Are we too callous about slaughtering animals?

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Neithan

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The new SARS-2 coronavirus and its spread from a “wet market” has made me think more about how we slaughter and consume animals. Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the Wuhan lab that first discovered the virus, described it as “nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits.” I’ve thought for a while that something seems really off about our irreverent systems of butchery. Although I will not become a vegan or vegetarian except for periodic fasts.

Jews and Muslims treat killing animals very, very seriously, as kosher (shechita) and halal slaughter invokes God’s blessing on the act, and this connects back to a reverence for sentient life — for animals that bleed like we do — from ancient times. Indigenous peoples also have religious sentiment surrounding the hunt and butchery of wild animals.

While we know that it is not a matter of sin what we eat (from St. Peter’s vision); we do know that it is a sin how we eat (gluttony). Could our industrialized consumption of meat and the casual way we slaughter animals be a form of mass gluttony?
 
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Neithan said:
Could our industrialized consumption of meat and the casual way we slaughter animals be a form of mass gluttony?
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I think it has more to do with capitalism and greed.

But generally in a free market you get what you pay for. For example, Tyson chicken is repulsive, and I’m glad they are struggling to stay open. Local free range (normal) chicken is delicious. Same with beef, milk, and just about any whole food you can eat. Local meats and produce usually cost more but is worth the effort to stave off large corporations from destroying our health and society with bad models of production and sustainability.
 
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I’ve wondered that as well. I haven’t read it yet and I know it’s not an approved private revelation (as far as I know), but in the Mystical City of God it says St Joseph ate meat but Jesus and Mary rarely did.
 
Neithan said:
While we know that it is not a matter of sin what we eat (from St. Peter’s vision); we do know that it is a sin how we eat (gluttony). Could our industrialized consumption of meat and the casual way we slaughter animals be a form of mass gluttony?
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I think by “uncivilized living habits,” he meant conditions in which wild animals are caught and caged close to other animals they would never be near in nature, including people.

Nature doesn’t punish “uncivilization.” Civilization (meaning the city-state form of socialization and survival) is not “natural.” Anything beyond the most rudimentary forms of agriculture is not “natural.” The population level the human race has attained is not “natural.” What human beings with our astonishing capacity to understand and manipulate our environment will inevitably think up to do is not “natural.” Even the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans was not “natural”!
 
To my knowledge, there isn’t anything inhumane or problematic in how we kill animals for eating. What people object to is how the animals are treated prior to the killing, i.e. being packed in tight places and not fed great food.

In fact, even if someone thinks there isn’t anything wrong with that in terms of how it makes the animals themselves feel, such conditions result in lower quality and less healthy meat. But, people buy it anyway and it’s cheaper to keep them packed in, so that’s what they do.
 
JSRG said:
To my knowledge, there isn’t anything inhumane or problematic in how we kill animals for eating.
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The problem with the wet markets was apparently with the proximity between slaughter and people and animals other than the butcher. From what I gather, in China they don’t always have confined spaces and sometimes not even the hard surfaces needed to disinfect before and after slaughter. I don’t know whether China’s rules are more lax or more strict than ours, but enforcement is everything. It doesn’t matter what your hygiene rules are on paper.

There has definitely been concerns over high-speed and automated slaughtering systems proposed for the US. There is also a shortage of inspectors to ensure humane slaughter practices are actually used. Honestly, I feel a lot better eating 4-H pigs than the ones Hormel offers for sale, but not everyone has the option of buying pork from hand-raised pigs. For most, it is factory-farmed or nothing.
 
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What do you mean “we” Not too many people slaughter animals. I do sometimes for hunting or friends with pigs or chickens but the average person does not. Do you want companies to develop a more religious type of slaughter? I am just curious as many people aren’t callous about animal harvesting because they don’t actually participate in it. I’m just wondering what your point is.
 
I’m a vegetarian, and I personally don’t care what you do
 
We as in anyone who consumes meat on a regular basis, whether we actually butcher the animal ourselves or not, we’re increasing demand and participating in it. The point is we’ve developed a massive global market for meat and it’s lead, directly or indirectly, to a global health crisis. Whether it’s the way we are slaughtering animals or how much, my point is that something went wrong. It may be that only the wet markets and the bushmeat trade is to blame in this particular pandemic, but industrialized meat consumption is also linked to environmental degradation. It’s also facilitating the spread of antibiotic resistant super-bugs, which could potentially cause another pandemic.
 
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Oh no! that’s horrible! What should be done by the everyday consumer?
 
Is that sarcasm? 😐

I just ate some pizza with pork, beef and chicken on it.
 
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You lost me at “I’m glad [Tyson Chicken] is struggling to stay open.”

–So you’re glad that meat packers; secretaries; truck drivers, etc., are getting laid off; can’t pay their bills; default on their mortgages, etc.? These aren’t abortion providers; they’re folks like you and me who try to feed their families and now maybe they can’t. Rooting for animals is fine, as is wanting to clean up abuses in animal packing, but in the Bible God gave humanity dominion over all things on the earth. Rooting for businesses to struggle is absolutely NOT what we are about (nor should we be).
 
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The concern is people and our collective health. Notice the last phrase in @1Lord1Faith’s post: “stave off large corporations from destroying our health” etc. It’s obviously not about rooting for business to struggle and people to lose their jobs, but for better businesses and better jobs.
 
Companies rise and fall. When you hear someone rant against a company do you assume the rant is against the company’s workforce, or do you assume the rant is against the company’s practices or ethics? That doesn’t seem like a difficult thing to figure out.
 
Companies are the people that work there. I was quoting you verbatim. You didn’t say, “I’d like to see Tyson reform some of their meatpacking practices.” If that’s what you meant, you should have said that.
 
The commandment is thou Shalt not kill, why would that not go for animals too? it doesn’t say Man shall not kill Man , it is instead simply “Thou shalt not Kill” (period) so where does the clause that it’s ok for animals feature?. The Sacrifice of Animals ended with the new covenant that Jesus instilled so I am quite surprised that Veganism or Vegetarianism is not more widespread in the church.

I’m Vegan and was so before I reverted to Catholicism. I used to consume ALOT of meat and Poultry until I discovered the truth of where and how the meat ends up on my plate, I had a Crisis of conscience and went Pesci, Then Vegetarian and eventually soon after Vegan.
 
Let’s hold animals to that command as well then. Do you really think Jesus broke command when eating meat?
 
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It’s properly translated as “murder” I believe, so it’s more precisely referring to killing an innocent human being. Otherwise all those laws about capital punishment would be nonsense, and animal sacrifice.

[Welcome to the forums! 🙂 ]
 
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Neithan said:
It’s properly translated as “murder” I believe, so it’s more precisely referring to killing an innocent human being. Otherwise all those laws about capital punishment would be nonsense, and animal sacrifice.

[Welcome to the forums! 🙂 ]
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This! Your point can be demonstrated by what Moses did after giving the people the law, which included the Ten Commandments:
" When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.” Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early in the morning, he built at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve sacred stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, having sent young men of the Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice young bulls as communion offerings to the LORD, Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar. Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will hear and do.” Then he took the blood and splashed it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.” (Ex. 24:3-8)
 
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