If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

[jobyts]

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney

would you become one?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I wouldn't have much problem giving up red meat, but I do love chicken and fish

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney

As a kid, my dad spent a summer working in a slaughterhouse, in South Dakota. He couldn't eat some beef products for years afterwards.

Due to blood sugar and other problems, I need a diet high in protein; and I can't eat nuts. I probably couldn't survive as a vegetarian.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Due to blood sugar and other problems, I need a diet high in protein, and I can't eat nuts. I probably couldn't survive as a vegetarian.

Can't drink whey protein shakes?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Can't drink whey protein shakes?

Hmmmm, never tried one as far as I know, but you can't live on milkshakes.

I probably feel as good as I ever do after a nice big steak... provided I don't eat too much! I do eat a lot of fish and chicken and try to limit red meat to once a week or so. My biggest weakness is cheese - esp super-sharp cheddar.

 

[rootX]

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney

would you become one?

Yes. I don't know how some people love to eat half alive fishes .. etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTUPHExilFk

 

[Monique]

The only thing I miss is grilled chicken. I think it is really strange how people are in denial about the animal industry. There was a Dutch artist (Tinkebell) who had a terminally sick cat (Pinkeltje), she killed it herself in a humane way and made a purse out of it (to show how we commercialize animals). People were enraged and she received many death threats. I can somewhat understand their reaction, but fundamentally they are taking advantage of animals in the same way.

This is really interesting as well: "The Baby Bunnies series provides an analysis of the consumptive attitude that (post)modern man has taken on in relation to pets." Caution: it features a preserved cat and dog and might be considered offensive: http://www.tinkebell.com/popplesmall.jpg

I don't want to force people to become vegetarian, but I would suggest to limit your consumption of red meat (especially meat that is not done). Red meat is strongly associated with colon cancer.

Butchers and veterinarians suffer from more cancers than the general population, even lung cancer (in non-smokers), it is thought that viruses from the meat are tumorigenic. Butchers typically suffer from HPV-7 virus infections: "Butcher's wart virus".

 

[junglebeast]

Yes. I don't know how some people love to eat half alive fishes .. etc

That was really disturbing and saddening to watch...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes. I don't know how some people love to eat half alive fishes .. etc

I have seen this with lobster too in Japan. horrible

 

[junglebeast]

I wonder if they also make handbags out of still alive animals over there

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I severely dislike this moral degradation of the respectable profession of the butcher. There is nothing wrong or evil about killing an animal for food. Unfortunately it seems to take desperate situations for people to realize this, now that all food comes wrapped in shiny plastic concealing the origin.

 

[Kurdt]

We had a show here in the UK that followed various different animals through the slaughter process. I watched most of them and I'm not a vegetarian. It was interesting seeeing what happens to our food however. The show was called "Kill it, Cook it, Eat it".

 

[texasblitzem]

Hmmmm, never tried one as far as I know, but you can't live on milkshakes.

You can though! I had gastric bypass surgery a year ago, and i drank two to three whey protein milkshakes a day. I tried to get at least 100 grams a day. I did this for three months after the surgery, and ate only baked chicken and bananas. I still drink at least one protein shake a day. I went from 320lbs to 170lbs. :shy:

 

[Pythagorean]

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney

would you become one?

That's a fallacy. I think the more proper statement would be that people would stop buying their meat from certain slaughterhouses.

In Alaska, we hunt and butcher game plenty, and it's always kind of fun. I like killing things, honestly; Though I don't like things to suffer. I do feel bad when I hear the deer's sheep-like cry ("maaaaahhh-hah-hah!") as a result of crappy, overconfident shooting.

I like to role-play like I'm a beast, sometimes. I chase down my kill and take it out with my bare hands (often dropping from trees) and then I dig into it with my fangs like a Lion, while the heart's still taking it's last beats.

Totally kidding about that last part.

 

[mgb_phys]

That's a fallacy. I think the more proper statement would be that people would stop buying their meat from certain slaughterhouses.

Thats the point, there is a difference between farm reared and slaughtered beef from the Yorkshire Dales and factory chicken.

 

[junglebeast]

I did this for three months after the surgery, and ate only baked chicken and bananas. I still drink at least one protein shake a day. I went from 320lbs to 170lbs. :shy:

At that rate, you would have 3.4 more months before reaching 0 lbs.

 

[negitron]

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. -Paul McCartney

would you become one?

That's a ridiculous statement from several angles. For one thing, most people have never been anywhere near a slaughterhouse. For another, a non-insignificant segment of the population hunts, dresses and butchers their own meat. And some people don't suffer under the illusion that meat comes from the supermarket; I've seen what goes on in a slaughterhouse and you have my red meat when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Paul McCartney is a great songwriter but a lousy sociologist.

 

[junglebeast]

That's a ridiculous statement from several angles. For one thing, most people have never been anywhere near a slaughterhouse. For another, a non-insignificant segment of the population hunts, dresses and butchers their own meat. And some people don't suffer under the illusion that meat comes from the supermarket; I've seen what goes on in a slaughterhouse and you have my red meat when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Paul McCartney is a great songwriter but a lousy sociologist.

I don't think the statement was referring to people being disgusted with the killing of animals, but rather the lack of sanitation and such that goes on in those facilities.

I love red meat...but I have a feeling if I saw the disgusting conditions that my meat went through before eating it, I might be scared out of eating red meat that I DIDNT hunt and kill myself...

 

[negitron]

Most commercial slaughterhouses are, in fact, reasonably sanitary.

 

[Proton Soup]

i have no problem killing and eating things. was probably about 10 years old when i first started cleaning and filleting fish. the only thing weird about it is that sometimes catfish will swallow air and it sounds like they're crying as it comes out.

never had any real desire to hunt in the modern sense, but i have considered taking up traditional archery. spending tens of thousands on equipment and clothing and such to bag trophy has little appeal, but the bare bones approach to feeding oneself does.

mmm... i think i will go have some beef (and vegetable) stew now.

 

[rootX]

That's a ridiculous statement from several angles. For one thing, most people have never been anywhere near a slaughterhouse. For another, a non-insignificant segment of the population hunts, dresses and butchers their own meat. And some people don't suffer under the illusion that meat comes from the supermarket; I've seen what goes on in a slaughterhouse and you have my red meat when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Yes that is a ridiculous statement if you are taking it too literal along with the bias:

Paul McCartney is a great songwriter but a lousy sociologist.

Mine interpretation was that if I see something like the video I posted where they make the animal suffer intentionally, I wouldn't eat from that place at that time.

 

[Proton Soup]

who was mccartney married to when he said that?

 

[Monique]

Do you know how the animals enter the slaughterhouse? I think that issue is much more important than the slaughtering after the animal is dead.

 

[Kurdt]

It depends where you come from on how the animals are treated Monique.

 

[Moonbear]

That's a ridiculous statement from several angles. For one thing, most people have never been anywhere near a slaughterhouse. For another, a non-insignificant segment of the population hunts, dresses and butchers their own meat. And some people don't suffer under the illusion that meat comes from the supermarket; I've seen what goes on in a slaughterhouse and you have my red meat when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Paul McCartney is a great songwriter but a lousy sociologist.

I completely agree. If anything, my extra set of pointy teeth tells me I'm supposed to be more carnivore than herbivore (yes, my one set of incisors are pointy, not flat).

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, there would be a lot of broken glass. Though, I suspect if people could see into them all the time, they wouldn't be so shocked about where their food came from. It wasn't all that long ago that people slaughtered their own animals in their own backyard if they wanted meat.

 

[negitron]

Do you know how the animals enter the slaughterhouse? I think that issue is much more important than the slaughtering after the animal is dead.

Point of terminology: you don't slaughter an animal after it's dead because slaughtering is the act of killing it.

 

[Kronos5253]

Well, knowing what goes on in a slaughterhouse has never stopped me from eating meat so..

To answer the question "If slaughter houses had glass walls.."

Nope, I'd still eat meat. I have molars and incisors and canines for a reason. Humans are not herbivores.. If we were we'd have teeth entirely like a cow or a horse.

The human body requires the nutrients that meat provides. Why would I deny my body the nutrients it needs? It's been doing humanity pretty good for thousands and thousands of years, and I honestly don't think any more people would be vegetarians because of a glass slaughter house than people would be if they still had to kill their food themselves.

The disgusting part is the humans, not the meat you're eating.

 

[jobyts]

Seeing animal being killed indeed makes me sad, at least momentarily. But it's not enough to make me a vegetarian, for taste reason and the biological reasons pointed out by Kronos.

If one feels absolutely no difference between watching cutting a plant and killing a mammal (both for food), I would say he/she's either not normal, or unintentionally lying to justify ones meat eating philosophy.

 

[Moonbear]

If one feels absolutely no difference between watching cutting a plant and killing a mammal (both for food), I would say he/she's either not normal, or unintentionally lying to justify ones meat eating philosophy.

Why? If it's killing for food and not just some form of entertainment, why would you have any more emotion about one than the other? It's just something you do because you have to do it. I don't know where society has come up with this silly idea that we are supposed to feel guilty about our food source. It's rather counter-productive to survival if we get emotionally attached to our dinner. It may be anthropomorphic, but I really doubt that lions or coyotes get all worked up inside about having to kill their own dinner either.

 

[negitron]

Seeing a pet killed makes me sad. Seeing my dinner killed makes me hungry.

 

[Moonbear]

Seeing a pet killed makes me sad. Seeing my dinner killed makes me hungry.

Yep. Bow season starts soon, and the deer are looking might tasty about now.

 

[z0rn dawg]

I have molars and incisors and canines for a reason. Humans are not herbivores.. If we were we'd have teeth entirely like a cow or a horse.

I actually read or heard (I forget which) that human teeth cannot handle raw vegetables, fruits, etc. over an entire life because our teeth are too soft. They'd get worn down. It kind of makes me wonder about what PETA says about vegetarianism and how it's natural, but that's a different story.

I will eat meat. It's natural. It tastes good.

 

[jobyts]

Why? If it's killing for food and not just some form of entertainment, why would you have any more emotion about one than the other? It's just something you do because you have to do it. I don't know where society has come up with this silly idea that we are supposed to feel guilty about our food source. It's rather counter-productive to survival if we get emotionally attached to our dinner. It may be anthropomorphic, but I really doubt that lions or coyotes get all worked up inside about having to kill their own dinner either.

Being anthropomorphic is a human characteristic, isn't it?, probably a characteristic evolved with our smarter brain. In our living room, do we keep a picture of a rabbit eating grass, or a leopard eating a deer? I'm not debating about the philosophical point whether humans should eat meat or not. My point is whether it's for food or not, seeing a mammal or a bird being killed is an unpleasant one.

 

[turbo]

My point is whether it's for food or not, seeing a mammal or a bird being killed is an unpleasant one.

Only for people who have been coddled all their lives, and who think hamburg comes in plastic trays with plastic wrap. Shooting a deer is the anticlimax of the hunt, but I feel much better providing a humane death to a wild creature to provide meat for my family than buying beef from cattle who have been confined and fattened in feed-lots.

I was brought up in a family that expected children to participate in the slaughter of poultry and livestock. We were encouraged to attend the birth of cattle and watch the hatching of chicks, too, and we were expected to lend a hand as they were turned into the food that we would eat. Many people have a disconnect about this kind of thing, and act morally superior when they decide that they won't eat meat. Ever notice that so often these "superior" beings carry leather handbags, wear expensive leather shoes and leather belts?

I remember the first time that I was considered old enough and reliable enough to carry wash-basins of pig's blood from the barn to the kitchen so that my mother, aunts, great-aunts, etc could start making blood sausage. Little kids could be allowed to carry large and small intestines to the kitchen because after all, if you dropped them in the dirt, they would simply be washed off, and were destined to be thoroughly cleaned out and boiled anyway to make sausage casings. Spill a wash-pan of blood in the driveway, and the wrath of the (female) elders would fall heavily on you.

 

[junglebeast]

Only for people who have been coddled all their lives, and who think hamburg comes in plastic trays with plastic wrap. Shooting a deer is the anticlimax of the hunt, but I feel much better providing a humane death to a wild creature to provide meat for my family than buying beef from cattle who have been confined and fattened in feed-lots.

I wasn't coddled. I grew up around animal carcases...they would be hanging from the trees in the lawn sometimes, or thrown into the car seat next to me, or dead cows would be tossed into the back, then chopped into pieces on the front lawn. I saw chickens raised and slaughtered. I was taught to shoot and killed off the pesky squirrels with my 22. My father hunted deer and we ate it.

Anyway, this never stopped me from feeling bad when I killed a squirrel...from the realization that I had just killed some poor animal for no real reason. I didn't eat the squirrel. I could shoot a deer, but I would still feel it is wrong. Why? Because even if I eat it, it wasn't killed for food. It was killed simply for sport. If I had wanted food, I would have just gone to the grocery store. when you hunt and kill a deer, it is only for sport. And hundreds of years ago, that would have seemed perfectly OK to me...but now, the presence of man has encroached so far on the natural habitat...the deer hardly have a place of their own left. We don't need to kill them, and yet we do just for fun.

I don't care so much about killing an animal that was raised on a farm because it never lived a wild life to begin with -- so there isn't much to take away. It's like the difference between putting down a coma patient and shooting a person on the street.

 

[Proton Soup]

the deer have plenty of habitat. hunting them is necessary now, though (where i live at least), because we've killed off the natural predators (wolves and cougars). it's funny, though. i think the media probably does a good job at portraying backwoods yokels as a bunch of trophy-hunting hillbillies, but the truth of the matter is those people are more subsistence hunters. the real people that do it mostly for jollies are a bunch of doctor and lawyer types from the cities that will actually pay $300 for a hunting shirt, ten grand for a club fee, or go to one of those deer farms where they can shoot fenced-in tame deer like fish in a barrel.

and squirrels are vermin to me. they keep eating our pecans. i wish i could step outside with a .22 and plink a few of them. but here in the city limits, it's limited to catch and release. i did a little joy dance when the one that got trapped out in the rain died of exposure before i could release him by the river. that neurotic little freak chewed though half a tree of green pecans just to see if maybe, just maybe, the next one would be ripe.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Only for people who have been coddled all their lives, and who think hamburg comes in plastic trays with plastic wrap.

I grew up in the city and have pretty much spent my whole life there. I'm not sure I could kill most things though I am pretty sure I wouldn't have any trouble fishing and cleaning fish. Of course if my neighbour will do the deer hunting and slaughtering I'll do the fishing.

 

[lisab]

I grew up in the city and have pretty much spent my whole life there. I'm not sure I could kill most things though I am pretty sure I wouldn't have any trouble fishing and cleaning fish. Of course if my neighbour will do the deer hunting and slaughtering I'll do the fishing.

...and if you'll do the fishing, I'll do the cleaning. Spent a whole summer doing it in Alaska!

Aaaah...I love the smell of salmon blood in the morning...

 

[Sorry!]

My family comes from New Brunswick. A small town with A LOT of forest around... Whenever I went down there I ate fresh moose/deer even bear all the time. When we went fishing we brought home lunch.

I would definitely feel bad/upset if I saw an animal being tortured to death or in some sort of extended suffering.

I'm not going to lie though, tonight my beef tasted rediculously good in my hamburger helper with fries :D. and I don't really care at all how the meat came to be in my house. If I saw them torturing an animal to death then yeah of course I would be like what the hell are you doing? I don't think that the animals are tortured however, I'm pretty sure that effects the outcome of the meat.

 

[Werg22]

Only for people who have been coddled all their lives, and who think hamburg comes in plastic trays with plastic wrap. Shooting a deer is the anticlimax of the hunt, but I feel much better providing a humane death to a wild creature to provide meat for my family than buying beef from cattle who have been confined and fattened in feed-lots.

I was brought up in a family that expected children to participate in the slaughter of poultry and livestock. We were encouraged to attend the birth of cattle and watch the hatching of chicks, too, and we were expected to lend a hand as they were turned into the food that we would eat. Many people have a disconnect about this kind of thing, and act morally superior when they decide that they won't eat meat. Ever notice that so often these "superior" beings carry leather handbags, wear expensive leather shoes and leather belts?

I remember the first time that I was considered old enough and reliable enough to carry wash-basins of pig's blood from the barn to the kitchen so that my mother, aunts, great-aunts, etc could start making blood sausage. Little kids could be allowed to carry large and small intestines to the kitchen because after all, if you dropped them in the dirt, they would simply be washed off, and were destined to be thoroughly cleaned out and boiled anyway to make sausage casings. Spill a wash-pan of blood in the driveway, and the wrath of the (female) elders would fall heavily on you.

Did you grow up in the 18th century or what?

 

[Monique]

It depends where you come from on how the animals are treated Monique.

And what exactly is your point? I don't get it. My question still stands: Do you know how the animals enter the slaughterhouse?

 

[Monique]

Nope, I'd still eat meat. I have molars and incisors and canines for a reason. Humans are not herbivores.. If we were we'd have teeth entirely like a cow or a horse.

The human body requires the nutrients that meat provides. Why would I deny my body the nutrients it needs? It's been doing humanity pretty good for thousands and thousands of years, and I honestly don't think any more people would be vegetarians because of a glass slaughter house than people would be if they still had to kill their food themselves.

I don't agree, at one point in evolution we relied on meat for our evolutionary advantage. Our society evolved much since then. Today you can get by perfectly fine without ever eating meat even once in your life. I know people who have been vegetarian from birth and there is nothing wrong with them.

 

[turbo]

Did you grow up in the 18th century or what?

1950's. My uncles were still twitching timber out of the woods using horses, and farming and raising livestock using methods that had been around forever.

 

[Kurdt]

And what exactly is your point? I don't get it. My question still stands: Do you know how the animals enter the slaughterhouse?

Yes. Like I said previously I have watched a series of programs that gives slaughter houses glass walls. I was assuming you were referring to the conditions in which some animals are brought in. The level of care shown to the animals depends on which country you're in was my point. Some countries try their hardest to make sure animals used for food are treated as humanely as possible.

 

[lisab]

I don't agree, at one point in evolution we relied on meat for our evolutionary advantage. We've evolved much since then. Today you can get by perfectly fine without ever eating meat even once in your life. I know people who have been vegetarian from birth and there is nothing wrong with them.

True. Barring some medical reason (Ivan's, for example), people who eat meat do so out of choice, regardless of what your teeth look like.

I have to admit, I struggle with this issue.

 

[jobyts]

Does any animal eat carnivorous animals?

 

[lisab]

Does any animal eat carnivorous animals?

Sure, lots of them. Coyotes will eat cats, for example.

 

[jobyts]

Sure, lots of them. Coyotes will eat cats, for example.

cats are omnivorous, right?

 

[negitron]

No, cats are obligate carnivores.

 

[Evo]

I was watching a cooking contest the other day and the chefs had to cook for this kook that was not only vegan, so no meat, fish, eggs, butter, milk, or cheese, but she didn't like anything made with soy or wheat either. Where do people come up with these bizarre, unhealthy diets?