Animal Torture, to what degree if any, are we to respect animals?

[Mercury7]

I grew up on a farm , and yes I raised, and slaughtered many animals. We always did our best to make the entire procedure as peaceful, and painless as humanly possible. I cannot look at this video because the lack of respect shown is something that is totally repulsive to me.
For the past thirteen years I have been a volunteer humane investigator for our state. Every two years I have to attend class, memorize laws, fill out reports for “fictional” situations before I can go out and help the animals legally. Let me tell you, there have been situations regarding the care of animals, and abuse that I have witnessed that make some of the stories listed above seem like a PG version of this problem.
After all of these years I have come to the conclusion that animal abuse/torture falls in two categories :

1. lack of education, MANY people today have no idea how to actually care for their animals,it could be a mental defect, ( many hoarders are like this) or just plain ignorance.
2. There are people who take great pleasure in causing an animal pain, several of the worst situations I have handled were regarding people who just don’t care… It is just the most heart-wrenching thing to me when I see the pain and helplessness in their eyes and they have no idea why .
   I always think of a comment from St. Frances when this happens,*** If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.***
   Spouse Abusers, and murderers almost all have animal abuse/torture in their history.And for the safety of my family, and myself, I pray that I will never be thrust into a situation with this type of person knowing who I am.
   So getting back on track here, respecting animals is very important to me, and by looking at stories, and examples from St. Frances these will help us to actually develop a good conscience and do what is best for the animals in different situations.
   Oh, and by the way, I do this work because the look in an animal’s eyes when they have been cared for and returned to health makes all of the effort worth it

 

[Bonnie]

We raise our own meat & eggs for precisely this reason - factory farms tend to be inhumane. (Not all are, but it’s hard for the consumer to know which is which.)

When we dispatch rabbits or chickens, we pray, thanking God for it, & kill it as quickly as possible. I wish we could raise larger animals, but most of the time we buy from other farmers we know.

For those in the city or suburbs, look for meat sold at farmer’s markets. Or take a trip to the countryside & pick out your meat while it is still alive, so you can see for yourself that it is healthy & well cared for.

 

[severus68]

I grew up on a farm , and yes I raised, and slaughtered many animals. We always did our best to make the entire procedure as peaceful, and painless as humanly possible. I cannot look at this video because the lack of respect shown is something that is totally repulsive to me.
For the past thirteen years I have been a volunteer humane investigator for our state. Every two years I have to attend class, memorize laws, fill out reports for “fictional” situations before I can go out and help the animals legally. Let me tell you, there have been situations regarding the care of animals, and abuse that I have witnessed that make some of the stories listed above seem like a PG version of this problem.
After all of these years I have come to the conclusion that animal abuse/torture falls in two categories :

1. lack of education, MANY people today have no idea how to actually care for their animals,it could be a mental defect, ( many hoarders are like this) or just plain ignorance.
2. There are people who take great pleasure in causing an animal pain, several of the worst situations I have handled were regarding people who just don’t care… It is just the most heart-wrenching thing to me when I see the pain and helplessness in their eyes and they have no idea why .
   I always think of a comment from St. Frances when this happens,*** If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.***
   Spouse Abusers, and murderers almost all have animal abuse/torture in their history.And for the safety of my family, and myself, I pray that I will never be thrust into a situation with this type of person knowing who I am.
   So getting back on track here, respecting animals is very important to me, and by looking at stories, and examples from St. Frances these will help us to actually develop a good conscience and do what is best for the animals in different situations.
   Oh, and by the way, I do this work because the look in an animal’s eyes when they have been cared for and returned to health makes all of the effort worth it

Thank you and God bless you for your good work.

 

[Pope_Pius_X]

Ever eat rooster? Campbell’s “chicken soup” has rooster in it, those gnarly, tasteless cubes of chicken meat are rooster. Bleeech.

Suggestions on how to do this in an effective and not just a “feelgood” manner?

Many such practices have been developed in order to increase efficiency in animal product production. One or two things must happen in order to reverse such practices:

1. That alternate, more humane methods be developed in order to maintain the same or near the same economic efficiency.
2. That people accept paying a lot more for animal products produced in a more humane manner.

We also need to look critically at the methods shown in this video. For example, captive-bolt killing is humane when done correctly, CO2 killing is not painful (it is questionably humane, but not for reasons of causing pain), killing male chicks in a grinder causes instantaneous death, not unlike beheading them as adults.

Obviously, there is an agenda to this video, and obviously, in order to meet that agenda they will show the most aggregious examples of what they consider to be inhumane production and slaughter practices.

I’m not arguing that what they’ve shown is not inhumane, but they don’t adequately address how certain techniques, for example the captive-bolt technique, which when done properly causes instantaneous loss of consciousness before the bleeding out ultimately causes death.

I have to compleatly agree with you. There is an agenda to this video. It constantly refers to the meat packing ‘industry’ as “the pork industry defends this______ action” or “the egg industry prepatrates _____ injustice”, almose like how communists refer to ‘big bussness’. Don’t get me wrong, (I love animals too) but I take this with a grain of salt, and I bet if someone wanted to they could make a video dedicated to how great the meat industry is. This video uses isolated incidents of abuse, and cuts the videos to make it seem like these actions are the norm. Want animal abuse in meat packing, move to PR of China… While the video is sad, Im not going to stop eating meat (except on Fridays). one thing we have to remember is the killing things is always gorey, espiecaly animals. It should not shock us that there is a lot of blood present.

However, that does not provide excues for the extreme, evil cruety shown in the video. I don’t understand how humans can act that way. However, not all meat packing is like this. I think many of the farms shown might be unlicenced production facilities in the mid-west.

However, the hanging-and-throat sliting method of slaughter is humane, as it is almost always quick and kills in seconds. The incident shown in the video is a rare example. It is actualy thousands of years old. Some things never go out of style.

Why is there so much attention payed to this, while abortion (the holocaust of 65 million HUMANS, where humans are riped apart in similar manners) is largely ignored by the public.

 

[Pope_Pius_X]

Deleated

 

[John21652]

Non-human animals, that is.

Consider this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=THIODWTqx5E

Incredibly disgusting – I was especially disturbed and saddened by 2:30 - 2:54 wherein the video shows and mentions male chicks being thrown alive into grinding machines.

** Please, no digressions about the motives/intentions/hidden agendas/ hypocrisies etc of certain vegetarian or vegan groups, or, about the topic of practicality as it relates to killing methods /costs, etc. I didn’t start this thread to start discussion about practicality, government laws, or money. I’m seeking strictly moral analysis.

From a Catholic standpoint, do these human treatments of farm animals fall under the category of morality (good/evil)? Or are they morally neutral?

Intuitively and emotionally, I categorize them under “evil”. If we intellectualize this issue, however, the categorization may or may not be the same.

I watched the video, but stopped when it got to the Fish section. I’d seen enough.

Some of the vegans and pro-animal welfar protagonists here will know where I come from with my arguments, so I needn’t cover old ground.

I have to say I was disgusted with what was in that video. I’m a fourth generation farmer and nothing I witnessed in that video even comes close to fiting any definition of 'farming". Certainly not as I have always known it and certainly not as anyone I knows would ever define it.

If any of my workers ever handled livestock the way the workers in that video did, it would not only mean instant dismissal, but prosecution for animal cruelty and damage to property. I’d go so far as to say that the actions of some of the workers and animal handlers in that video are indicative of people severe mental problems. If I ever caught someone prodding a cow with a pitchfork, I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions!!

However, I still maintain that the vast majority of farming is nothing like that. If the United States citizens thinks otherwise, then they’d better act fast, because that video represent a total distortion of what farming is and what its ethos has been for thousands of years. I have raised the subject before on CAF, of how the United States farm subsidy Bill has favoured this type of factory “farming” for many years, at the expense of the traditional family farm, where long accepted animal husbandry practices have been the mainstay. Until the subsidisation of this form of food production is halted, buyer campaigns and vegan lifestyles will have little or no effect.

There are many, countless many, farmers and their families around the world who would be morally outraged at what this video depicts. They would be morally outraged that this form of food production is granted preference status by dint of government legislation. It really needs to change quickly.