What We Owe What We Eat.

[livinginphotographs]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8525632/site/newsweek/

July 18 issue - Matthew Scully, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, is the most interesting conservative you have never heard of. He speaks barely above a whisper and must be the mildest disturber of the peace. But he is among the most disturbing.

If you value your peace of mind, not to mention your breakfast bacon, you should not read Scully's essay ''Fear Factories: The Case for Compassionate Conservatism—for Animals." It appeared in the May 23, 2005, issue of Pat Buchanan's magazine The American Conservative—not where you would expect to find an essay arguing that industrial livestock farming involves vast abuses that constitute a serious moral problem.

<snip>

"... 400- to 500-pound mammals trapped without relief inside iron crates seven feet long and 22 inches wide. They chew maniacally on bars and chains, as foraging animals will do when denied straw... The pigs know the feel only of concrete and metal. They lie covered in their own urine and excrement, with broken legs from trying to escape or just to turn ..."

[livinginphotographs]

1. Kick.

[Tace]

2. George Will Writes A Good Column Now And Then

And the subject of this one is horrifying.

[NMMNG]

3. Indeed

[barb162]

4. It needs to be publicized...we should think about what we do

because we like meat

[Lorien]

6. Some do, some of us don't

animal rights and compassion for animals were once part of mainstream liberal ideology. RW memes on animals and the environment have triumphed in the past 20 years. Now it is considered "weak" to care about animal suffering instead of "evolved", as it once was. If the GOP can convince us that animals are unimportant, and that caring about animals is somehow immoral (the tired old "I care about people, not animals" argument, which generally translates to "I have a very limited capacity to care about anything other than myself")then they can continue to profit from cheap and unethical farming practices. Remember; the beef and pork councils are entirely Red. If they can convince us that caring about the environment means that we care for fuzzy bunnies and not human beings, then they can continue to rape and plunder our environment for personal profit with no one presenting them with any real obstacles. I'm sure that many a DUers will set flames on this thread, but they really need to ask themselves; how did I come to hold this opinion?

[livinginphotographs]

12. And if we say, "I care about people, not animals"

It is very easy for us to go on to "I care about white people, not black people" or "I care about rich people, not poor people," or another one that has some sort of historical precedent we'll all remember "I care about the German people, not Jews, Poles, homosexuals, or gypsies."

If we allow ourselves to brutalize one group, it's only a matter of time before we get convinced to brutalize another.

[CrispyQ]

19. Thank you Lorien! That was so well put.

the tired old "I care about people, not animals" argument, which generally translates to "I have a very limited capacity to care about anything other than myself"

I don't understand how people think that those of us who care about animals translates into we don't care about people. These same people have the capacity to love & care for more than one child, more than one family member, & multiple friends. And yet our compassion for animals is perceived as being limited - we are unable to extend our care to humans because of our compassion for animals. You are so correct that the meat industry has done a very thorough job of brain washing the general public in this regard.


"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."—Alvin Toffler

[Lorien]

21. Everyone is not endowed with a finite pool of compassion

those whose compassion is limited has chosen to make such limitations, IMHO.

[MisterP]

22. or even "dangerous": people wet themselves if you think that maybe

there's more to an organism than GATTACA

[flvegan]

5. Great article!

"The rhetoric of animal "rights" is ill-conceived. The starting point, says Scully, should be with our obligations—the requirements for living with integrity. In defining them, some facts are pertinent, facts about animals' emotional capacities and their experience of pain and happiness. Such facts refute what conservatives deplore—moral relativism. They do because they demand a certain reaction and evoke it in good people, who are good because they consistently respect the objective value of fellow creatures."

Moral relativism...I love that last sentence.

Great post, livinginphotographs, thanks!!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. Corporate Pig farms have taken over my hometown...

The stories I hear from friends who have had to work there (no other jobs avail. except during harvest) are just sickening. Most of them grew up on a farm, several have had to quit because they just couldn't stand the way the animals were treated.

[shockra]

8. I can't imagine.

It's hard enough just to read about them. Last weekend I read The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals, which had all these great stories about how loyal, intelligent and affectionate pigs are, then the heartbreakingly cruel way that they're treated at factory farms. Matthew Scully has an article on his site about pig farming:

Don't tolerate the cruelty on hog farms

<snip>

Entering, you are greeted by a bedlam of squealing, chain rattling, and horrible roaring from the sows. Even "confinement" doesn't describe their situation. Row after row, hundreds of the creatures are encased, pinned down, inside their iron crates. "Science tells us," declares Paul Sundberg of the National Pork Producers Council, "that she (a sow) doesn't even seem to know that she can't turn." For some darn-fool reason, though, the sows keep trying to turn anyway, endlessly, and they all have festering sores and fractured or broken legs to show for the effort.

A noted defender of intensive-confinement farming, agricultural scientist Dennis T. Avery, assures us that "the hogs are becoming healthier and happier as more of them move indoors." I didn't see evidence of this, either, but only bruised and broken creatures going mad from their constant confinement. Forced to lie and live in their own urine and excrement, the sows chew frenziedly on bars and chains, as foraging animals will do when denied even straw to eat or sleep on, or else engage in stereotypical nest-building with the straw that isn't there. Everywhere you see tumors, ulcers, cysts, lesions, torn ears -- these afflictions never examined by a vet, never even noticed anymore by the largely immigrant labor charged with their care.

When the sows leave their iron crates after four months of pregnancy, it is only to be driven and dragged into other crates just as small to give birth. Then it's back to the gestation crate for another four months, and so on, for about eight or nine pregnancies, until they expire from the sheer punishment of it, or are culled as too sick and weak to go on.

Factory farming operates on an economy of scale, presupposing a steady attrition rate, and each day, in every gestation barn on every confinement farm in America, you will find cull pens littered with dead or dying creatures discarded like trash. All of them -- every one of the 4.5-million sows condemned to this life on our factory farms -- will go to their deaths having never even been outdoors, never once known the feel of soil or the warmth of the sun.

http://www.matthewscully.com/hog_farms.htm

Gestation crates have been outlawed in Europe, but not here. In Dominion, Matthew Scully wrote:

"How does a man rest at night knowing that in this strawless dungeon of pens are all of these living creatures under his care, never leaving except to die, hardly able to turn or lie down, horror-stricken by every opening of the door, biting and fighting and going mad? A child playing with a toy barnyard set, putting all the little horsies and piggies outside the barn to graze, displays a firmer gasp of nature and reality than do the agricultural experts..."

In The Pig Who Sang to the Moon there was a wonderful story about a 200-pound Vietnamese potbellied pig named Lulu:

"Joanne Altsmann was in her kitchen one afternoon, feeling unwell, when Lulu charged out the doggie door made for a 20-pound dog, scraping her sides raw to the point of drawing blood. Running into the street, Lulu proceeded to draw attention by lying down in the middle of the road until a car stopped. Then she led the driver to her owner's house, where Altsmann had suffered a heart attack. Altsmann was rushed to the hospital, and the ASPCA awarded Lulu a gold medal for her heroism. Altsmann knows in her bones that Lulu's sixth sense saved her life."

[freeplessinseattle]

11. this breaks my heart

this is why I can't even eat meat from free-roaming, happy animals, I think of the unfortunate ones whenever I see meat on a plate or in the butcher's case, and think of the pets that care for people as we should care for them.

[girl gone mad]

9. This is the reason that I don't eat meat.

I'm not one to proselytize, but I just can't justify contributing my money to these industries anymore than I can justify shopping at Wal-Mart.

I do buy organic milk and eggs as well as meat from farm-raised animals for my husband and son, who are not vegetarians.

[xmas74]

10. I do eat meat (sometimes)

but I have always had a big problem w/ "megafarms". I rarely buy meat at a grocery store (unless I have company coming over at the last minute). I prefer to support my local family owned farmers where I know that cattle and other livestock is allowed to range (I check out the farms first). The money goes back into my local community instead of to some corporate entity that could care less about the plight of the farmer. And my meat tastes fresher.
It's very easy to do, especially if you live in a more rural area. Many times you can drive directly up to a farmhouse and ask if they sell their livestock off to corporate slaughterhouses. Most farmers are glad to talk to you about it. Every farmer I've ever met will gladly sell the cattle to you and take it to the processor of your choice when they are ready. The profit goes in their pocket, you've supported local business that does not practice the way that megafarms do and you usually save quite a bit of money. It tends to be much cheaper to buy direct than to buy at the store. If you have a large freezer you can get away w/ rarely buying meat (especially in my family since we only eat it once or twice a week). It sends the message to the struggling family farms that you support them. It also sends the message to corporations that are trying to take over to f*ck off.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

13. Puppies are bred and raised in much the same conditions

in the puppy mills. Many are owned by the Amish in OH and PA - they are just another cash crop to them. Puppies in pet stores come from these hellholes.

If you are looking for a puppy, please go to a responsible breeder - start by looking on the AKC website

Getting off soapbox....

[livinginphotographs]

14. Or go to your local shelter instead.

I have to disagree with you on "responsible" breeders.

Getting on my soapbox, if you're not using it....

Absolutely NO breeder is responsible while unwanted animals are still starving or homeless.

Okay. Climbing down now...

[Coventina]

20. I agree with your sentiments, but it's not quite that simple

I think that MOST breeders do not have a valid excuse for being in business. Way too many puppies and kittens are being brought into this world, that is a given.

But there is a place for some responsible dog (and possibly cat, but that is not something I'm as well-read on) breeders.

Believe it or not, many dog breeds are in danger of disappearing, if it were not for the dedication of breed-specific breeders. An example is the Irish Wolfhound, which nearly went extinct in the 19th century, but was rescued from oblivion by one breeder who took an interest in the dog.

Now, you may say that his efforts would have been better spent rescuing dogs and cats from the streets of London, and certainly that would be noble as well. But I think the world is a nicer place with Irish Wolfhounds in them.

Having said all that, my dog is a mutt probably several generations in the making, and I wouldn't trade her for anything! :-)
Found her as a stray, one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

Bottom line is, there are a small number of dedicated, responsible breeders who are working for dogs, to improve them, to educate the public, and who often are heavily involved in rescue efforts for abused and abandoned dogs.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

23. I do dog rescue and wholeheartedly agree..

that adopting from a shelter is the way to go. With the spay/neuter programs we have in the northeast USA, there are not many puppies in shelters. But there are lots of nice young adult dogs there that deserve homes. www.petfinder.com is a good way to locate one

But if one HAS to have a puppy, esp. one of a certain breed, finding a GOOD breeder who breeds to improve the breed, (not to line their own pockets) is the recommended course.

[Lorien]

24. Fight for spay/neuter laws and breeding regulations

I also own a breed that nearly became extinct 40 years ago (A Turkish Angora cat;a natural breed with unusually high intelligence that is considered "sacred" in Turkey). Some towns are adopting mandatory spay and neuter laws, and regulating dog and cat breeders. This needs to be done nationwide, IMO.

[trebizond]

15. Really interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Gonna have to get hold of this guys book.

[Merope215]

25. It's not pleasant reading

but Scully is so very good with language that the reading is wonderful even though the subject of the book is heartrending and nauseating. You should definitely check it out. He is an extraordinarily gifted writer of the English language. Kind of makes you wonder how Dubya sounds so tongue-tied all the time, with such speechwriters. :shrug:

[The Stranger]

16. Kick.

[Deja Q]

17. Holy holocaust, batman.

:(

[trebizond]

18. kick

[Catchawave]

26. Wikipedia: Slaughterhouse

More information and links here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse

[BeFree]

27. No Mammal diet

Eating mammals ain't good. You might as well be eating your dogs and cats- there's not much difference.

After my last helping of mammal meat - a portion of wild pig - I felt it in my system for a week as it moved through my digestive track. My system had evolved without any red meat for several years and was not entirely comfortable with the pig meat, know what I mean? They say every meat eating cadaver has an average of seven pounds of undigested red meat stuck in the nooks and crannies of the digestive track....ewww!

Now some might call me a granola head because I eat it. Fine. Well friends, if you eat your pig meat, I say that makes you a pig head. Fair is fair.

[ernstbass]

28. Excellent article

This is an issue that deserves more attention.

[smbolisnch]

29. Great article....thanks for posting it!

Kick!
:kick: