Excuses for Eating Meat #3 - I'm at the Top of the Food Chain

The basic argument here is as follows: "I, a human, am at the top of the food chain and thus eat everything that is below me. To show my dominance over other animals, I eat them."

Okay, fair enough. I would buy this argument if the law of the food chain still applied to a modernized society where the majority have no idea where their food comes from, let alone have taken part in it whatsoever. Yes, if you are living out in the woods/jungle/etc and demonstrate to the other creatures that you are above them by eating their brethren, that is one thing.

On the other hand, if you are showing your dominance over the other creatures by eating 50+ wings at a time at Buffalo Wild Wings, then clearly the food chain does not apply. When you have removed yourself as much as possible from the animal world in order to have more comfort, then you cannot argue that the normal laws of that world still apply. Clearly they have been altered. It is normal for all of the other animals of the world to be naked and defecate wherever they please. If this is you, then certainly go ahead and use the food chain argument for eating meat.

Humans have been able to evolve and find ways to improve our situation. There is no doubt that we no longer need to eat other animals for our own survival, and because of that, the food chain argument is a moot point.

Next, please.

Excuse for Eating Meat #2 - Not Eating Meat Makes You Weak.

ha.

this is another common reason I have gotten from meat-eaters defending their diet of choice. It is quite true that I am rather skinny, but I was just as skinny growing up, when meat was pretty much a part of every meal in my household. Fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, etc do things can only strengthen your body, especially since only animal products contain cholesterol.

I am no nutritionist, but could certainly go on with it for quite awhile. Instead, meet Ultimate Fighter Mac Danzig, who is also a vegan -
Now, here's the thing - personally I see fighting of this sort as stupid and silly, BUT as they are all consenting to the ordeal, let them beat the crap out of each other. Animals, on the other hand, are not able to give their consent before you shoot them in the head to "stun" them. Anyways, the point here is that if veganism/vegetarianism made you as weak as the meat-eaters like to think, there is no possible way this man could ever be in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, right? Well, at least it makes sense to me...

Excuses for Eating Meat #1 - It Just Tastes Good

I think this might be the excuse that leaves me the most infuriated, and it is certainly one of the most often reasons I get from meat-eaters.

It reminds me of a scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre where the kids drive past a slaughterhouse and one of them begins to describe how the animals are killed. One of the girls gets angry, telling him to stop talking about it because "I like meat." But if you can't even listen to how it gets to your plate....yeah.

I don't think there is much I can say in argument with this excuse, as there is no debate to be found, it is simply an ignorant statement that takes nothing else into it beside sheer animalistic pleasure. Perhaps human flesh is delicious, is that any reason for me to kill my neighbor and fry him up on his grill as he has so many animals in the past? No.

This excuse offers no reasoned justification for eating meat, and thus just leaves me to shake my head.

Look for more in this series...there are quite a few excuses to say the least...

i need you to save me.

as i am sitting here, there is a fuzzy gray man on a chair by the window, enjoying a sunbath. his name is ashford (or "fang," if you like). I got him a couple of years ago from an animal shelter in the western suburbs of chicago. He can be a little crazy, (as can any animal), but I adore him. He spent about two years in and out of shelters, being returned at least once that i know of.

Please, please, please - if you are considering getting a pet, please go to a shelter. There are literally millions of animals that need a home, please give it to them. There is NO REASON TO GO TO A BREEDER - unless you want to condemn an animal in a shelter to death. Do not encourage breeders to continue this practice. And whatever you do, DO NOT purchase a dog or cat from a pet store. Most pet stores have stopped selling dogs and cats, but there are certainly ones who continue the practice.

Check out the Humane Society, they do good work.

And for everyone who does own a pet - look into their eyes. They don't want to die to be on your plate, do they? Neither do cows, pigs, or chickens. If you are okay with eating one animal, why not with another?

okay class, can someone tell me how "slaughter" can ever be "humane"?

Today is a little lesson in history:

The Humane Slaughter Act (1978)

Just a note to put things into context first - as a libertarian, I am certainly NOT a fan of the great majority of laws which our country enacts....that notwithstanding...

The Humane Slaughter Act is the only - ONLY law that does anything to protect animals used as livestock in the United States. Upton Sinclair's Jungle first brought the horrors of the slaughter industry to the public, and they were horrified (rightly fucking so). Why we are still not horrified, I do not know. We just had the largest meat recall in US history, and yet people continue to devour carcasses. but anyway....

This act allows for two methods of "humane slaughter" -
The first applies to "cattle, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock." The proceeding creatures must be "rendered insensible to pain" with a single blow or gunshot before being "shackled, hoisted, cast, or cut." The second applies to ritual slaughter, as in the Jewish and Islamic faiths. Here, anemia of the brain is induced by severing the carotid artery, and then proceeding with the slaughter.

Humanely Delicious.

Most of the time, there simply are not enough USDA inspectors to constantly oversee the millions of creatures being slaughtered. Corners are cut - as we saw with the stories recently of downed cows being ground up for our pleasure (and our dollar).

There are four approved methods of "stunning" - these are often ineffective.
These are chemical (by means of CO2 gassing), mechanical (either hitting the brain with a captive bolt or gunshot), and electrical (normally by attaching electrical current to the spine).

HOWEVER, the act does absolutely NOTHING for chickens, turkeys, or fish. Every year there are nearly 10 BILLION chickens slaughtered. 10 BILLION - that's 23 MILLION killed every single day.

Yet nothing is protecting these innocent creatures. Nothing.

Spring is coming up soon now. There will be countless numbers of baby chick images used to represent the season. Take a good look at one when you see it - along with it, there will be 22,999,999 others of its species killed that day. Happy Spring Murdering!

a little bit of the ultra-violence...

"There comes a time, however, when violence is seen as juvenile and boring. It is the repartee of the stupid and ignorant." - Anthony Burgess, "A Clockwork Orange Resucked"

In an update on the Marine from the last post, the establishment media, has pretty much said it was just a way for them to blow off some steam. Never mind the needless suffering they inflict. And to anyone who thinks this was an isolated incident, I have one word - HA.

Here's the article from ABC News.

Let us not forget that ABC is owned by Disney, who is responsible for countless movies praising dogs - the entire Air Bud series, Homeward Bound, Oliver and Company, etc.

There is NO EXCUSE.

Marine Throws A Puppy Off A Cliff

Yup, that's right. A video surfaced on YouTube (and has been subsequently taken off, thank you) of a United States Marine throwing a puppy off a cliff in Iraq. Apparently his name is David Motari.

HERE is an article on it.

Now, I have never been in the armed services, nor do i ever plan on being in the armed services, and it is certainly true that I do not know what it is like to be in a war/police action/"peacekeeping mission," BUT I do know that there is absolutely no excuse for hurting an innocent puppy, let alone throwing it off a cliff. I guess when we teach our soldiers that middle eastern people are pretty much all terrorists, then even the respect for wide eyed puppies is lost.
There has been speculation whether the puppy was still alive when said marine threw it off a cliff, with the Neo-Cons declaring it was dead first. By most rational accounts, it was alive. Well, here's the thing - why would you ever throw a puppy DEAD OR ALIVE off of a goddamn cliff?!?
Good Lord.

Another meat recall

This one comes courtesy of Meijer. They have recalled over two thousand pounds of frozen chicken entrees because of possible listeria contamination.

Read the whole story here.

Greatest Vegetarian Movie of All Time

Hands down, as far as I'm concerned, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is the greatest pro-vegetarian movie of all time. If all that you know about it is that Leatherface kills kids and has a weird family, go back and watch it.

At the time it came out, it was said to have many connections with Nixon, Vietnam, etc, but when the director, Tobe Hooper was asked what it was about, he simply stated, "It's about meat."

To view it just as a "horror" movie is to miss Hooper's entire point. It is a morality play (as most horror movies actually are), with the lesson being that meat is meat, and meat is murder, no matter what the source.

Early on in the movie, the teenagers are seen driving through Texas, where they come across a horrible stench, which could only come from a slaughterhouse. While one character is describing how the cattle are killed, another plays the part of the willfully ignorant public, crying out, "I like meat, please change the subject."

When Leatherface enters the film, we see him treating the kids how we treat slaughterhouse animals. My favorite is when he sticks one of the girls on a meathook:And thus the meat-eaters are turned in to meat themselves. Also of note are the scenes of torture, when the humans are seen in pain and yet we hear sounds of cows and pigs instead of human screams. Amazing.

Go and re watch the film, and make sure your meat eating friends are there to see it.

Disney, Children's Movies and Carnage

I was raised on a healthy diet of children's movies and television programming, as I am sure were many others. A great number of these had animals as the main characters - characters that we grew with and came to love.

One of the most popular was the film Babe. In the movie, we are overjoyed to see that even a little pig like Babe has worth, and maybe so do we. Millions have watched this film, felt for the character, perhaps even loved him. (He is pretty adorable after all). And yet...the great majority of those same people continue to eat the flesh of pigs.
where is the sense in this? Surely, children do not understand where their food comes from...but once those children become adults...where is the answer then?

Disney has made countless movies with animals as heroes, and yet in their parks you will find all kinds of slaughtered creatures for sale. Is there not something bizarre about buying a stuffed Chicken Little doll in a theme park gift shop, and then walking next store to buy fried chicken?

A Fun Game For the Weekend

Spring must be on it's way as I heard Pat and Ron on 720 calling a game from AZ...that makes me happy.
For the weekend, here is a fun game to play:
Take an entire day, and keep track of the minimum number of animals that have died for you to use in any way.
For example - if you put on your belt and it is leather, that's one dead. Leather shoes? that's at least one more.
And your meals - if you pride yourself on your ability to eat wings and you eat twenty of them, that is at least TEN DEAD CHICKENS.
So keep track of the cows, chickens, pigs, etc that were killed so you could use a part of their body.
Got your score? Now see exactly how many of those had to die in order for you to survive...