Has anyone else rethought meat and dairy after seeing Slingshot adverts?

[Wyatt148]

Has anyone seen the slingshot_uk ads in the London Underground?

I’m a 43(f), about two months ago I googled vegetarian meal planning/recipes as I was trying to both cut my weekly shopping bill and be a bit healthier. I was always semi-conscious of animal welfare but always kind of put it to the side of my mind.

Well, the algorithm kicked in and wow.. I was genuinely shocked at the info that poured into my feed…what I learned about ‘big agri’ and mass factory farming. I couldn’t believe what I was reading/seeing/hearing so dug a bit deeper thinking I was just being fed the extreme versions….but no. The supply chains for the big supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Lidl etc. I then started looking into the practices of more local dairy farms, slaughterhouses, thinking I’ll just pay a bit more to a local butcher, a way to find a way of buying these things and being ok with myself, but…same practices. The bottom line wins out.

The Slingshot campaign is focused on marketing tactics and exposing factory farming at a large scale, but the data I kept (keep) getting is about all dairy farming and slaughterhouses and my world view has shifted entirely. I’m genuinely shook. The suffering of these animals, bred for this, is undeniable.

I can’t believe I’m this age and didn’t realise or understand the exploitation and what these animals go through (for those of you who are aware I’m sure this sounds completely idiotic). I really wish I’d known this sooner but I guess a combination of slick marketing and my own denial/wilful ignorance won out.

I feel stunned and ultimately really guilty. I’ve been vegan for a month now (cheaper shopping bill and feel great for it both physically and mentally). I’ve heard lots of arguments about health (although the scientific research wins out there but understand it may not be feasible for some), and it’s been an adjustment as I live with a partner and three large dogs who still eat meat/dairy. But I just wanted to share as I really wish I’d known to look into this in detail before now, maybe there are some of you who will appreciate this also.

I promise this isn’t an underhanded, goady post and I fully expect to get folk arguing for meat/dairy for health reasons, but wanted to highlight this as I wish I knew the realities of what goes on behind those dairy and slaughterhouse walls before now, so maybe some of you will too.

I know some vegan activists are aggressive and off putting but ultimately I understand they’re trying to highlight the injustice of it all. When I watch the footage (I’ll not share links as very graphic but easy to find and I can share if anyone wants) it’s clear as day. I’d urge everyone interested to take a look, I wish I’d known sooner.

Do you understand bias? So the thing posted by these groups are the worst end of the scale.

Do you also understand that we are omnivores and we need to nutrients from a variety of food source to stay healthy?

Promoting a vegan (ie unhealthy) diet is not a good thing.

Listen, it's either the animals die or you die. Eating this vegan slop will kill you, make no mistake. Think about that next the time you're tucking into a factory produced 'meatless burger'. If you need to eat a replica of a meat product, then you should just be eating the meat product.

These ads you are seeing are exactly that; ads. They are funded by companies trying to get you to purchase their products, and see to it that the vast majority of farmers and agriculture are completely destroyed.

It's funny how these companies pay no mind the catastrophic impact harvesting vegetarian and vegan products has, too. Most notably the mass deforestation caused in so many countries due to the production of palm oil. All the animals in those forests dead or without a home and soon to be dead. Those ads where they line up animals and ask where does the care stop make me laugh. Interesting how they never include the animals impacted by the production of so many other foods.

Ultimately I don't particularly blame you or anyone else for buying into this shit, as we live in a world with such conflicting advice and information (most of it misinformation). It is hard to know what to believe and which path to follow. It comes down to using common sense. Our ancestors survived by eating meat and natural foods. That is the only way to be healthy.

This is highly, highly unusual though and even then I imagine these farmers are supplying someone else aside from the local butcher and gate sales.

If they were mindlessly attacking an animal to be cruel, then yes, obviously any decent person would intervene. If they are humanely killed for consumption, then I'll be eating it. That is the animals purpose.

Honestly, I just can’t be arsed. I know the animals produce I eat comes from a lot of suffering but I have a busy stressful life with a million things to do and “adapt to vegan” is just too hard work tbh.

You should see the type of people who work in abattoirs 🤨 it’s keeping a number of them away from becoming murderers imo.

Yeah I know what you mean, I was wary of extremist takes. I’ve tried to look at the scientific data and from what I can see most folk can live healthily on a meat/dairy free diet (albeit the algorithm may be throwing me up skewed studies? Although it’s data so I’m taking it at face value).
I’m not promoting anything. I saw those ads and deep dived and was wondering if anyone else did and if not, wanted to highlight it.

If you're actually open-minded OP I can put some links here to livestock farmers who post regularly on Facebook about their husbandry practices. If you wanted to know more about the industry practices and not just tell everyone to be vegan.

I don't doubt that. I don't buy meat from supermarkets, and I eat a lot of it. I spend a lot on good quality meat to ensure that I know that it was killed humanely and was treated well during their life.

The curse of the human brain

You dont see cats and dogs mithering and paw wringing about shredding an animal to shreds for a tasty treat.

Lions and tigers? Virtual psychopaths.

Would also like to add the cringe I felt about you discovering 'big agri'. It's big pharma trying to get you to buy into this vegan trash, so that you inevitably become dependent on their pills to live. But go off about how meat is murder I guess

I can’t eat fake meat, makes me unwell. I find all the alternative milks unpalatable and I can only guess what the cheese is like. I like eggs.
So we all become vegan tomorrow what happens to all the animals? We slaughter them because who will want to care for pigs and cows with no profit. I worked with a vegan who believed they would all be set free to roam!
I was vegetarian for a long time and eat little meat now, I can’t see me ever giving up dairy.

Thank you, I’ve just googled the term, wasn’t aware of it. I’m not convinced there’s a humane way to kill if we don’t need to but I’m interested so will read more.

How do you know though? You can’t know what it’s like inside the abattoir day to day

This! The clue is in the word slaughterhouse.

You are 100% right OP. It is not idiotic that it took until now. It’s usually the case.
But don’t expect anyone to listen.
In my experience, people don’t like to think about things which are uncomfortable or make them assess the way they live or feel like they have to justify something.

I don't know, how can you know anything really. I have faith that these animals are treated better than the ones sold in supermarkets. They taste so much better, too. Difference between being grass fed and corn fed; you can taste it.

How does anyone know that veganism isn't just a big scam by big pharma? How does anyone know there isn't life on Mars? How does anyone know ghosts aren't real?

Hens are hung upside down by their feet and lowered into electrified boiling hot water before their throats are slit.

When will start to dispatch our own pets to enjoy this humanity?

“So we all become vegan tomorrow what happens to all the animals?”

tbf without intensive breeding and farming the excess would die out quite quickly. We could all have one last hurrah where we eat the last lot of only-allowed-to-live-for-6-weeks chickens etc. 😂

Well you said:

“I spend a lot on good quality meat to ensure that I know that it was killed humanely and was treated well during their life.”

which indicated you had some knowledge to have faith that the meat you eat was killed humanely?

Respect to you op. I’ve seen the adverts and agree that I also had no idea the extent of abuse that goes on. We eat fish and vegetables as a family but that’s it, You probably noticed you have more energy and your bowel movements are better.

Yes I have. If I can find a genuinely reliable source then I’ll eat meat again but in the past month I’ve been learning to cook with tofu and had a lot of bean based dishes. Really enjoying it and haven’t missed the meat.

Well yeah, they die in an instant that way. How else you gonna kill them? I don't even like or eat chicken, but if you have any horror stories about pigs or cows then I'm all ears.

Why would we eat our pets? Why would we ship them off for slaughter when there is plenty of livestock to go around?

Though for arguments sake, cats have barely any meat and as such probably wouldn't taste great. Same for a lot of dogs. Of course all smaller pets (hamsters, birds) included in this, too. Also, domesticated pets serve the purpose of companionship, so why would eat them? We bond with them. Kinda hard to keep a cow as a pet in your front room, and even harder to snuggle with it at night. It makes me feel less inclined to care about eating them, since that is their purpose. Same for pigs.

I source it directly from the farm, and am on a first name basis with the farmer. Been doing it for years.

My point was that regardless of this, they could be doing anything to those animals in there. Yet, I have faith that they dont. Call me crazy

Yeah fair enough to raise those, I don’t think it’s necessarily an all or nothing approach though (although I don’t eat avocados since seeing a documentary on that a few years ago…I’m clearly susceptible).

When people (vegans usually) talk about the cognition dissonance of how meat gets on our plate I'm always a bit perplexed - I struggle to understand that people are so ignorant of slaughter practices. And then threads like this come along that prove me wrong.

I eat meat, I understand how meat is produced and slaughtered and I don't care. It's really that simple. I don't believe animals have a right to life. I sound cold and heartless, I'm aware of that but I don't believe you can eat meat and actually care.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think animals should be mistreated whilst alive AND I believe slaughter should be quick and as close to their home possible to reduce suffering whilst awaiting slaughter, but the fact that are killed for me to eat is not something that bothers me.