People are so cruel - I can’t bear it **animal cruelty** - Title edited by MNHQ

[bluewanda]

I came across this link earlier and am absolutely sickened. How can human beings be so disgustingly cruel? How can these monsters even live with themselves?!

Sorry for the DM link but on the other hand, I’m glad they’re publicising this when other media outlets aren’t.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9082657/amp/Animals-beaten-death-strangled-caged-unflinching-photo-series-showing-suffering.html

I am concerned about humans and animals but it didn’t take long for that straw man to rock up.

Not for me. I've been vegan for about 11 years and vegetarian for the 14 yrs preceeding that.

I would prefer it if the world reduced meat consumption and I think "smacks of virtue signalling" is the wrong way to convince people. Even if people only gave up meat products for 1 month a year, that would save millions of animals from suffering. It's better than nothing and nothing is what we'll get if we use emotive language like 'virtue singalling' when talking about their efforts.

I just don't think trying ever harder to position humans as separate from nature is the solution to animal welfare - we created an arbitrary line separating ourselves from animals and now we're going to redraw a new arbitrary line separating ourselves and animals from plants instead?

That kind of disconnected, dysfunctional mindset is how we got to this place of no longer respecting the earth that sustains us. We need to reconnect with and accept our own place within nature and that our lives too will end so that something else might live. We're not special. Doubling down isn't going to fix anything.

And nor is calling people names for not subscribing to vegan ideology.

Can’t look, but animal abuse makes me cry, anyone hurting animals should be locked up, bastards.

It's better than nothing and nothing is what we'll get if we use emotive language like 'virtue singalling' when talking about their efforts.

Don't you think veganury is just that though? People think it even if they don't say it. It's things like that which give vegans a bad name. Personally if I was going to seek to persuade people veganury wouldn't be my first step. But really you'd have better luck with promoting better welfare standards and sharing information why it's better not to buy cheap meat instead. After all the aim is to reduce animal cruelty is it not. And many people would not consider giving up meat. But they might do the next best thing instead. Who knows, some may make the leap to veganism all by themselves.

@Suzi888

YANBU don’t want to click the link. Humans are a plague.

This.

Jeez I never knew horse slaughter was so common right throughout Europe/the world. Makes you realize the frequent focus in Western media on the odd Chinese dog eating festival is probably largely just fueled by racism/ Sinophobia. Animal abuse is still rife throughout the entire world, no one is innocent, though of course vegans are taking a stand.

Love seeing most of the comments here- so many people are waking up. Well done to everyone who took the plunge and went vegan, and to those who are thinking of it, you can do it too

@Kaliorphic
Millions of people are using food banks in one of the richest countries on Earth (the U.K.). 26 million Americans didn’t have enough to eat this year.

“Don’t buy cheap meat” ??? Good luck with that. The problem is that governments throughout Europe/the world still set v.low welfare standards - which industrial farms still try their best to ignore if they can get away with it. Oh, and wealth is increasingly being directed to “trickling up” at an every increasing rate, which leaves more and more people struggling to get by every year even in rich countries. Perhaps the masses will cotton on at some point, but there’s always another distraction - hey immigrants!

RE the vegan comment - as people are still getting their knickers in a twist about it without bothering to read the thread - the majority of the images the OP is so distressed by are from food production hence the question - it's directly relevant to her outrage

I’m not a vegan but I like to know where my meat comes from, I don’t eat much meat but when I do I buy it local, a lot of farms here allow you to see how they keep their animals, they also slaughter them on site. Just because I occasionally eat meat it doesn’t mean I agree with animal cruelty and OP should feel she needs to become vegan, just research where your food comes from.

It’s ugly and horrifying isn’t it 💔

But that’s the everyday reality for millions of gentle sentient beings every single day.

What is in your processed refrigerated compartment chilled section of your supermarket meat cuts was once an emotional, feeling sentient soul who did not want to be murdered in terror and pain. And YES that is what it is. There is no dressing it up otherwise 🙄

Animals almost all die horrifically in nature too.

I feel ashamed for eating meat because I have a moderate understanding of the animal cruelty involved, and I also realise how skewed and hypocritical my perception is because I have a much stronger reaction to dogs being hurt than pigs.

Irritatingly I'm not sure I have the willpower or dedication to stop though.

I think the biggest problem is that the governments of this world don't give a toss about any of this unless it lines their pockets or accidentally poison them so are never going to put better standards in place.

They don't care about animals being badly treated or the "ethical" options of just treating the human workforce like slaves instead who are growing exotic food so that the rich westerners can feel less guilty by eating a meat free diet during winter because they wont just eat the things that grow locally for them (such as carrots, potatoes and sprouts) until the more interesting food turns up in the late spring.

I wonder how we can change any of this as the governments don't listen to the people or what they claim they will do on election night.

Animals almost all die horrifically in nature too
What’s your point?

My point is that if we shut all the slaughterhouses tomorrow there wouldn't be a reduction in cruelty. Nature (of which we are a part) is unrelenting horrific. All these animals (except the ones specifically bred for food - they just wouldn't exist at all) would eventually die of starvation, illness, infection or most likely in the gullet of another animal, usually whilst still alive.

@Tempusfudgeit

Animals almost all die horrifically in nature too.

The difference perhaps is that they don't live horrifically, sustained by climate controlled environments and ready access to food that prevents death which might actually be a mercy

For those preaching veganism who.live on the UK. You can't eat a healthy local diet 12 months of the year following a vegan lifestyle, you need additives and preservatives and air miles and advocado and quinoa and bean sprouts and multi vits and oils and so on and so forth. All adding to the destruction of the planet with the packaging and miles and destruction of natural habitats, intensive agricultural interventions, pesticides, GM crops, impact on local population and vital food sources etc etc etc.

I'm not saying you can't be a healthy vegan because you can, I just don't see how you can live in the UK and do so without an impact on the world resources, a greater impact than being vegetarian.

I keep chickens and obviously eat their eggs. They are a mix of commercial and heritage breeds. They are happy, have a large run, a warm shed to roost in, as much quality grain as they can eat, in normal times free range on our allotment, are wormed and get pest free. They won't be eaten when they die as they aren't eating birds but why is eating their eggs unethical? I can maybe understand the commercial birds, but unless people like me kept the heritage breeds they would die out as breeds.

Also how do you justify eating something like an avocado or quinoa and the ethical connotations of those products? And the packaging and production of vitamins to remain healthy? Do you drive etc.

Am genuinely not trying to be arsey, I understand the concept behind veganism (I have friends that are). I just can't comprehend doing something to save animal suffering that is potentially as damaging as eating the eggs of back yard chickens or cheese.

Also the PP who said re aligning ourselves with USA welfare standards. The UK exceeds by some way the standards set by the EU in lots of areas. And have done for some time. Why we would leave the EU and reduce animal welfare? Again genuine question.

Meh
It would be just as easy if not easier to build a book of humans abusing animals kept as pets. Any book like that is going to show the extremes, not the usual.

Humans are predators and omnivores. Of course we kill animals and eat them. Nothing wrong with it either.

It's fine to take an ethical stand against eating meat. It's also fine to eat meat.

It's all personal choice.

I was a veggie for two years and had a terrible pregnancy and turned to steak and other animals to boost my iron deficiency which I needed ivs for every three days towards the end. It is no justification even as I carried on eating meat but a month or two ago I forced myself to watch a few abattoir videos. I cried and decided that the first step was to give up meat and 2021 I will try and give up all animal products. Apart from free range eggs from people who I know treat their chickens well because I fail to see the cruelty there but I am willing to be educated.
I think now you have seen these images and been horrified now maybe look at what we do to our animals on farms in the uk. Nobody wants to think of animals being tortured but we have advanced so much to make other food taste like meat and I have honestly enjoyed making so many veggie meals and have enjoyed them more than meat. Try oink bacon it's plant based and amazing! Richmond veggie sausages too. And beyond meat anything is incredible and no bull products.
I am still contributing to the death of male calves and the forced rape of diary cows through my consumption of milk and cheese and now I have seen these things I strive to change. I think we need to be the change that we see and I'm going to try hard to give up these products. It's easy to say far away counties are barbaric but in this country day old calves are killed. The killing machines are run to be economic so workers in factories can't keep up with slitting the chickens throats and alot end up boiled alive, pigs have the intelligence of a young child and we abuse them horrendously. I think vegan is the way forward tbh! Guilt free plant based diet is the best for our health anyway.

@Tempusfudgeit

My point is that if we shut all the slaughterhouses tomorrow there wouldn't be a reduction in cruelty. Nature (of which we are a part) is unrelenting horrific. All these animals (except the ones specifically bred for food - they just wouldn't exist at all) would eventually die of starvation, illness, infection or most likely in the gullet of another animal, usually whilst still alive.

Approximately 1.14 billion chickens/year are farmed for meat, many of those will experience broken bones, limited behavioural opportunities overcrowding and transport stress. A reasonable proportion won't be stunned before slaughter.

If (theoretically) eating meat 'stopped tomorrow' we'd lose a generation of animals (that were destined to die anyway) But the suffering of billions of animals annually would then be halted.

Or else how else do you propose it would be perpetuated?

@june2007

Iff you choose to be Vegan great but you can be a meat eater and still care for the wellbeing of the animals.

Do you know what? I don't think you can.

@Frouby

For those preaching veganism who.live on the UK. You can't eat a healthy local diet 12 months of the year following a vegan lifestyle, you need additives and preservatives and air miles and advocado and quinoa and bean sprouts and multi vits and oils and so on and so forth. All adding to the destruction of the planet with the packaging and miles and destruction of natural habitats, intensive agricultural interventions, pesticides, GM crops, impact on local population and vital food sources etc etc etc.

I'm not saying you can't be a healthy vegan because you can, I just don't see how you can live in the UK and do so without an impact on the world resources, a greater impact than being vegetarian.

I keep chickens and obviously eat their eggs. They are a mix of commercial and heritage breeds. They are happy, have a large run, a warm shed to roost in, as much quality grain as they can eat, in normal times free range on our allotment, are wormed and get pest free. They won't be eaten when they die as they aren't eating birds but why is eating their eggs unethical? I can maybe understand the commercial birds, but unless people like me kept the heritage breeds they would die out as breeds.

Also how do you justify eating something like an avocado or quinoa and the ethical connotations of those products? And the packaging and production of vitamins to remain healthy? Do you drive etc.

Am genuinely not trying to be arsey, I understand the concept behind veganism (I have friends that are). I just can't comprehend doing something to save animal suffering that is potentially as damaging as eating the eggs of back yard chickens or cheese.

Also the PP who said re aligning ourselves with USA welfare standards. The UK exceeds by some way the standards set by the EU in lots of areas. And have done for some time. Why we would leave the EU and reduce animal welfare? Again genuine question.

You seem to labouring under the misapprehension that avocados and quinoa are essential parts of a vegan diet. They aren't.

Which nutrients specifically can vegans not access in the UK for 10months of the year compared to the general population?