I have a photo of free range chickens on my computer. Every adult I have shown it to at school has laughed as if it's some kind of joke or I'm weird or a stupid greenie to believe that chickens shouldn't be tortured whilst being reared for meat of kept as egg producers. I find this odd and rather unsettling. All of the people involved are church going people. Is this relevant to animal rights ethics or not? [For the record, I am irreligious.]
What do you think of this - should people in a modern educated society realise that such cruelty is unnecessary. Or is it okay to ignore cruelty to animals because it makes it cheaper and easier to have the food we want??? Maybe you don't think animals do suffer or should have rights?
Thus we start to delve into the realms of fact versus opinion.
Another interesting issue is the one about which animals it's alright to eat or not. Who decides? Why some and not others?
People in some African, Asian, Central and South American countries eat endangered primates.
Some people in Scandinavian and Asian countries eat marine mammals like whales.
In South America guinea pigs are eaten.
In some countries horses are eaten - like in France.
Here we eat cows which are considered sacred in other countries.
In some Asian countries people farm and eat dogs, cats, etc.
I have met people in NZ who think it's cool to catch as many fish as they can. I have met people who fish in marine reserves. So why do we humans have such diverse, contradictory yet strongly held views about what is wrong and right when it comes to animals? HEck! Some of us even ate each other until relatively recently.
Why do we hold such different views on things and believe in them so strongly? hmmm....
We humans are strange creatures.
28 comments:
Mr. Woody, I agree with you. It's criminal to torture these creatures. They're just so beautiful and delicate I don't understand that someone even with half a heart would torture these poor soles. It just brings tears to my eyes. Some people don't understand, because they don't know much about it. They think that it is just people cutting the heads off chickens, really, It's keeping hens and chickens enclosed in TINY TINY TINY cages that keeps them cheap. It just makes me soo angry that some people can just do this, with NO remorse. GRR!! )-:<
P.S. I am doing A HUMONGOUS restructre on my blog acc, so can someone help me out..HOW DO YOU DELETE A BLOG!??!!?!?!?!?!?!
Thanks. Marz Barz (-:
P.P.S: Sorry For shouting *kicks self*
(-:
I don't think it's fair that you're blaming it on church-going people but they shouldn't have laughed!
I don't think we should eat endangered animals - dogs and cats aren't endangered (unless it's tigers...) so it's probably better to eat them than whales. Hmmm, I'm not sure.
The thing is marz barz, you might not agree with what they're doing, but are you actually doing anything about it???
Our field trip to Kakepuku today was great :o) Snowy, is ylour foot alright after climbing right to the top?!?
Hi all. My opinion is that you can eat anything that isn't:
* Endangered
* Will make you sick
* Cause offense to others around you
* A human!
The condition being that the animals are treated well and respectfully.
I agree with Mr A-ham.
I think That everyone who eats meat should know
-what happened to it like how it was treated
-and where it comes from.
I'm not a vegetarian though. Meat Is like my life.
But I love absolutely all animals and don't like to kill any animals for food and for our benefit.
I think it's hard to try and change something this big because we're juust kids so all we can do is to think about where what we eat comes from and try eat free range stuff.
Thanks
Bye
:-)
The thing is everyone says that it's cruel to torture animals and all, but the meat and poultry you eat probably didn't belong to an animal that ran a happy life.
Did you know in New Zealand we are starting to eat possums?
In Australia they eat kangaroos and Wallabies!
It is just the way we are.
We can't change needs (or at least, it's very hard to).
good points everyone.
i'm not blaming church goers, muddy. i'm just saying that i found it interesting that people that choose to identify strongly with a moral code might be able to ignore cruelty to some of "gods" creatures. Is it that Christians believe animals are there for our use and therefore don't have rights? Or do people mistakenly believe they don't suffer? It's a philosophical question, not a religious one.
As for me - I'm a hypocrite anyway - I eat tortured animals, wear leather shoes, buy products that have probably been tested on animals. I just want you guys to think about whether or not treating animals cruelly while they're alive is okay when we don't actually need to.
For example, we have free range eggs available so why do we buy battery farmed ones? Battery farming is disgusting. Pigs who are battery farmed suffer immensely. Why do we allow it? We prosecute people who torture dogs and cats. Why don't we make it illegal to battery farm pigs on a large scale? It's not necessary. We don't battery farm sheep or cows.
If you went to a freezing works where they kills animals, you might think twice about eating them also. Then again, they are delicious!
Mechboy, i don't think you quite made your point clearly.
Try again.
And everyone else; I'd eat possums and I think we should all have a possum skin blanket for our beds, possum skin gloves, hats, jackets, etc. All subsidised by the Government. It would create employment, be NZ made, and give us all something wonderful as well as helping to control possum numbers. We could export the excess for huge amounts of money.
Maybe we should start farming dolphins in pools for the Asian food market? If you don't mind pigs being tortured why would you care about dolphins?
I just want you to think.
WHY?
Why do living, breathing creatures that are a precious resource and we can't live without them tortured without regard for there lives.
It isn't fair that something we need should be put through all this pain.
It simply isn't. Why is it so hard to give them comfort?
It is also not fair that people only want them for eating.
Are we saying that these lovely, intelligent creatures are born to be killed for our pleasure?
Also everyone who eats meat and say that whaling and all that is bad, you should be ashamed.
Why is it better to kill cows or chickens then to kill whales?
I suppose that they are endangered.
good point, KErli. Endangered species have another set of reasons not to kill them, but that isn't relevant to issues of cruelty is it.
hmmm...
and well done getting up and down Kakepuku today! :-)
i think animals shouldnt be tortured even if there "just" a chicken they deserve everyright we do there not that different to us from when were babys yes they need someone to feed them and care from them but thats not to hard to do?!?!
it just makes me feel sad when i know when i eat meat it was tortured how sad is that!!!
ashy-mashy
PEACE OUT
Yes, I think it is cruel to torture animals but not all people may know that some animals are being treated so cruely and they may have no idea that a battery-farm even excist so when they sit down to eat they think that the meat their eating has come from a natural farm, like the farms around the Waikato. Also when people ate each other you never know maybe they were stavring hungry and there wasn't much food around you just never know.
Good point Aqua"stunt"girl. Animals on normal farms are usually treated really well in NZ. The bit at the end isn't so flash though [truck ride, sometimes for days, followed by freezing works and a gruesome end], but that's life i guess.
The troublesome bit is the battery farming of chooks and pigs. Not all are done that way, but it is prevalent. That's why Sasha and I won't buy pork or chicken from the supermarket anymore unless its free range and organic. It's also why we sytarted raising chikens at hoem fo reggs adn only buy free rnage ones when we do buy them. Preferably from a local farmers market to reduce the "petrol Miles" of produce.
Of course, I am expressing opinions here, but also some facts.
I am not sure about this, but I think we can eat something if they are not rare or endanger, (very common and breeds quickly) and is not tortured. People may think it is cruel to eat cats and dogs, but I have realized, we have so many of them! All we need to do is make sure they live a painless life.
HOWEVER - we do not eat humans. There are SO many in the world, why don't we eat them? We could do a painless execution, and eat them, just like cows.
SEE my point? Even though we think eating them is alright, if they knew they would be slaughtered, I don't think they would be happy. I don't know how to explain it, but I think if we eat them with no remorse, why can't they eat us or we eat each other? I mean, pig slop may have bacon in it!
I completely agree with you neina-marie.
We say if they are not endangered then it is alright to kill them,(which I think is wrong) so why don't we eat humans?
Should they not have the same rights?
Should they not be treated humanly just because they are not as intelligent as us?
B.T.W. I think every time you guys eat tortured animal, imagine this:
You are picked out from your family when you are little, then you get put in a cage where you stay there all day every day, then you get force fed massive amounts of vitamins and other disgusting things until you are fat enough to get your head chopped off.
You weren't even allowed to see your family and if you did you would probably be watching them get slaughtered.
Sort of like a death penalty except you never get visitors, the cage is smaller, you don't get force fed(although the food is disgusting), you never get out, you don't get killed humanly and your dead body isn't respected, you just get forgotten about and eaten.
I don't know if all of this is true, I just wanted you guys to feel bad.
Firstly, who is the picture of?
Secondly, you see the picture in the corner?
That is what you are eating when you choose to eat cheap battery farm hens.
I don't eat meat.(Mostly).
You are right Mr.Woody, why should we care more about dolpins and whales than chickens and pigs.
That is putting animals in rank of which ones are useless enough to poach and which ones are worthless enough to eat.
I am going to apologize now because I am getting way to upset about this matter and it was extremely hard to put that picture because it is just so sad and horrible.
So sorry.
There I said so... there.
Okay just let me calm myself down so I don't say anymore terrible, angry things.
Bye.
It is pretty sad that everybody you showed it to laughed at you and I know that's not right, but its not religious people who are at fault, because as you said everybody has strong opinions
Sorry Ashymashy-someone might have already said this..but. It's their not There
Sorry!
There means like "Over there"
and Their is like "someones possesion". And They're Means "They-are". So, In your case you'd ve said "They're".
Sorry, I just felt like saying that!
Mr. Woody, This is off topic but I will not be at school today, so I will be doing corrospondance from the blog..?
Who are you, Mushroom Shortie? give me a clue. is it 'CC' or 'gymgirl'?
Good corrections earlier too.
Well done for keeping up via the blog.
:-)
I'm Marz Barz, sorry, I think said that on the snow-trip post..?
Oh, OK, I thought that might have been you.... Though, I don't understand why you're mushroom SHORTIE?
I am sick too... >_< but it seems no one is commenting on any posts!
Please please start commenting again
Room5ians,
I am so impressed by your debate that you are having about this topic. For me it is a topic that holds strong, as I am vegan (I could tell you what this means, but you are all so clever I bet you could find a better definition!) and have been for 10 years. For me it is a personal choice to challenge what I believe is an unjust system of using animals for our own good. It is my own opinion.
I was very impressed at the direct comparisons against food we eat vs other animals (**kerli**) - you are right, is this really any different??
Alot of people also say that it is cruel to torture animals for eating but take no thought to how animals are treated to create the latest perfume or lipstick - does this seem any more right?
It is your own opinion of what you put in to and use in your body but to make informed and knowledgable decisions is very powerful.
I look forward to reading more on this topic.
Thanks, Miss S.
Thanks for your support MIss S. It's great hear perspectives from other sources. I think ethically speaking Should be a vegan too, but I'm just not brave enough...[yet?]
So kids, who knows what its called when you test things on animals for human benefits. I can tell you now if you saw what happpened you would probably cry and be amazed at the cruelty we are all responsible for - except for people who do something about it of course, like MIss S.
The word starts with
v i v i _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Some people just couldn't help eating animals. Maybe it's their tradition? For example, once my friend told me that some people in South America eat FRIED TARANTULA'S LEGS! I don't know if it's true, but there's only one word for it-weird!
In my opinion, eating endangered species should be a crime. I feel the same for the innocent animals. They want freedom. They don't want to be tortured and then die a horrible way just to become a simple meal to be eaten. People should do something about it.
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