bluethunder1962 said:
The more you see how the animals that are to be eaten are treated and they life they live just to be eaten sucks. A lot of vegies would be Ok with it if they had a great life before they are killed. I KNOW all animals hurt just like us.
That is a good point. I knew I made a mistake when I said a 'little less death can be a good thing' earlier because it is not so much the death, but rather the lack of a life that is the problem.
We have a society that has practically turned dogs into human beings, considering them members of families, ascribing to them human qualities and legal protections that can even seem quite excessive sometimes.
It shows people consider them thinking feeling creatures.
People feel bad about the millions of former pets in shelters that sit in a cage and then eventually get euthanized.
Yet ironically while people can be moved by those mere millions of animals, a drop in the bucket, many cannot even be bothered to consider the 10 billion animals eaten for food in the US every year.
Which includes some fairly smart animals with feelings.
A large percentage of these animals spend their entire lives in conditions worse than those in pet animal shelters.
You can even be convicted of neglect and cruelty for housing pets in ways that are better than those used in factory farming.
As I mentioned earlier the wild ecosystem cannot even support less than 1 % of human meat demand. It is a recreational resource only that must be carefully managed to allow sustainable harvest. Some hunters just get disillusioned by perceived abundance because a really small percent of the population does most of the hunting, giving the impression of great abundance.
So clearly the population has to raise their own meat in order to eat meat.
However that said, I can hunt a wild animal, acknowledge the sacrifice made for my benefit, and enjoy the activity.
The animal lived a life, with ups and downs, various experiences, some pleasant and some traumatic. It experienced freedom, and had free will to make decisions that impacted it or its offspring, the world it knew.
It saw seasons, breathed fresh air, and was involved in activities.
It experienced good and bad. It lived a life.
Contrast that with the meat bought in the store.
A large percentage of the animals raised for human consumption never even had a life before they are killed. They know nothing except a meaningless existence before their death. Sometimes knowing little more than a cage or pen, and then dying.
Having never existed would have often been better than that pointless existence.
So the real question is if people impose certain standards on production, what is a reasonable balance of cost and efficiency.
How much per pound of meat is more humane treatment worth?
That is the real debate.
I think people were more balanced when most of the United States lived on small farms. When they raised their own animals, and killed them. Treated them with dignity, while also realizing there was a time for killing.
When they eat the animal their child had named when it was born for dinner, the family must understand the sacrifice made. The cycle that is life when consuming meat. That something with feelings died to provide them with nutrition.
Rather than the detached society we have today, where meat comes from the store.