This is quite disturbing. It will ruin your lunch, by design.
When I first got to Hawaii I dated a vegan who was totally hot (and totally nuts) and was dead set on turning me into a vegan. She herself liked the taste of meat, and she knew where to go to get vegan "meat dishes" at a local Chinese restaurant (Mini Garden on Beretania Street). But I would never turn; I like eggs, chicken, and fish just too much to give them up.
But I was (and still am) sympathetic to the cause of animal cruelty in mass-produced food products. This video ends with a plea for the person watching it to turn to veganism, but I think if reducing the cruelty were the pragmatic goal, then providing a link to places with humane handling of the animals that will eventually become meat, egg-layers, or milk-providers would be more effective.
How about it, PETA? I'd be willing to pay extra for that. Moreover, I'd love to know where in Korea I can find such information as well.
Oh brother. I like chicken and I like KFC 12 pieces for $9.99.
ReplyDeleteIf we handled all these chicks with feather gloves methinks KFC bucket of 12 pieces would be $29.99. No thank you. I like my cheap fried chicken. My date likes cheap friend chicken too. Dats dat.
I'm sorry, Edward, as much as I like your cute caption contest postings at Marmot's Hole, I think you are taking a morally bankrupt position here.
ReplyDeleteYour desire for cheap food does not make it any less painful to the chickens, plain and simple. Moreover, that desire for cheap food probably comes with hidden costs as well: factory farmed food is probably considerably less healthy (even detrimental to one's health) and the artificially low price causes us to eat more than we should. (Do you see now why vegan girl wanted to get into my pants?)
Good points, but I like girls who like sausage. And no that's not what I mean. Get your mind out of the gutter!
ReplyDeleteI actually resisted making a crude comment right after I said she liked the taste of meat.
ReplyDeleteOh, boy, I hope she's not reading this.
I heard about this on the radio, & can't bring myself to watch the clip. But, if I understood what I heard correctly, death for the chicks is instantaneous in the grinder. If it's being operated correctly, that is.
ReplyDeleteYep, just count me as one of the masses who likes to eat, and doesn't like to think about where it comes from.
The Sanity Inspector wrote:
ReplyDeleteBut, if I understood what I heard correctly, death for the chicks is instantaneous in the grinder. If it's being operated correctly, that is.
Not exactly. First off, they are ground up, which means that there are a second or so of excruciating pain.
Second, it's not always operated properly (or, rather, there are problems even when it's operated properly), so the chicks fall through parts of the conveyor belt or whatever and are maimed or scalded with hot water (they show this) but not killed.
Third, the video shows more than just the grinder. There is painful handling of the chicks that injures the birds, even the ones not meant for the grinder (which are the males).
Finally, they show the beak-dulling process, done by laser on a conveyor belt-type machine, which they claim is extremely painful to the birds because of nerve endings in the beak.
Actually, this video is directed at egg consumers as much as chicken consumers, since the grind-up slaughter is a way to destroy the non-egg-producing male chicks.
I'm coming fresh off of working on a documentary about the Andes, with a long section on the mines at Potosí in present-day Bolivia.
ReplyDeleteThere was a conveyor belt of sorts for the Indios and later Africans sent to work there. They were literally worked to death. Their life span working in the mines was rarely over six months. They died from accidents, mercury vapor, lack of food, etc, and if they did come out they were typically maimed.
This went on for hundreds of years, and it's estimated some 8 million died. The folks back in Spain knew about this, because people like the revered Father Bartolomeo made detailed appeals to the king to stop the cruelty.
But that's okay, because the Spanish aristocracy needed their silver, and it was a boon to the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, so it's okay, right?
After all, it's not me and mine who are suffering.
Yeah, I'm suddenly feeling all activist here, but I do see a connection between how we as a species have sometimes treated our own and how we now factory farm our neighboring species for food.
Chickens in the past were not treated with such common cruelty.
Small young boys have tons of nerve endings in a very sensitive body part that are cruelly cut off all the time. Where is the outrage against that?
ReplyDeleteDid they happen to say what happens to those ground up chickens? Maybe they become cat and dog food.
I wonder what happens to all those pieces of penises that are chopped off as well. I sure hope they aren't used as pet food.
John from Taejŏn wrote:
ReplyDeleteSmall young boys have tons of nerve endings in a very sensitive body part that are cruelly cut off all the time. Where is the outrage against that?
Well, there is outrage against it, and a backlash against the procedure. A Canadian friend who had given birth in Korea told me that, unlike other procedures, she would have to pay to have her child circumcised "back home."
Frankly, I'm not sure if the procedure is a good idea or not, as I've heard conflicting opinions that both make sense. I know I had no say in the decision.
I do think if it's done it should be done in the least painful way possible.
Did they happen to say what happens to those ground up chickens? Maybe they become cat and dog food.
The video did not say.
I wonder what happens to all those pieces of penises that are chopped off as well. I sure hope they aren't used as pet food.
Like all biological waste, they eventually end up on the Jersey shore.
You are what you eat. Factory farm chicken and eggs have a very high omega 6 to 3 ratio, plus a nice dose of environmental toxins stored in the fat. People ingest more pesticide chemicals from grain-fed meat than from conventional produce.
ReplyDeleteAnd taste? I had the best chicken ever two weeks ago when I tried for the first time a locally raised bird, freshly slaughtered on the farm. The tender, flavorful oven-baked flesh nearly melted in my mouth.
Hope you drain your chicken well before you cook it at home because that liquid encasing the carcass is the bathwater used to clean it and other birds. Besides salt, spices, and other ingredients listed on the label, the solution also contains fecal matter. Yum.
I knew I could count on you, Sonagi. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually eat very little meat, but I eat my fair share of eggs and dairy products. What are the reasons for the high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in factory farmed eggs? How does that work?
Animals are what they eat. Grazing animals eat omega 3-rich grasses and forbs. Confined animals consume grain-based feed loaded with omega 6 fatty acids. Pastured animals free to run around and graze are also leaner with less saturated fat. Meat, eggs, and dairy from pastured animals is also high in CLA, conjugated linoleic acid, which appears to have strong cancer-fighting properties.
ReplyDelete