Quote: Treat them very well until you slaughter them. OK, I get it... that makes sense to me.
LOL! Reminds me of the Kobe beef with their massages and beer to drink and all that. I don't get people that think it would be better to raise your own meat and then kill it yourself. I may be able to kill a goose since they are wicked creatures but most likely not. I don't really care what animals are fed. For me it is not about antibiotics and that sort of thing. I care about the moments before death most. If the horrible incidents you hear about are extremely isolated I would feel better but one animal tortured out of a million is one too many. Even the intense fear they feel before being slaughtered is bad enough- without having any pain. But lets face it- their deaths are never painless. Maybe gas chambers would be humane. Maybe like in Soilant Green- they just watch beautiful images until drifting off to sleep and dying. I would eat meat then maybe.
There is something that just doesn't get through to animal farmers. There is a brick wall there or something. When you have been taught it is ok from a very young age to kill animals to eat them it is nearly impossible to think otherwise. * see footnote
Manure is not actually needed to grow vegetables; compost can be better. If I get the farm I want I would have manure to use by having some animal friends on the farm and I would have compost. In my field now I used rabbit manure from pets and compost. It was just fine. In fact most of the farmers in my area do not use manure as they do not have access to any. But honestly it would take a huge conversion of people to make any changes in the animal industry. I don't see anyone losing their farms in the near future. But if farmers were smart they would always be diversified.
*My family on each side were dairy farmers and I loved dairy all my life but gave it up 5 years ago completely. My father was a hunter/trapper! of all things but I never approved of it even as a kid. I never have approved of animals skins or game. Almost everyone I know or work with deer hunts and has all this propaganda about how the herds get too big and will starve without hunters to thin the numbers. That is bull crap. The problem is with all the predators being depleted and with urban sprawl. Predators kill the weak and old prey and improve the strength of the herd whereas hunters kill the biggest and strongest (and pretty much never shoot and kill but follow a blood trail of an injured animal sometimes for miles until it finally dies. That is why bow shot deer are regarded as less tasty since they live so long after being shot). Since hunters have shot all the wolves and bear in most areas there are no natural regulators for deer populations except weather and disease (and automobiles). It is completely ridiculous that bears are allowed to be hunted. Still when you hear of many guys coming back from hunting with nothing, like this year, you know the deer populations are not out of hand. See a person doesn't need to follow in their parent's footsteps.
-------------------- IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!