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News & ArtsFriday, December 30, 2011
Animals / Horrors / Chow Mmm... Turkey!
Posted by Goldy on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Okay, if you love turkey, and prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of the horrors of factory farming, don't watch this video of "Butterball Abuse," shot undercover by the animal rights organization Mercy for Animals, at a Butterball "turkey semen collection facility" in Shannon, North Carolina. Warning: It's not for the squeamish.
Now, I'm not one of those animal welfare zealots who would ban all factory farming, but I do think if more people were aware of the abject suffering required to make our food so affordable, many more people would choose more humane (if less affordable) alternatives. Or, do what I do, and simply eat less meat. It would be good for the animals, good for the environment, and good for our health.
1
I'm like you. I eat less meat. Not sure if I can give up all meat, but I try to eat more fish instead.
Couldn't watch the video btw.
Couldn't watch the video btw.
2
I'm pretty sure someone who thinks animal torture is acceptable is the zealot.
Giving up eating cows and pigs and chickens and turkeys is very easy. You probably already gave up eating cats and dogs and humans and don't have a problem with it.
Giving up eating cows and pigs and chickens and turkeys is very easy. You probably already gave up eating cats and dogs and humans and don't have a problem with it.
3
And even if you don't do all that, it's only rational to EAT LESS TURKEY. Industrial turkey is terrible meat. I've eaten Chuck Taylors with better flavor and texture than the Walmart turkey I had on Christmas day.
6
@ 1, the oceans are becoming overfished, so compensating less meat for more fish isn't that great of an idea.
7
easy fix; our society needs to be broken up into small self-sustainable, self-governing communities. People will get much weirder [new languages, religions etc] and most certainly will revert to things like open racism and weird customs like vag mute and stoning. But it's worth it because in the end the condensed, super strength progressive states/communities will be the more successful groups and will spread naturally the world over. It should be obvious by now that the current system is doomed to failure; a grid-locked mire of nannies obsessed with manipulating the private lives of strangers. Time to cut the regressives loose; evolve or die. Join the fight for states rights you miserable, impotent cunts.
8
if we all learned to less eat meat in much smaller portions and actually paid attention to eating it ..honoring it in a way, the world would be a better place .. they should be showing tamed versions of these films in schools .. it’s horrifying what we do to animals so we can be a fat & lazy nation.
9
Goldy- I like your take on it and I totally agree. we get our Thanksgiving turkey from a local farmer I'm friends with, while it's way more expensive then store bought, it tastes so much better and I see exactly how it was raised. I need to send this video to my stupid in-laws who went crazy when they found out how much we paid for our turkey, the only metric by which they choose food is how cheap it is.
10
@6: There are some sustainably managed wild fish stocks, like Alaskan salmon and halibut. Also, smaller fish like sardines and herring are much more sustainable... and delicious.
11
I wonder which farm Mike Rowe/Dirty Jobs went to for their segment on turkey semen collection, because they didn't show anything like this. Still not a pleasant experience for the birds. (And btw, they don't get up in the beginning of the video because their breasts are too overdeveloped for their legs to support the weight, not because they're "downer birds" or something.)
Basically don't get any kind of meat from a factory farm. Period. Including fish. My mom was going to get her turkey from the guy next door who has a little flock.
Basically don't get any kind of meat from a factory farm. Period. Including fish. My mom was going to get her turkey from the guy next door who has a little flock.
12
@7:
Um, we already tried that route - about four or five thousand years ago. What you see today is the result, and I can't imagine going on a global "do over" now would change things that much in the long run.
And FWIW, I've raised turkeys in the sustainable, non-factory farm style, and all I can say is: turkeys have to be some of the stupidest animals on the planet, not to mention being mean, stubborn, and generally clueless. I've watched them try to drown themselves in heavy downpours, and get the shit kicked out of them in fights against peacocks (no paragons of patience and congeniality themselves). So, while I most certainly would not condone the sorts of abuse directed against them as depicted in the video, sometimes a rather harsh sensory stimulus is the only way to get their little pea-brains to discontinue an action that will either severely injure or even kill themselves.
Um, we already tried that route - about four or five thousand years ago. What you see today is the result, and I can't imagine going on a global "do over" now would change things that much in the long run.
And FWIW, I've raised turkeys in the sustainable, non-factory farm style, and all I can say is: turkeys have to be some of the stupidest animals on the planet, not to mention being mean, stubborn, and generally clueless. I've watched them try to drown themselves in heavy downpours, and get the shit kicked out of them in fights against peacocks (no paragons of patience and congeniality themselves). So, while I most certainly would not condone the sorts of abuse directed against them as depicted in the video, sometimes a rather harsh sensory stimulus is the only way to get their little pea-brains to discontinue an action that will either severely injure or even kill themselves.
13
@ 10, that's true today. Do you trust that it will remain that way? History tells me it won't, especially once everyone realizes that that's just about the only source of "sustainable" seafood left.
14
@10: we should put a 20yr ban on all wild fishing and deem the shores of all beaches, rivers and lakes a vital human rights resource. After a few decades of habitat enhancement and re-wilding it ill be clams, oysters and forage fish every day for any individual who is willing to work a few minutes for some of the best food on earth. Of course in order for this to work we need to shut down our immoral slave breeding institutions [targeting and encouraging the weakest segments of the population to reproduce disproportionately] Flooding the system, and widening the gap to the benefit of the 1%. Cut off the 1%! States rights bitchez!
15
@13, I think the sustainability of wild salmon is safe, because it's protected by price. People switching from factory birds are not going to be replacing them with $29-a-pound Copper River Kings.
16
I'd want to encourage everone who wants to cut back on their holiday meat consumption and support a local business to check out the Field Roast Co's "Celebration Roasts". They're crazy good and don't have any freaky unpronouncable ingredients. All their other stuff is good, too.
17
@12.: It's already happening. Look at the new media; instead of being led and unified by the 3 major news networks we're splintering up into tribes via the internet. The eventual outcome is inevitable. People are finding their like-minded groups with super-specific precision. Unless the centralized govt really starts cracking down on the net, people are done being brainwashed. Believe me; this dinosaur is dead.
18
And who's going to enforce that in your paradise of isolated autonomous collectives?
we should put a 20yr ban on all wild fishing and deem the shores of all beaches, rivers and lakes a vital human rights resource.
And who's going to enforce that in your paradise of isolated autonomous collectives?
19
+1 on the Celebration Roasts.
If you make one resolution this year, eating less meat is a pretty awesome one -- not only for all the reasons you've all mentioned, but it also does a ton to offset your carbon footprint (if you eat industrial-scale meat, anyway).
By the way, if anyone has sustainable seafood questions, please feel free to drop me a line. I work at a big aquarium and am well versed in the movement. While the guidelines aren't perfect, they've been very successful in raising awareness and improving some fisheries; certainly worth checking out if you eat fish.
If you make one resolution this year, eating less meat is a pretty awesome one -- not only for all the reasons you've all mentioned, but it also does a ton to offset your carbon footprint (if you eat industrial-scale meat, anyway).
By the way, if anyone has sustainable seafood questions, please feel free to drop me a line. I work at a big aquarium and am well versed in the movement. While the guidelines aren't perfect, they've been very successful in raising awareness and improving some fisheries; certainly worth checking out if you eat fish.
20
This is a good message for everyone: Remove industrial meat from your diets. Just because it tastes good doesn't mean you're not eating poop.
(and if eating poop doesn't bother than you, than the karma part might: If you wouldn't beat an animal to death, you probably wouldn't eat one that lived the equivalent during its short life.)
(and if eating poop doesn't bother than you, than the karma part might: If you wouldn't beat an animal to death, you probably wouldn't eat one that lived the equivalent during its short life.)
21
Eating less meat is surely a good idea, and working to spend your food money in ethical ways is also surely a good idea.
But I hope you all understand that in the short term, that is not going to significantly impact animal cruelty perpetrated in large facilities. Neither is encouraging people to go vegeterian. What WILL help reduce animal cruelty is encouraging corporations and states to enforce the animal cruelty laws in place, and tightening up those laws where necessary.
Temple Grandin has done more to lessen the fear and suffering of farm animals than all of PETA and the other sanctimonious animal rights twits put together, and she has done it without caring in the slightest what other people eat.
(Aside re turkeys: it is only the inbred and genetically-compromised Broad Breasted Whites that are so stupid. A wild or heritage-breed domesticated turkey is totally, alarmingly competent.)
But I hope you all understand that in the short term, that is not going to significantly impact animal cruelty perpetrated in large facilities. Neither is encouraging people to go vegeterian. What WILL help reduce animal cruelty is encouraging corporations and states to enforce the animal cruelty laws in place, and tightening up those laws where necessary.
Temple Grandin has done more to lessen the fear and suffering of farm animals than all of PETA and the other sanctimonious animal rights twits put together, and she has done it without caring in the slightest what other people eat.
(Aside re turkeys: it is only the inbred and genetically-compromised Broad Breasted Whites that are so stupid. A wild or heritage-breed domesticated turkey is totally, alarmingly competent.)
22
@20, if you don't want to eat poop, you're going to have to stop eating altogether. There's poop in everything. Whole grains have mouse poop (and insect exoskeletons) in them.
23
@ 15, maybe a better comparison would be to something that's available year round, like halibut. But yes, almost all of it is more expensive - point taken. But keep in mind that some folks, probably a lot if old fashioned economics tells us anything, prefer to buy the expensive cuts of meat when they get it. Going from $24 a pound tenderloin to $29 a pound Copper River king salmon isn't that much of a jump, if you're used to spending that much regularly.
25
@7 "in the end the condensed, super strength progressive states/communities will be the more successful groups"
lol.
lol.
26
"I'm not one of those animal welfare zealots..." Translation: I'm not interested in being a more moral human being.
27
I appreciate the intent of the post, Goldy. I do. Let me say that first.
But... "I'm not one of those animal welfare zealots who would ban all factory farming..."
Seriously?
I mean, I'm not one of those human rights zealots who would ban all child sweatshops, but I do think maybe if people knew about child sweatshops, we could maybe have fewer of them. That would be good enough, right? It's not like we actually need to ban them, I mean, LET'S NOT GET CRAZY HERE and start throwing around LAWS or anything, God forbid.
Are you Ron Paul?
But... "I'm not one of those animal welfare zealots who would ban all factory farming..."
Seriously?
I mean, I'm not one of those human rights zealots who would ban all child sweatshops, but I do think maybe if people knew about child sweatshops, we could maybe have fewer of them. That would be good enough, right? It's not like we actually need to ban them, I mean, LET'S NOT GET CRAZY HERE and start throwing around LAWS or anything, God forbid.
Are you Ron Paul?
29
@22 Well that's gross. And yet eating stray mouse poop bothers me less than eating emulsified cow/pig/bird poop.
I do eat animal products every day and eat meat on occasion. But I'd have to be starving to eat factory-processed animal products. Karma, and all.
I do eat animal products every day and eat meat on occasion. But I'd have to be starving to eat factory-processed animal products. Karma, and all.
31
@22 The difference is that meat provides a much more nutrient-rich environment for the bacteria that make poop so nasty. Salmonella and Shigella don't thrive on lettuce the way they do in ground beef.
33
While I'm appalled by factory farms and have greatly reduced my meat consumption in recent years I'm very disappointed by the lack of sex jokes about " semen collection facility."
34
@31, pah. E. Coli loves vegetables, and you're much more likely to come across it in your lettuce than your seafood or ground beef. Admittedly, much of it comes from runoff from factory farms, but not all. A lot of it comes from people who can't be bothered to wash their hands after they go to the toilet and then put them in the water in which your bean sprouts are soaking. In 2003 555 people got Hepatis A from raw scallions, and three died.
35
@17:
These are two completely - not to mention somewhat mutually-exclusive concepts. Internet "tribalism" is both virtual and literally globe-spanning and would not exist without near universal access to a world-wide technological infrastructure that can only be maintained by large entities such as governments and/or corporations that have access to the physical and financial resources required to do so.
Whereas, the sort of tribalism you cite in your comment @7 is a literal concept based on physical isolationism, which would, by its very nature have to exclude in large part interaction with entities outside of its immediate geographic vicinity, otherwise the inexorable movement toward consolidation, assimilation and homogeneity would simply begin all over again.
You simply cannot maintain a "condensed progressive super-state/community" AND have it "spread naturally the world over", because by definition something that expands is no longer condensed. And the more it expands, the more it becomes vulnerable to other, potentially detrimental influences that at some point may actually be in opposition to the original principles the community was founded on, and which made it successful enough to expand in the first place. Ergo: us today.
These are two completely - not to mention somewhat mutually-exclusive concepts. Internet "tribalism" is both virtual and literally globe-spanning and would not exist without near universal access to a world-wide technological infrastructure that can only be maintained by large entities such as governments and/or corporations that have access to the physical and financial resources required to do so.
Whereas, the sort of tribalism you cite in your comment @7 is a literal concept based on physical isolationism, which would, by its very nature have to exclude in large part interaction with entities outside of its immediate geographic vicinity, otherwise the inexorable movement toward consolidation, assimilation and homogeneity would simply begin all over again.
You simply cannot maintain a "condensed progressive super-state/community" AND have it "spread naturally the world over", because by definition something that expands is no longer condensed. And the more it expands, the more it becomes vulnerable to other, potentially detrimental influences that at some point may actually be in opposition to the original principles the community was founded on, and which made it successful enough to expand in the first place. Ergo: us today.
37
@23: People spend that much on meat?! REALLY?
Wow. I've been a vegetarian for 23 years. I had no idea meat could cost that much. Jeebus.
Wow. I've been a vegetarian for 23 years. I had no idea meat could cost that much. Jeebus.
38
@37,
No, they don't. I'd venture that most meat eaters pay $2-4/lb. Most people can't afford porterhouse steak, except on a very special occasion.
No, they don't. I'd venture that most meat eaters pay $2-4/lb. Most people can't afford porterhouse steak, except on a very special occasion.
39
@ 37, you've probably heard of filet mignon? They usually mention it in sitcom jokes about spiteful women sticking it to their dates by ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. Filet mignon is just another word for tenderloin, and most sane people save it for special occasions. (The steaks are usually pretty small, but you can get a whole tenderloin for a roast - yeah, that's going to cost a lot.) And Copper River king salmon is only available for a couple of weeks a year.
41
wow this is the most amicable and reasoned thread supporting animal welfare and reduction of meat consumption ever seen on slog.
i mean, people had very few objections to the main points of the post. wow.
i mean, people had very few objections to the main points of the post. wow.
42
A zealot might be somebody who demands that everybody be vegan. Opposing all factory farming? That's just being decent and responsible.
44
Where are all the jerks who always say stuff like; "mmmm Bacon" and " PETA - people eating tasty animals." Hahahaha. That's all I hear whenever I mention anything about eating less meat. Are sloggers that enlightened ?
46
@37 That's people as in "some people" as in "not very many people, really." For that matter, "people" also spend $200 on a bottle of wine to drink with dinner, and $30 on a cigar to smoke afterwards. Tickets for the Giants/Cowboys game this weekend were going for a couple grand a ticket, I hear.
I should add some pithy social commentary here, but words are failing me.
I should add some pithy social commentary here, but words are failing me.
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