To think that meat eaters...

[hashbrownsandwich]

Should be comfortable to slaughter animals if they are happy to eat them?

The 'cheap chicken' threads have got me onto this and I'm at home with covid so be gentle!

My own personal background is that I am vegetarian and have been since I was 7. Own decision. I cook meat for my children and my husband because I believe, like i was given, it's a choice that can be made for themselves.

My husband is from farming background and has proactively raised and slaughtered animals. His conscience is entirely clear because he very much has the farmer mindset of raise the animal, give them a good life, dispatch and consume.

It's coming up to 'Turkey time' on the family farm and with the so called shortages forecast this year, I've found myself having more conversations with colleagues about the food chain/supply etc.

We live in an affluent area and we have lots of farm shops, butchers etc. However, I'm shocked that most people I know have said while they couldn't give up meat, they also wouldn't be happy to raise animals for slaughter themselves or to witness their slaughter.

So AIBU to to believe, if you're going to eat meat, it's your moral duty to be ok with animal slaughter?

Just to say, what I've tried in a long winded way above is that i'm not a preachy veggie and I'm not vegan.

I suppose so but by that logic vegetarians that use conventional supermarkets should also be happy to macerate male laying hens and bolt gun male dairy calves....

Yep I agree, there are certainly moral issues in the dairy industry too.

Most meat eaters can't even bear to watch slaughterhouse footage let alone slaughter an animal.

@HangingOver

I suppose so but by that logic vegetarians that use conventional supermarkets should also be happy to macerate male laying hens and bolt gun male dairy calves....

Yes this completely. And forcibly inseminate ie rape dairy cows.

Im not sure you can necessarily conflate "morally ok with" with "happy to do it yourself". Nor do I think it would do much for animal welfare standards to have everyone raising pigs in their back gardens and slaughtering them themselves - there is some skill involved.

Yes i suppose i would if i had to. But i dont, thats peoples job and they do it for me, just like the job i do i do for people that dont need to.

You sound like a preachy vegetarian to me …

Of course!! And definitely support more oversight of how slaughtering is done, everyone should take an informed decision.

Completely agree, i have always thought if people had to kill animals for their dinner themselves there would be a lot more vegetarians

Of course I'd happily raise and kill a chicken to eat. I'm no different to every generation of human that went before us.

I think a lot of people don’t spare a lot of headspace for the mechanics of industrial food production, meat or otherwise, because if you though about it too hard you’d probably be put off eating all sorts.

I am vegan but have always said that if I had the time, space and lifestyle to raise animals and take personal responsibility for their welfare, I would have no problem eating them. This rhetoric seems acceptable to a certain type of combative, ‘anti vegan’ person. In reality I don’t miss animal products in my diet so wouldn’t bother.

This argument is probably the weakest one to encourage people to consume less meat.

But what do you mean in practical terms, that meat eaters are assigned a cow to slaughter and if they’re too squeamish they have to stick to veggie? Some poor beast has to have some amateur butcher trying and failing to kill it dragging out pain and suffering.

@Dizzylizzy40 historically that wasnt the case though was it? It was very common for people to raise and kill "backyard meat" - and still is in many cultures.

In reality I don’t miss animal products in my diet so wouldn’t bother

Lol you and me sound like the rarely acknowledged "lazy vegans" who simply try and tap out of the whole thing as far as possible because the mental gymnastics of the ethics of using animals is exhausting and boring

I eat meat and have no problem killing and butchering any food animals (having done both before).
Unfortunately most people don't want to think about where their meat comes from, infact there was study a few years ago and a surprising amount of people (both adults and children) don't know which animals their meat comes from

And I will say - as someone whose actually done it - it gets easier with practice. Not just technically but emotionally. I remember my first chicken but not the next 6 or 8.

No, I wouldn't slaughter an animal myself, because I want it to be done humanely, by people trained to do so.

@HangingOver

I suppose so but by that logic vegetarians that use conventional supermarkets should also be happy to macerate male laying hens and bolt gun male dairy calves....

Although by extension, this also requires Vegans to be prepared to do all that is done in protecting fruit, vegetable and grain/pulse crops from animals and insects. If crops were simply left to be available to wildlife and no animals were ever harmed in production, harvest or storage, they'd starve, too.

Ending anything's life, plant or animal, isn't fun. But if I didn't accept it as necessary and wasn't prepared to do it myself, well, I'd be ending my life through starvation, wouldn't I?

I'm a meat eater and I often say to my partner something along the lines of this. I would absolutely slaughter and prepare my own food (if I had the knowledge and means to do so). Whereas he can barely touch chicken to chop up for a dinner, and he would never dream of giving up meat entirely.

I found it very hypocritical of him to not want to even handle the meat yet eat it almost everyday!

We've both grown up in a fairly rural area, but I was taught at a school with a working farm attached which helped a lot.

I'd slaughter an animal but I don't think everyone should have to in order to eat meat. I also could not d a cataract operation even if I had the skills (eyes make me squeamish) so should I not be eligible for an op given the toll that offering healthcare takes on Drs. I could not do emergency medicine, paramedic, police or firefighter and given that all of those people are at high risk of trauma, should I not be eligible for those services? I think we work together as a community rather than everyone having to do everything.

@Dizzylizzy40

Completely agree, i have always thought if people had to kill animals for their dinner themselves there would be a lot more vegetarians

but would those vegetarians remove a calf from the cow, and milk it themselves?

I am practically carnivore and on a high protein diet for weight loss and health.

I know where my meat comes from so I always buy high welfare, free range and organic where possible.

All of my beef comes from an organic farm where they come to the farm to slaughter the cows to preserve their welfare rather than packing them in trucks and shipping them to a slaughter house.

I only buy chickens that are more than 80 days old and not force fed (label rouge system). I do this because I am not the one slaughtering them BUT I want to make sure they have the healthiest happiest life possible.

There are lots of sensible, persuasive arguments to eat less meat. I’m not sure telling meat eaters they’re basically all a bunch of hypocrites is likely to lead to many converts.

I have never understood why most people love their pet who has a brain heart feelings but can eat other animals bacause its the norm