it doesn't gross you out?
By olisaur
@olisaur (1922)
United States
February 23, 2010 5:54pm CST
I am very much a vegeterian, and have strong views about animal abuse and factory farming, but I don't want all that to take over this discussion.
What I do want to talk about is seeing factory farming in the meia and on TV- like in those PETA videos (although they might be totally bias) and different documentaries and what not that show totally inhumane, gory treatment of meat-animals.
The other day I was watching TV with my mom and they showed cows in a horrendous factory farm being abused and bloodied unspeaklably. My mom is not a vegeterian, but she reacted very strongly, saying "ugh!", scrunching up her face and shielding her eyes. She even uttered, "Gosh, that's terrible."
Then an hour or so later my mom was in the kitchen deciding what to cook for dinner. She took out some meat and asked if anyone wanted hamburgers. I was like, "Mom!"
And she said, "What?" totally aloof.
I replied, "Don't you have any regard for what we just saw?"
She just shrugged and carried on. I wasn't totally shocked, I mean my mom is pretty stubborn and can be irrational at times. If someone else reacted the way she did I would be absolutely appalled. I've launched planty afight with her about eating (non-free range) meat and where its coming from but she just never takes me seriously. T-T
I guess my question for all you mylot-ers is, Does seeing animals be butchered and animal cruelty not make you want to eat meat, or are you immune/insensitive to it?
2 people like this
8 responses
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
24 Feb 10
I grew up on a farm in Canada during WW2. Meat was rationed, as was sugar,and gasoline. We worked long hours and lived off the land. My mother taught me how to kill a chicken, by chopping it's head off. I helped my father slaughter pigs, and cattle. The squeal of a pig with its throat cut, is not the most pleasant sound, but we always had a meat on the table. We appreciated good honest, healthy food, and although I am not in favor of factory farming, or inhumane treatment of farm animals I must say I don't approve of vegetarianism. I believe that animal meat for human consumption is a given.
@TAZNEM (656)
• Philippines
25 Feb 10
oh i have no problems with it at all, i have tried to butcher live chicken many times and dressed them myself. i dont know how you feel about this since you are a vegetarian. and i dont see it as animal cruelty because they are meant for human consumption it only natural to eat them..i think
@jambi462 (4576)
• United States
24 Feb 10
Yes seeing the messed up things that people do to animals for their meat is so gross that I have a pretty hard time being able to eat meat. You should watch the movie Food Inc. if you haven't already. A lot of our main suppliers of chicken and other meats won't even allow the cameras in their chicken coops because their afraid of the messed up things they are doing to animals getting out to the people that make their paychecks.
One brave farmers showed the cameras what she was being forced to do to her chickens by the company that payed her and it was absolutely sick. The chickens were like stacked on top of each other, standing in their own feces and other gross stuff. On the corporation's farms such as Tyson chicken they didn't even have their chicken coops lighted. You know things are bad when corporations won't allow you to see what they do in their line of business or how they have gotten to have so much money.
The worse thing is when people watch movies with some of the worse brutality towards animals and then they can go and make a hamburger afterward. People are so used to their everyday lives and how they are lived that they won't consciously make an effort towards trying to end this cruelty. It's all about what tastes and looks good nowadays and no one seems to care about the actual content of what they're eating. Nutrients and vitamins are paying the price and so is our health.
@iridium (431)
•
24 Feb 10
well i know this isn't the answer you want but no it doesn't bother me at all. I've seen those videos and i still insist on buying battery eggs, if i can find them, for that matter i prefer my toiletries tested on animals, I happily gut fish and i was rather p'd off that we couldn't do dissection when i was at school. I inherited my aunts fur coats and i would wear them if they fitted. i would love to slaughter my own meat. it might be different if i was there as the smell might get to me but tahts all that would. so no the videos don't bother me. if anything they make me want to get a burger
@historydog (239)
• China
24 Feb 10
I am not a vegeterian,and there is nobody eat as a vegeterian here.We regard meat as a rich nutritious food.I am against abusing animals.But when it's time for them to become meat product,they have to bleed.It's all right to me.I ever saw a pig was beheaded,and the butcher used a pot to carry the blood.I think it's quite easy to slaughter a pig.I can't understand why the vegeterians refuse to have meat.It just a kind of food,whick humans have consumed from they existed.
@Omfgbbqsauce (138)
• New Zealand
24 Feb 10
Not all of us see this abuse of animals , which is why we don't think about it when we eat meat. We aren't insensitive , we just understand that every organism has their place in the food chain. Unfortunately( for them) , all organisms are below us. Seeing animals butchered wouldn't stop me from eating meat because of this idea in my head. But , seeing animals treated inhumanely is another thing. I say " kill the pig but do it kindly" :)
@kprofgames (3091)
• United States
24 Feb 10
I understand what you are saying. I am not a vegeterian. I eat more rabbit food then meats but I can't pretend I'm something that I'm not either.
I think there is a large portion of the population that doesn't even know what is happening because they don't care. People go to the store and pick things up in their neat little packages and their life is good.
Where I do eat meat, I buy an entire animal from local farmers instead of the grocery store. There are cattle that go lame or break their legs even on free range farms (which we have here). I know the farmer and also know they treat their livestock like anyone else would their dog or cat. Well cared for and feed properly. There have been spells that I can't get anything locally but then we're back to reading lables at the grocery store because there are products that I just won't buy if I know it comes from certain companies. Why support it, I won't.
I am not immune to it nor am I insensitive. I really look at it differently because I know the animal wasn't tortured or misstreated. I think a large part of this is because I grew up in a farming community. Raising cattle and selling them ment you had a roof over your head and your family well carried for. That was a way of life for us, but I also know that any animal we raised was well cared for and tended to when they were sick. It is a whole nother world for me to see these companies and how they treat these animals.
@AlexFurness (24)
• United States
24 Feb 10
Four years ago, before I became a vegan, I didn't care very much about animal rights. I don't know if it was genuine indifference, or simply ignoring what I knew was wrong so I could continue eating meat.
After I became vegan for my health, though, I started to become more open to the moral aspects of vegetarianism. I let myself watch those Peta videos with open eyes and actually weighed the pros and cons of killing to eat.
And I realized something I'd known all along: it's pretty d*mn unpleasant. Sure, if I was in the wilderness and had to eat meat to live, I would. But to kill animals for sustenance when there's no need now seems very selfish to me. And yeah, maybe those videos are exaggerations. But if what's depicted in those videos is going on in even .000001% of factories and farms, that's still pretty awful.
Of course, I've realized that telling people this will not make them friendly to the idea of vegetarianism. Nobody likes being told what to do. So I try not to judge. I simply act as a source of information on veganism and living proof that vegans can be happy and well-fed (even a little doughy - haha.) I make food for my family to try, and now they're well-acquainted with, perhaps even friends with, tofu, nutritional yeast, and other "weird" foods.
