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 couldn’t kill a animal but will eat it .. I do often wish I was a vegetarian but I’m not. However totally my choice and whist I applaud you and others for being a vegetarian/ vegan totally up to individuals what they decide to do.

If I had to kill my own meat I would definitely be a vegetarian! And if I had to fix my own car I'd be a non driver! Likewise if people had to care for their own children 24/7 I wouldn't have a job....
Luckily for me we live in a world where we can pick an choose what we want to do for ourselves and what we pay others to do for us.

Yes I would do it..if I had the skill and if I had to. Fact is, I don't have the skill, equipment, the space to raise my own animals to slaughter and, I don't have to as I can buy it.
However, yabu saying all meat eaters should do so. If that was our only option to eat meat then, ok, you would be correct. But its not. Definitely a preachy veggie sorry, I wouldn't dream to tell veggies how and when they should eat and prepare their food etc

Oh my husband does kill and butcher deer, rabbits, hare, geese and ducks though and we eat them

I helped raise a young sheep for a month it was like a pet then it was slaughtered for Eid

I couldn’t eat it no matter how good it tasted and I didn’t hang around for it’s slaughter either (which was very quick)

But there are many things I do that I know im a hypocrite for I travel because I want to go on holiday, I drive a car when I could use public transport more, I’ve bought items that are likely to be made in factories where people work in poor conditions, I own a pet (to some it’s cruel)

I can live with this knowledge I know how animals are slaughtered I prefer not to give it too much thought

I would much prefer to live in a situation where I could raise my own meat, eggs and dairy. Unfortunately I don't so have to rely on mass produced meat etc. I have been involved in slaughter and preparing my own meat and dont shy away from that. As an omnivore who likes meat I think it is right to acknowledge where our meat comes from, how it is raised and slaughtered. I also believe we should be using as much from each animal as possible and not wasting that life.

Sure, and anyone who wants a life saving treatment for a genetic condition should do their own stem cell research, or maybe only travel abroad if you agree to build and fly the plane...

As a veggie do you grow your own veggies as it’s the same principle ..
I mean ALL your own !!!

I don’t see why you should have to cook two different meals for your family, eating vegetarian food instead of meat is not going to disadvantage them and if they want to eat meat your husband can cook it for them - then he is properly exercising his choice rather than getting you to do so for him.

There are lots of jobs or processes that people find distasteful and need others to do for them, I want people to choose to be in the armed forces to protect me which could involve killing other people - I don’t want to have to do this myself yet am grateful they are prepared to do so for me. I don’t quite understand why you are so surprised to find people would find it difficult to give up meat despite not being able to do the deed themselves.

I hope you get better soon and that your husband is respecting your choice for vegetarian food and cooking lovely meals for you whilst you are in isolation.

I get the philosophical argument, but many people are just squeamish, especially if they've never been brought up around 'real' livestock farming - stillborn calves, lambs that die. After all no children are brought up in an abbatoir so they don't have any experience of it.

However, the same applies to other aspects of life. Those same people might be squeamish around someone getting stitches or seeing an operation (think eye op!) But should they not benefit from those procedures if they couldn't feel comfortable about witnessing them?

Cazzovuoi, I agree. If you can buy the highest welfare meat you can, then it’s the best step in the right direction. Hopefully all meat will be higher welfare soon. Transporting animals long distances and other practices seem unnecessarily cruel

As an ex very strict vegetarian, I’m aware of the process, my DH used to work in the ‘chicko’, the chicken factory during his school years. He told me some terrible stories, I don’t think abattoirs are as good at killing the animals as they should be. Having recently learned that pigs are asphyxiated to death (as opposed to stunned then killed), I am totally off pork. I’m debating going back to being vegetarian.

It’s quite sad that people argue so aggressively to be able to kill and damage the environment

It’s quite sad that people argue so aggressively to be able to kill and damage the environment

To be able to eat, be nourished and survive you mean?

There are many ways to do all those you mention without the need to kill and damage the environment. I have found it’s pointless to talk about this to those that do not and will not try to understand so let’s not :)

@dreamer90

There are many ways to do all those you mention without the need to kill and damage the environment. I have found it’s pointless to talk about this to those that do not and will not try to understand so let’s not :)

Animals die to feed you whether you eat meat or dairy or eggs.

Deer are culled, pigeons shot over crops, rabbit numbers controlled, insects killed by sprays or nematodes. Once the crops are harvested, rodents are killed.

So cut the 'it's pointless to talk about this' line. Find out about food production first.

dreamer90

I agree.

I believe that animals who are raised to be slaughtered for food should be treated humanely through every step of the way, from actual rearing to eventual slaughter. I do not think that it is necessary for people who eat meat to be comfortable slaughtering animals, but they should be adamant about how those animals are treated. Nor do I think that people who wear clothes should be comfortable with raising cotton and flax, harvesting, spinning, weaving, and sewing.

Granted, I will admit that humane treatment of food animals would result in higher prices, but I'm willing to deal with that. In fact, I do. I am lucky enough to be able to source from farmers who welcome me as a visitor, so I know how the animals are treated. I pay more, eat less, but I know that the animals did not suffer the way that so many do.

Haven't read all the thread!

I love these threads as it gives me a chance to say that I eat meat and I've worked in a slaughter house and have killed animals myself(illegally as I'm not and was never a licensed slaughter man)

I worked in a few different abattoirs ranging from small ones, poultry only and a huge one. I worked on the line and must have seen thousands of animals killed.
I didn't see a single incidence of deliberate cruelty although I did occasionally see things go wrong.

When I worked the Slaughter men were paid a set amount and the quicker they worked the sooner they went home. They worked as quickly and efficiently as possible. That involved killing the animals as swiftly as they could. That's not possible if things aren't kept calm.
Half injured or scared animals are dangerous and difficult to handle. (It also effects the quality of the meat if animals are in distress.)

We started work very early in the morning and I never had a problem joining in with the mid morning fry up. If anything seeing how the animals were handled and slaughtered made eating meat seem more ok.

I don't eat loads of meat but have no qualms about it. I like to eat meat that is produced and killed as locally as possible. I prefer to eat less intensively farmed animals.

Transporting live animals long distances is really cruel.

Yawn.

The only way is vegan I'm afraid. Once you go down that route you find peace and along with that so many incredible recipes. Don't shut your mind to this avenue. Give it a try maybe 6 months and the pavlovs response (salivation) to cheese disappears. Then you wonder what all the fuss about eggs was. We live in a world where we in this country have now such a wide variety of foodstuffs that eating animals is unnecessary.

Give it a try maybe 6 months and the pavlovs response (salivation) to cheese disappears

Most of your bodily functions will disappear when you eventually become malnourished

I agree op . I am a carnivore. In my childhood I helped my grandmother kill chickens to eat and to skin rabbits when I was a child / teenager

I haven't killed any animals for food since as I now live in a city not a farm so that would be weird but I would have no problem whatever killing an animal for food in principle.

@Lavender24

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

"Most" where have you made this up got this from?

I love eating animals and I would kill them myself if I needed to.

You lot won't put me off eating a nice steak, chop, chicken thigh or lamb kebab with your preaching.

The only way is vegan I'm afraid

Not what my doctor told me. And I'm not the only person I know who's health has suffered and has had to go back to eating animal products.

I'm not saying people don't thrive on a vegan diet. But not everyone does.