You can certify that it is humanely raised and handled, but how can you certify it is humanely slaughtered? Those sadists in the slaughterhouses are the ones I truly worry about!
Hello,
Well, I respect your opinion on slaughterhouses — I don’t think anyone would say they are places of joy and light. They’re kind of horrific. For me though, I figure the slaughterhouse is just one day out of a farm animal’s life — and in well-run slaughterhouses, the animals are kept very calm and killed in seconds. (Temple Grandin, one of my personal heroes, has written some amazing books on designing slaughterhouses so that the farm animals go through them in a stress-free manner and are killed humanely — she works for the slaughterhouse industry, but she has made the lives of billions of farm animals much more comfortable right before they’re killed.)
But it really appalls me more that some farm animals are kept in agonizing conditions for the entirety of their lives — years spent in cages they can’t turn around in. It breaks my heart to think of adorable calves unable to turn around for the entire 13 months they’re alive, after which they are slaughtered for veal (there are 1 million calves in the U.S. sold for veal a year according to Californians for Humane Farms). I think those calves should at least be able to turn around and frolic for those thirteen months before being killed quickly and humanely. At least the slaughterhouse is a quick death. For me it’s the far lesser of two evils. So it’s more important to me that animals are raised humanely rather than not exposed to slaughterhouses. Though of course, in the best of all possible worlds, animals would never be exposed to inhumane living conditions or slaughtered. Come the revolution . . .
Though of course, I’ve heard of horrible inhumane slaughterhouses, and I HATE the people who are responsible for them. How anyone could commit those kinds of atrocities astounds me. I think those people should be taken out and shot. Actually that might be far too good for them.
Have a cruelty-free question for me? Please email emilycrueltyfree@gmail.com.
Categories : cruelty free, dear emily, humane farming
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Natasha
June 14th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Taken out and shot is way too good for them. They should be tortured like the animals they torture so they can see how it feels. That would be nice karma.
Emily
June 16th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I always hope karma happens to people like that!
Natasha
June 18th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Me too!
Peter J. Walker - EmergingChristian.com
July 1st, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I think it’s so interesting (a little surreal, a little morbid, but interesting) to discuss ways of killing in low-stress, humane and even “compassionate” ways. Of course, I agree with all of that. But it seems so strange to say it.
Still, I am thankful for the folks like Grandin, you mentioned, who have devoted themselves to at least improving a difficult and morally problematic societal predicament.
Emily
July 1st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I totally agree with you! I really feel there’s this huge divide between my rational self and my emotional self. Rationally, I completely accept that there are humane ways to kill healthy, young animals/people and that those are much better than torturing them, and if the options are torture or death, I promote quick death quite strenuously. (Only if the options are torture or be killed — I don’t promote killing people! I swear!)
Emotionally, I personally could never kill anything alive and healthy that could express distress, and I’m a little horrified that torture and killing — both animal and human, really — is so common the world over. And that I contributed to so much animal torture and death in the past.
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