Journal lpret's Journal: International Eat an Animal for PETA Day 8
This started with doublem's journal entry about PETA and I agree wholeheartedly.
I've been recommending this on campus, and I've been getting flack for it. But that's cool, becuase I want to make a statement about ridiculous people. Now, I'm with PETA for a few ideas, like you shouldn't kick your dog just because your pissed, and you shouldn't skin a cat just for the fun of it (as some of my school's baseball team did). But to go so far as to say that you shouldn't treat a cow bad before it gets slaughtered -- now that's ridiculous.
We eat cows. So, should we make sure we treat it all nice and then lop it's head off? It doesn't make sense! It's like giving a guy 20000 bucks and then robbing him the next day -- you might as well never give him the 20000.
Now, the next point I want to make is that it's absolutely ridiculous that you would compare cows and pigs to humans. They are saying that cows and Jews are equal. I object to that very strongly. One of the letters I saw them send to someone had a statement saying:
Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes? We won't be able to offer the same excuse for the second time, that we didn't know." The Holocaust happened because people turned a blind eye to cruelty. Will we now turn our backs on cruelty and injustice again? Every time a person sits down for a meal, he or she chooses whether to support the holocaust against animals or to help end it. We shouldn't choose which atrocities to oppose. As human beings, we should oppose all atrocities.
How ridiculous is that? At any rate, I'm going to be pigging out that day on all the meat I can get my hands on. Perhaps I'll try the Atkins diet simply to accentuate the point that it doesn't matter...
If anyone has some good arguments on why to treat livestock better (not pets, I agree about better treatment there) then please enlighten me...
Kobe Beef (Score:1)
I've heard that the animals that give us Kobe Beef [kobe-beef.com] are treated very well (massaged and given BEER). Unfortunately they're way out of my price range (like $50 for a hamburger) so I have never been able to verify the taste of one.
The PETA is way out of line contrasting a human tragedy (holocaust) with animals that aren't even at our intelligence level. At least for the most part, chickens are utilized efficiently 99% of the time (I believe almost everything of a chicken is used). And they sure taste good god damnit.
I do agree with you about the out-of-line treatment that some humans do to their animals (kicking, starving them to death), but I like the quote "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why were they made out of meat" I read in that recent "Favorite Meat" poll.
Re:Kobe Beef (Score:2)
I also want to clarify (to anyone else who may read this) that I am completely for the better treatement of wild animals. I've gone on a trip to Mexico with my school's Environmental Studies department and we worked at a sea turtle rehab center, as it is one of the few places left on earth where they live. One of the things I worked on was stimulation for the turtles. By simply giving them a PVC pipe loop, they were able to entertain themselves by going through it, doing backflips through it (underwater) and scratching their shell on it. Also, they were able to recuperate faster, perhaps because they felt loved (I'm reminded of the study of lighting done in a factory which made the workers feel important and thus do better regardless of the lighting).
So, I'm all for that, but we have generally designated a few species as food (for some reason) and we have bred them to the point where their survival is of no concern. Let me leave you with one of my favourite pages, and I still cannot decide if they are serious or satirical: Petsorfood.com [petsorfood.com]
Re:Kobe Beef (Score:1)
Yeah I've seen that link
Exactly! They were bred to be fed to humans
Re:Kobe Beef (Score:1)
Have you noticed people are also made out of meat?
By the same logic God must want us to eat other people.
-jk
Re:Kobe Beef (Score:2)
;-)
Actually, I have somewhat vegetarian tendencies, but I find the "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why are they made of meat?" quote damn funny, and I find attempts by animals righ
Cows and Jews (Score:1)
Cows and pigs suffer pain just like humans. I think that's as far as the comparison must extend in order to support better treatment or vegetarianism. Do you disagree that the comparison extends that far?
What does Judaism have to do with anything? Unless there's part of it that says that pain isn't real or that
Maybe a different Angle? (Score:1)
Ok, this actually makes no sense. Consider what you're saying. If a) I'm going to kill this animal then b) it doesn't matter how I treat it, because it's going to be dead. That logic falls down in about 100 different ways, the most obvious of which is that everything is going to die