to think most supposed "animal lovers"

[Aribura]

only care about animals when it's convenient?

Horses die in a race you don't watch or take part in: OMG NO HOW CAN THEY BE SO CRUEL LETTING HORSIES DIE IT'S SO UNNECESSARY

Crapton of animals die for a food product which you eat and really enjoy: lol oh well circle of life we need meat to live ignoring the fact there are perfectly healthy vegetarians lol never mind

If you don't care about either or care about both then fair play. I know I'll be UBU'd by the guilty but I just had to get that out there.

The only animals I like are ones which are edible

There all edible, some just look better than others, to us Westerners, anyway.

You've got a good point op. My mil likes to tell everyone how much she loves animals, can't bear to watch anything with animal being harmed, even nature programs etc, yet disagrees with me being vegetarian and has made it very clear that she thinks the fact we are bringing DS up vegetarian is tantamount to abuse.
She actually laid into me once for 'letting' DH eat rabbit. While she was eating chicken.
Hypocritical much?

One word...........................CATS

How many of those distressed by the injured horses in the G National are content to watch their fluffy little pusskins kill, maim and torture birds and small animals...........Grrrrrrr

Yes and those animal activists that lurrve animals so much are never guilty of the same thing? The anti hunting brigade never acid sprayed horses and hounds, because they clearly are less deserving animaly animals than foxes. The world is built on hypocrisy get used to it.

And Myxomatosis is much more humane than hunting with dogs (or Ferrets).

Humans are made out of meat products. Perhaps we should eat them too.

I'm a vegetarian and disagree. It isn't about the species. Some people do eat horse meat. It is about the level of suffering in the manner that the animal lives and dies.

I'm not an animal lover, I eat meat and would never want a pet, but do hate the idea of animals being tortured for sport. Call me a hypocrite if you like, it's just the way I feel, that's my choice.

Excellent point, hackmum. Aribura, your contempt for animal lovers is wasted on me. I don't eat animals, I never have and never would acid spray horses (the huntsmen, maybe, but not the horses) and my care for animals often far exceeds any convenience to me. Do I get a prize?

Why does even a moderate stance on animal welfare get so many other posters in such a state of froth and pomposity. Weird.

I've stood at my parent's bedroom window and watched activists deliberately lead hounds into a field of cows.

A field of cows with calves at foot. That was only last year.

Sarah IMO hunt sabs are about as low as you can get!

muminthecity, your definition of "torture" must be "be housed with the highest standards of care with veterinary treatment whenever needed, fed the best quality food available, exercised in a herd situation which imitates nature, and if the worst happens and something goes physically wrong that can't be repaired, to be quickly, humanely and respectfully put down, and when it goes right (in many cases) being allowed to bonk as nature intended". Because that's the reality of life for the majority of racehorses.

It probably doesn't sit with your cosy under-informed anthropomorphic world view, but them's the facts.

Eh? Saggy - you are pro hunting but anti NH racing?

I find that a bit contradictory tbh - would you expand on how you support one but not the other?

You're sort of nbu.

The thing is I think many people wilfully want to forget (or not know in the first place) that the meat industry for example involves cruelty and business practices that would put them off eating it.

It's not nice to think for example that the bacon you're eating came from a pig that lived indoors in a cramped warehouse most of its life surrounded by faeces and dead pigs, pumped full of hormones and eating god knows what before being crammed into crates and travelling for hours without food and water to its unpleasant death for example. Yet the packet pictures rolling hills, a hay barn and a smiling farmer in his flat cap.

It's much hard to forget however about the crueler or less savoury aspects of the GN when its a huge, televised event and the favourite to win is killed.

I've been a vegetarian since I was 14 yo (now 45).
I've been told I was wong to continue being vegetarian while I was pg.
I am apparently wrong to bring my DC up as non vegetarians. But if I did, that would be wrong too

And I was wrong to have a pet cat (rescue) because they are meat eaters.
I could've had a vegetarian dog, biu it would've been in the house all day, alone.

I do my bit I do what I can.
But IRL, unless someone knows me, they don't know I'm vegetarian.
And I don't harass people who do eat animals.

I don't really get this you eat meat therefore you should be okay with animals dying in a sport?

I am a meat eater. Humans have used animals for meat, clothing or whatever for pretty much the whole of the time they have co existed. A long time ago, and in some cultures now, animals were killed to support humans, but there was little to no waste; meat, hide, even bones were used. Animals were not killed unnecessarily.

As I say, I am a meat eater, but also care about animals. I try and buy ethically where possible. I am not saying that the meat/dairy industry is totally okay, as like I say, I care about animal welfare and try to do my bit to consume products produced as ethically as possible. But I see horses dying as a result in taking part in the gn unnecessary and frivolous. There is no need. Racing animals for our amusement is not respecting that animal IMO.

Why is the death of a horse somehow 'worse' than the death of a cow? Or a sheep? Or a pig? Is it because some people keep horses as pets? Is it because horse racing doesn't hide the fact it is an industry? Do you think farmers are a charity, only raising their animals out of altruism because we need/want/enjoy certain foods and are not at all interested in making at worst a living and at best a profit?

Aribura, you are the Samantha Brick of vegans.

You are a vegan, aren't you?

No, it doesn't help actually. If you believe that the death of an animal is wrong, then ANY animal's death is wrong. What happens to the carcass after it is dead is completely irrelevant. Otherwise you're advocating some kind of sliding scale of value i.e. horse > cow/sheep/pig > chicken > rat = big fat hypocrite.

I think you're misunderstanding what people mean when they say that they care about animals; you're assuming that it's the death of the animal that people care about when for a lot of people it isn't. I think that what meat-eating animal lovers care about is the welfare and quality of life that the animal had so think that killing an animal to eat is ok as long as the animal had a good life and was well looked-after. They will then also object to the killing of animals simply for fun as the carcass is not being used for any purpose making the death unnecessary.

Nobody I know "kills animals for fun". In my experience (horse racing and general equestrianism), the INTENTION, the hope and the wish is for every horse to return safe and sound. Sadly, this doesn't always happen because there is a risk inherent in horses being ridden and raced. However, racehorses in training "have a good life and are well looked-after" - they are recipients of some of the highest standards of equine care available and when things do sadly go wrong they receive a quick, humane and respectful end.

Incidentally horse carcasses have many uses - human food chain, pet food chain, hunt kennels.