We are not a nation of animal loveras. More a nation of pet lovers

[fortyfide]

We kill animals by the million every year for meat But we do love our pet dogs , cats and other cute pets.

I am not a veggie. But would never call us Brits a nation of animal lovers

This is a great thread. How are we feeling about hare coursing? Yes meat is murder and I am vegan 5 days a week excepting beer in the pub on a fri eve! Still enjoy a blue steak now and again though. I come from a family of farmers and so know plenty of farmers, if you are farming animals for profit it's in your interest to make sure they are healthy. May I say the word tesco? May I ask why a bottle of water is more expensive than a bottle of milk? May I point out that factory farmed animals are pumped full of carcinogens and antibiotics from the day they are born. It may not affect you now but it will affect future generations.
I love a good non controversial post!

Must say the dairy herd near me have udders like huge barrels, poor things, and they hardly ever wander round a field, mostly kept in a giant shed.
I'm not sure what the answer is as people buy yoghurt etc as if it is going out of fashion. (then think of all those discarded plastic containers)

It has been well and tly discussed Thanks. I think modern metods of treating animals for food needs exposure. "secret filming" is most likely to have effect on public opinion. As someone said the figures are mind boggling

I think its perfectly possible to love animals (my horses, my dogs) but eat meat!

I agree most modern factory farming methods are SHIT and I don't buy non free range chicken for this reason, its barbaric. And yet people STILL get hung up on badger culls and fox hunting.

Still, when people like Caffe Nero boycott non-factory farmers for having the temerity to live in an area where there is a government driven badger cull, clearly people don't really care about the difference between well run and humane traditional family farms and huge factory farming businesses.

"This is why it should be compulsory for everyone who eats meat to kill and butcher their dinner at least once in their lives. "

really? People in the countryside do that quite often and vegetarian animal rights people HATE them for it!

^ That's because while there are LOADS of people who believe in animal rights, conservationists etc. from the countryside, the real animal rights loonies, the ones who feel compelled to lie and get emotional, seem with few exceptions to be townies whose idea of how you should be friendly to animals are childish and naive, and would result in suffering and death on a massive scale.

For instance the idea that killing animals is inherently an inhumane thing to do, which to put it bluntly is something twats believe because they have very little to do with animals or their care, and don't have to make the awful decisions like people who do.

GRT you leave me speechless you really do.

Yes I am afraid to say in my most frustrated moments I have said that most animal rights people are single people living alone in a city with a cat.

ie people who are very very far removed from a true life with animals as its possible to get

Love how the term for someone who thinks animals have rights gets turned into an insult.

I don't think we should have any 'life with animals' leaving animals to get on with their own lives, they are not a commodity.

My animals do have rights. The right to be fed and watered, to be loved, to be tended to by a qualified professional when ill, to be housed in an appropriate environment that actively encourages their wellbeing, to be trained so that they do not cause distress to others

They are a commodity. People buy and sell them.

I have killed and butchered a goat. Cooked it and loved it. There, can you get off my case as an ignorant meat-eater now?

Well we used to think that about people to, thankfully we learnt we were wrong.

Yes I have killed my own chickens and eaten them
and shot pheasants and rabbits
and caught salmon

all eaten

all delicous

Yeah, but show me the art, the culture, the civilizations built by cows and sheep, and I will agree with your analogy.
This is why I feel more iffy about eating ants rather than eating a steak. Ants are nature's wonder!