeta could clear this up.

it doesn't really matter though because there's nothing wrong with changing one's mind because you feel you should do something differently (so long as it has merit and is not whimsical).

Dan,
I thyink it is obvious that your absurd parallel is not even close to the same thing and an unfair comparison. [/B]

what's wrong with dan's example? it is simply a case of 'duty' being 'breached', presumably for a good reason, isn't it?

having a duty towards compassion seems to be a pretty good idea, though admittedly not demonstrated universally towards all beings even within the species.


btw, i am curious about your comment earlier about being fruitarian. provided you were not simply being facetious, why would you choose that over being vegetarian?
 
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  • #24
Originally posted by one_raven
It's not simply that they are expected to do it unfairly out of the blue.
They knew what was going to happen.
They voluntarily signed on for the program, and knew what they were expected to do.
They should be held up to the responsibility to uphole their obligation.

Actually, to clarify for everyone- these kids did NOT sign up with FFA, or take any class to do with farming...they were told that Bacon was part of the school community, they watched her grow from a piglet, would visit her often and became attached. The kids were a "victim of circumstance" as they did not chose to partake in this.

However, there are many many kids who sign-up for such things and have a change of heart once they realize how sensitive these animals really are. Throughout history, you will see people who have "signed-up" to do one thing, but once their conscience is awakened they have a change of heart. Case in point- the song "Amazing Grace" comes from the captain of a slave ship- he had an awakening one day, due to harsh circumstances, and realized the error of his ways. Are you saying to me that he should have fulfilled his responsibility and brought those slave to America just because he "signed-up" for it?

Sometimes our conscience takes us in a different direction than our "duty." It takes strength, courage and compassion to rise above a situation and go where one's conscience takes us. This is a fantastic lesson for all students, and from what I know many students' lives are being changed in that school, several have even sworn off eating animal flesh!
 
  • #25
I am not accusing you lying, but I find it hard to believe that members of a "Future FARMERS Of America" club wouldn't know what pigs are raised on a farm for.

Maybe I am missing something in the details?
 
  • #26
Originally posted by one_raven
I am not accusing you lying, but I find it hard to believe that members of a "Future FARMERS Of America" club wouldn't know what pigs are raised on a farm for.

Maybe I am missing something in the details?

As I stated in a previous post, the students fighting to save Bacon are NOT a part of the Future Farmers of America.
 
  • #27
Is the Pig dead yet?
 
  • #28
Originally posted by Be Happy!
As I stated in a previous post, the students fighting to save Bacon are NOT a part of the Future Farmers of America.

OK.
Then why would the other students think that a pig that was named "Bacon" by the FFA that was raising it was NOT going to be killed?

Did they think that the Future Farmers were going to raise it as a work pig and affix a tiny plough to it?
Or it was going to be a sheep pig?
 
  • #29
Originally posted by one_raven
OK.
Then why would the other students think that a pig that was named "Bacon" by the FFA that was raising it was NOT going to be killed?

Did they think that the Future Farmers were going to raise it as a work pig and affix a tiny plough to it?
Or it was going to be a sheep pig?

Does it really matter? They saw something despicable happening, and they put an end to it.
 
  • #30
Is it such a great surprise that we would slaughter "Some Pig" when already our direct or indirect actions lead to the deaths of countless humans each year? No wonder the gore of the evening news comes on at dinner time.