" Downer cows" :+(

Oh my gosh, I just saw a clip on abc Goodmorning America showing footage of how people treat some of these cows.

It broke my heart and physically made me Ill, seriously turned my stomach.  they showed kicking, dragging, pushing with a tractor to get them into the slaughter house.  Poor things.  Then the main part of the story wasn't how inhumane these animals were treated but concern that they have more of a chance of getting people sick due to a higher risk of e-coli. 

I am not a vegan, however don't eat red meat or pork.  I eat chicken (and egg whites), turkey and fish only.  Are all animals mistreated like this?

Really I don't know how anyone could eat a burger or steak after seeing this.  I am tempted to also post this in the "lounge" perhaps to make people more aware.

Thoughts? 

It's gross in general to eat a thing that had eyes and a face.  I never really payed attention to the torture of the animals, It just makes me sick when I eat egg,meat, chicken, fish, gelatin.  The only thing I do eat from a living creature is milk.  It's just the muscley chewiness of flesh maks me sick.

Try consuming kosher animals if you like meat.  I ate kosher my whole life considering im Jewish.  They slaughter the animal in a way that it won't feel pain, Also they clean out the majority of the blood of the animal before you eat it, as well as checking if the animal has any defects or blemishes.  Therefore I suggest eating kosher-It's cleaner, Therefore healthier. 

have you ever seen the movie fast food nation?

i was literally about to puke. the whole time i was watching it i was just thinking, "god i am so glad to be vegetarian." the stuff they showed, like how all this excrement gets ground up with the meat when it falls out of the intestines, how the cows are slaughtered, etc etc. ugh, my stomach churns just thinking about it. makes me feel sorry for omnivores.

If you think that's bad, go search for the news video on YouTube and all these other videos come up.  I haven't had red meat, pork or chicken in almost 6 weeks after reading the book Skinny Bitch.  They point out all the bad things in the food industry and how the meat packing/processing plants have their own USDA stamp they use on their packaging.  I believe the book states that less than 1% of the 10 billion pounds of meat in the US is actually inspected by the USDA because there aren't enough inspectors.  They don't even test for mad cow anymore, they are supposed to kill a downed animal on the spot and not use the meat, but we all know how that works.  It's all about the production and profit numbers.

I haven't seen Fast Food Nation yet, but I'll add it to my Netflix queue.  Be warned if you start watching some of the videos on YouTube; it's quite disturbing.

Just thinking about what you guys are saying is bringing tears to my eyes.  I can't believe I am so ignorant.  I consider myself an intelligent person, however I guess i am so naive in believing people can be so cruel.  What is wrong with them?

Off to the gym to workoff this sickness i am feeling for these poor animals.

"Are all animals mistreated like this?"

 

Yes...i would suggest watching the video on the chooseveg.com web page. it's an eye opener.

A few months after becoming vegetarian I watched "meet your meat" and I cried the entire time.  It's absolutely appalling.

I try to only buy meat that I KNOW comes from a place that is apposed to animal cruelty. The only brand of beef I know that actually stands for being "kind to cows", is Laura's Lean, and hey, it's the best of both worlds - low-fat and humane. I will NOT eat fast food ever again after reading Chew On This though. It disgusted me beyond belief; it's a wonder how some people chow down on that stuff daily without even stopping to think about where it came from.

And yeah, I saw that story on the news too. My mom just said "Luckilly we don't buy beef from that company!" Well, the truth be told, most beef slaughterhouses have some kind of abuse going on every day. I'm trying to completely cut out red meat, and from here on out, I'll only buy meat from Laura's Lean or Whole Foods - everything else has hormones and pestesides anyway, and plus, at least I can feel better about the animals. 

This is why I want to raise a few pigs/chickens of my own when I get my own place. I'm not a vegetarian, obviously. =3

I wouldn't mind raising cows for meat too, but they're kind of huge, need a lot of space, and difficult to slaughter by yourself...

chicken, turkey, etc are treated the same way. 

watch this video.  they are in the first part. "the most abused animals"

http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

ps. i read skinny bitch and became vegetarian right away...not knowing that it was geared towards it at all! i also watched every video i could about animals being slaughtered ti get a kick start. i know thats kinda morbid but i was like...this is disgusting. i had to make sure id never eat meat again =/

I read part of skinny bitch and couldn't go on after the part about the slaughter houses.  It made me physically ill.  I tried to go vegetarian for a while.  But i couldn't.  So i've generally tried to cut down the amount of meat we eat in my household.  I buy my beef from the farmer's market now.  I still buy my chicken from the grocery store, we eat enough that i can't afford to buy that from the farmer's market exclusively.

I'm scared to watch these videos. I hate animal cruelty but I cannot see myself becoming a vegetarian although I'd love to. I'm about to attempt to watch these clips. I hope they don't upset me so much that I don't work out today.

I'm done! I could only watch about a minute. I am so sad now. I cannot believe this!!! Why do we have to do this? Why is all the cruelty necessary? I will try to watch it again maybe with my boyfriend, but I just can't right now. I am shocked!!!

i just watched another video about the cows who were mistreated on cbs news...and how thousands or millions of pounds of beef were recalled recently due to that fact. they were sick cows and they wernt even looked at by a vet to make sure they were ok to sell. its all been put into school cafeterias, some fast food places, etc.   even organic or free range animals arnt even safe... they can still have e-coli and whatnot.

id rather not take any chances on getting sick... but its not even that. i watch these videos and think about that poor animal and i wonder whats going through thier mind. the pain, the suffering, etc =[
pigs get thier noses and teeth cut out without any pain relievers, skinned alive too (or out into boiling water while alive).. ahhhh

Fast Food Nation is horse hockey and the new media over exaggerate everything.  Oh and uh, the cow is going to the slaughter house.  Uhmmm, how are they supposed to be treated?  Gees, you think a cow is even bothered if it's kicked a little?  Have you ever seen a cow?  These creatures are tough.  Any pain it feels will go away as soon as it is slaughtered anyway, a process that is as quick and painless as it could ever be. 

Good Morning America is not known for its journalistic integrity and deep investigation never mind lack of bias. 

Original Post by marneedear:

Fast Food Nation is horse hockey and the new media over exaggerate everything.  Oh and uh, the cow is going to the slaughter house.  Uhmmm, how are they supposed to be treated?  Gees, you think a cow is even bothered if it's kicked a little?  Have you ever seen a cow?  These creatures are tough.  Any pain it feels will go away as soon as it is slaughtered anyway, a process that is as quick and painless as it could ever be. 

Good Morning America is not known for its journalistic integrity and deep investigation never mind lack of bias. 

Maybe you shouldn't be in the vegetarian forum.

Original Post by marneedear:

Fast Food Nation is horse hockey and the new media over exaggerate everything.  Oh and uh, the cow is going to the slaughter house.  Uhmmm, how are they supposed to be treated?  Gees, you think a cow is even bothered if it's kicked a little?  Have you ever seen a cow?  These creatures are tough.  Any pain it feels will go away as soon as it is slaughtered anyway, a process that is as quick and painless as it could ever be. 

Good Morning America is not known for its journalistic integrity and deep investigation never mind lack of bias. 

Overexaggertion or not it doesn't matter. One cow treated like this is appalling. How would you like your female parts cut off while you are alive.  Pain of that magnitude that lasts for even a minute is way too much. I'm not even a vegan and I cannot get the images out of my head.

I was able to get through my workout without thinking about it, but once I got finished and it was time for me to eat I just started crying thinking about how the animals I have been eating are treated. It just friggin ridiculous. Why do the chickens beaks have to be cut off? Why was that cow treated that way. It's obvious that he could not get up to his feet and how does electricuting it make it easier for him to do what they want. I'm just sick!

yes, all animals are treated like those cows were. in fact, chickens have it worse. rabbits and chickens are classified as 'poultry' and have no rights at all. Five or six egg laying hens are crammed into a cage the size of a folded up newspaper with no room to spread their wings and are unable to conduct their instincitve behaviors such as roosting before laying their eggs. It takes alittle over a day to lay each egg, and when egg production declines, their food and water are taken away and the lighting in the factory is changed so that it forces the hens to go into another egg laying cycle. some hens become so spent that they start laying eggs with out the calcium carbonate shell - just a yoke, and at the end of their egg laying life they are eaten by us. the workers handle them roughly and their frail calcium-deficient bones break underneath the rough handling. :(

some of the eggs are taken to be hatched to provide more hens for the factory. the chicks are sexed and the male chicks aren't needed and are tossed alive into a garbage bag, where they will die of suffocation or from being crushed. many male chicks become fertilizer.

if you like eggs and can't give them up buy what i call 'Happy Eggs' - free range, organic eggs. the hens actually get to walk around and perform their natural behaviors and don't go through lives of hell.

i watched 'Meet Your Meat' (should be on Peta's website) which shows what hens and cows go through. I was leader of the animal rights club in college and spent many hrs on the computer, learning facts, watching horrible clips of what occurs in factory farms, and crying. i now drink soymilk and don't eat eggs, and haven't eaten meat or fish for years (i use a powder called egg replacer to bake). I'm pretty much a vegan (was a strict vegan for 2.5 yrs) but don't call myself that anymore because i have a weakness for icecream once in a while :P. I have a huge sweet tooth and love to cook and bake have figured out how to make pretty much anything vegan. I make an awesome vegan pumpkin cheesecake...

google 'factory farm' or 'meet your meat' or other terms and you'll find a wealth of info on the animal rights topic. remember: ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power!!

Original Post by marneedear:

Fast Food Nation is horse hockey and the new media over exaggerate everything. Oh and uh, the cow is going to the slaughter house. Uhmmm, how are they supposed to be treated? Gees, you think a cow is even bothered if it's kicked a little? Have you ever seen a cow? These creatures are tough. Any pain it feels will go away as soon as it is slaughtered anyway, a process that is as quick and painless as it could ever be.

Good Morning America is not known for its journalistic integrity and deep investigation never mind lack of bias.

 obviously the cow has to die somehow, but the animals are cruelly mistreated even before they die. they're forced to live in such tight quarters they can't even move around. many eat their own excrement (makes for a delicious cut of beef, eh?) i wouldn't have a problem with the meat industry if the process WAS quick and painless, but it's not. many times the cows' legs are broken and they are left for days before being put out of their misery. cows aren't magical beings, even though they aren't humans they definitely feel pain.

Just by reading all this I started crying. I've been a vegetarian for a month now (minus 2 small home-cooked beef patties I had--it was basically obligatory!) because I watched the first part of "Meet your Meat" and was absolutely devastated. A few years ago I watched a PETA video and swore to myself I would never eat meat again--of course that fell through...although I have not eaten fast food meat in at least one and a half years, if not two...(also due to SuperSize Me).

I would really love to find a brand of meat that I can eat and know that no animal is being subject to cruel and unfair treatment...I saw "zebulancherry" say that Laura's Lean Beef is humane--does anybody know how could I find out their precautions? I guess I could call.

I feel like I'm not craving meat, but I am missing it, if that makes sense. I don't like inconveniencing other people when I go over to their houses and I DO like eating sausages and spaghetti and ground turkey and so forth...it's easy for me to eat no meat right now because I'm in college, but when I'm home now for Thanksgiving and for Christmas I really want to be able to eat wholesome meals. Also, I've gained like 5 pounds and am not sure if its due to my overindulgence of carbs now or what...

This world really does sicken me, but I have hope that there are companies out there that are more humane than others...please tell me if you  know of any.