To think bad of people that work in slaughterhouses??

[RiverMeadow]

I was reading something earlier and it got me thinking about the members of staff who actually work in slaughterhouses and who see these things first hand.

Regardless of whether you eat meat or not we're all still human and I'd assume it's a job that's a very hard one emotionally... or am I wrong?? Do the colleagues just look at it like a job and not physically killing animals? It would break my heart 😭

We aren't animals
Are we plants?

Quite right, but even if they could do you imagine they would? For crying out loud, they are carnivores, meat is what they eat, and they kill to eat. Even in our own society cats for instance have to eat meat, they can't survive without it.

What does this have to do with anything humans do? We aren’t carnivores, we don’t need meat to survive, and we aren’t killing our own food for survival.

Cats do plenty of things most humans wouldnt dream of - shitting in flowerbeds, licking their own arseholes, killing songbirds for fun, marking their own territory with piss. If we aren’t following their example in these respects, why do we suddenly think their eating habits have anything to do with our own?

'Cats do plenty of things most humans wouldnt dream of - shitting in flowerbeds, licking their own arseholes, killing songbirds for fun, marking their own territory with piss. If we aren’t following their example in these respects, why do we suddenly think their eating habits have anything to do with our own?'

Yes but as I said earlier they don't have the option of popping to Tescos and buying alternatives.

No, but plenty, infact most meat eating animals live in habitats surrounded by plenty of vegetation, but you don't see them switcing from deer to grass.

The world isn’t going to go vegan overnight. So let’s imagine instead that it happens over the next 50 years.

It won't happen in 50 years either. I very much doubt it will ever happen.

No, but plenty, infact most meat eating animals live in habitats surrounded by plenty of vegetation, but you don't see them switcing from deer to grass.

What relevance does this have to anything...?

No, but plenty, in fact most meat eating animals live in habitats surrounded by plenty of vegetation, but you don't see them switching from deer to grass.

Maybe an advertising campaign ? Competitions ? Badges ?

What relevance does this have to anything...?

Well that poster said that meat eating animals couldn't exactly pop to Tesco for alternatives, but there are alternatives all around them and they still eat meat 🤷 just pointing out what's wrong with that comparison.

Yanbu.they should stop doing it.
The meat waters would soon stop if they had to face a terrified animal and kill it for their own pleasure of eating him or her.

I have not read all of the above. I have also previously posted how I understand the meat agribusiness production process and the morality of life termination for food protein.

However, would it be nonsensical to say that the animals are not just killed obviously but also born/reared/reproduced too obviously. Not per say man made if you will. Cows, pigs, sheep, poultry etc are not naturally wild reproduced. Does this hold any water or is this just crap dismissive thinking passing the buck type argument and trying to conveniently neglect the morality of a nice juicy barbecue steak etc?

As I said here above I eat most food groups including meat and seafood. But I am trying to limit intake as not sure if I can physically switch to non meat. I (obviously) have customarily been passionate about leather goods so not animal free person but I am (contradictory) an animal lover (horses, equestrian etc) but just not the food variety. I know this sounds ridiculous to vegans etc but I am trying slowly to switch my thinking and eating habits as just like being greener I am trying to do my bit for Mother Nature.

Be nice as I have started baby steps hopefully in the right direction. Covid for me meant an opportunity to revisit the natural environment. As birds previously not seen or heard are visiting my urban oasis and very welcome as long as they don’t eat my child’s growing strawberries! On these lines I decided to detox and deCovidise with a new green and more eco enviro nature respecting rebrand for I and young family!

Just finally silly question but what do people do in terms of not eating eggs? What is the non animal replacement (if not too ignorant to annoy people here)?

Thanks!

There's no need to 'cry out loud'. We aren't animals, do you compare any other human behaviour to cats and say well if they do it why can't we?

My comment about carnivores was in response to a poster who said wild animals only kill because they can't pop down to Tescos to buy their food. It had nothing whatsoever to do with humans. Maybe read the previous posts before jumping in with your views and making accusations!

@SadSisters - read my previous post! Why don't you read all the posts before jumping in with your views which have nothing to do with what someone else actually says!

@Wewearpinkonwednesdays - thank you, I had been going to mention the fact that wild animals don't eat the vegetation but forgot.

For the record, I rarely eat meat and don't like the process of animals being killed for our food, but to all of you taking the moral high ground meat eating isn't some modern fad, and vegetarians/vegans are also not new. The whole world is NEVER going to stop eating meat, and wild animals do not eat meat simply because it is all that is available.

Well that poster said that meat eating animals couldn't exactly pop to Tesco for alternatives, but there are alternatives all around them and they still eat meat 🤷 just pointing out what's wrong with that comparison.

There aren’t really alternatives though, are there? Cats are obligate carnivores and will die if they don’t eat meat. Bears could never meet the calorie requirements for hibernation from berries and plants alone. Wolves can’t cultivate crops. Blue whales can’t consume plants since they live in the open ocean.

The poster who mentioned animals not being able to pop to Tesco for some veggie burgers wasn’t suggesting that animals would be vegans if they could be. She was pointing out that meat-eating animals don’t have the option of being vegan, because they lack the necessary biology for digesting plants, or because meat is the only food source available to them, or because their instinct is to hunt prey for food.

But none of those things are true for humans. We don’t need meat to survive. We don’t need meat to survive, we do have other options available to us, and we aren’t instinctively driven to hunt and kill our own food.

That’s why it’s nonsensical to use the example of wild animals as a means of arguing against veganism. There’s no comparison between the way we behave and the way animals behave. The behaviour of animals is not a model for human behaviour.

And if we are going to model ourselves on animals, what’s our justification for eating dairy? No other animal suckles milk from members of a different species to them. That should be proof enough that there’s no logic in comparing the average human diet to an animal’s diet.

Just finally silly question but what do people do in terms of not eating eggs? What is the non animal replacement (if not too ignorant to annoy people here)?

It depends on what you’re using them for, really. In cakes there are lots of egg alternatives (apple sauce, mashed banana, oat milk, flax egg, psyllium husk).

For scrambled egg, you can make a very convincing replacement with tofu and black salt. There is a also a product called Just Egg which is made from mung beans. It looks exactly like beaten egg but I haven’t tried it, personally.

There is sadly no real vegan alternative to a boiled or poached egg, but you do stop missing them after a while, and it takes less time than you think. Eggs are one of the best things you can give up, because the lives of commercial laying hens are so utterly awful. My mum has rescued several from slaughter (they’re all killed at 18 months when they moult) and they are so thin and bald and sad and frightened when she gets them.

we aren’t instinctively driven to hunt and kill our own food.

I'm not completely convinced this is true. Many humans have retained this urge and I am inclined to suspect that if it was the only way to acquire meat or fish more people would return to it.

I'm not completely convinced this is true. Many humans have retained this urge and I am inclined to suspect that if it was the only way to acquire meat or fish more people would return to it.

Yes they would, people around the world still do hunt their own meat.

I'm not completely convinced this is true. Many humans have retained this urge and I am inclined to suspect that if it was the only way to acquire meat or fish more people would return to it.

I don’t think it’s quite the same. Humans may enjoy hunting for sport or relaxation, and in many cases are required to for survival, but I don’t think we are subject to that irresistible instinct that drives predatory animals. In fact, people often view those who seek to kill animals as slightly psychopathic or lacking in some fundamental empathy - see the attitudes of many (including people who eat meat) to slaughterhouse workers on this thread, or the way we view people who hunt foxes, club seals, shoot lions and elephants on safari in South Africa, etc.

Someone upthread was asking for an alternative to slaughterhouses given that people will always want to eat meat. Maybe the alternative should be that anybody who wants to eat meat has to raise the animal and kill it themselves. Perhaps the ‘raising’ part could be done in small cooperatives since most people don’t have the required space, and then you could just turn up to kill your cow / pig / chicken etc when you wanted the meat.

I believe that would lead to a massive reduction in meat consumption, as many people couldn’t stomach killing the animal and would forego the meat before they agreed to kill the animals themselves. It would also return meat to the status of a luxury item enjoyed occasionally, rather than a cheap everyday convenience, as people would understand the true cost of getting it to the table.

It would also hugely mitigate the environmental impact, because far fewer cows, sheep etc would exist.

It would need to be carefully regulated to ensure the slaughter process was no more cruel (and hopefully much less cruel) than it currently is. Everyone would require a slaughter licence to show they had undergone training in how to kill animals, like a drivers licence.

I jest, of course. It would be completely unworkable and open to even more abuse than the meat industry currently is. But i think it’s interesting to consider, because I believe very few people would continue to insist on their right to eat meat if the blood of the animal had to be on their own hands.

'Many humans have retained this urge and I am inclined to suspect that if it was the only way to acquire meat or fish more people would return to it.'

'Retained this urge'? . People can't even bear to think of what goes on in slaughterhouses before eating their bacon butties let alone start skipping off with a knife to skin a rabbit or hunt a pig.

I think they should do what they do on fag packets, and have graphic images on sausage wrappers to shock people, but rather than the cancerous tumours have pictures of terrified animals being slaughtered. Show that to their kids when they try to convince them it's all 'humane' and the circle of life.

My uncle did it when he was younger and found it very hard. I worked next to a meat place once, awful drifting smells and noises. The staff, we would sometimes chat to in a nearby pub, were a mix of hugely over the top making light of it or very unwilling to talk about it.

It's a job, not one of the easiest.