Saturday, July 16, 2005

Our fine feathered friends

Posted by Mickey Z on 07/16 at 06:58 AM
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  1. Wow ! this is quite a piece today, Mickey. Also there was just a news story about the fact that it is STILL permissable to feed hogs and chickens the brains and spinal cords of cattle. Maybe our USDA should be considered to be a terrorist organization until they place a value on our lives. In my view, the most important chickens are the ones that come home to roost.

    Posted by rosemarie jackowski from   on  07/16  at  07:57 AM

  2. Interesting article.  There was a book written a few years ago by Jane Dixon, called The Changing Chicken, which examines food production systems and consumption patterns.  I haven’t had the chance to read it myself, but I have heard it offers several critical insights into recent developments within the food industry. 

    As to the factory farming/free range farming divide, I don’t think free range is as free as many think.  Many farmers (I can only refer to farmers in Ireland here) are forced to deviate from free range policies for a number of reasons. 

    To add to the statement that “anxiety may adversely affect the quality, taste and texture of meats”.  There was a practice that some small Irish farms developed years ago relating to pig farming.  The farmers “sensed” the anxiety of pigs prior to the pigs being loaded onto trucks on the way to the slaughterhouse.  They also believed the anxiety affected the taste of the meat.  So, they would mix poiteen (Irish moonshine) into the early morning feed of the day that pigs would be sent off. 

    There was an interesting documentary done in the last few years which showed the differences between traditional and modern farming in Ireland.  Several farmers spoke about the experience of having to kill a pig, and there was some footage shown.  Interesting that some guys said a brief prayer immediately after doing it, and also, all of the farmers spoke about the experience as one of great sorrow.

    Posted by mike from dublin  on  07/16  at  08:47 AM

  3. Hi Mickey -
    I’m increasingly astonished by the intelligence of animals.  I recently read an article about parrots (African Gray’s, I think) which, apparently, understand the concept of zero - something that little humans don’t grasp until two or three. 
    We have a female Rottweiler.  When we come home, she smiles.  At first, it frightened me - she’s a big, tough dog, incredibly strong, and this weird face was pretty unnerving.  However, the lady from whom we got her ( an “animal-rescue” activist ) told us that some dogs watch people and see that people smile when they are happy - and they imitate that behavior when they are happy.  She also smiles when she’s nervous ( just snuck a few bites of cat food, for example.)

    I’ve read a variety of articles about pigs, which consistently declare that they’re at least as smart as the smartest dogs…

    Many years ago, some friends and I went to the Seattle Zoo.  We sat out in the parking lot and got stoned and wandered in.  It was amazing to wander around among all these animals, albeit, caged / jailed animals.  The zoo was huge, however, and seemed designed to be as “comfortable and normal” an environment as possible for them.  At one point, we were watching the great apes.  There is a big plexiglass wall at one cornor of this outdoor exhibit, where the apes can come within just a few feet of the observers.  I stood on one side and was watching a big Silverback, seated about ten feet from me.  At one point he turned around, sat down and stared back at me.  He looked me in the eye and held my gaze for a very long time.  At first it seemed like a challenging sort of look, but when he continued, my feelings changed.  There was so much intelligence and understanding in his eyes that I just couldn’t believe it.  I recall wanting to cry for a moment.  Here was that amazingly intelligent animal, forever a captive… Finally, a young ape jumped at him and he turned his attention to this ‘kid.’ When we were all leaving, however, he turned back toward me and held my eyes, again, for a moment.  I’ve not been back to a zoo, since.

    You are right, again, Mickey - we should not be eating them… Essentially, they’re “family.” We just should not be eating our “family.”

    Posted by joe from Oregon  on  07/16  at  01:21 PM

  4. Thanks for three excellent comments. One of the many books I’d recommend on the topic is “When Elephants Weep” by Jeffrey Masson.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  07/16  at  02:17 PM

  5. “As to the factory farming/free range farming divide, I don’t think free range is as free as many think.”

    How true this is. There is a a photo inside the current issue of Friends of Animals’ ActionLine magazine. It is of the so-called free-range chickens. Very sad indeed. When it gets scanned, Mickey, I’ll send you a copy of it.

    One more comment about the very tiny factory farming/free range divide, and why the better argument is, as Mickey concludes, for veganism:

    If we all go for more space in animal agribusiness, rather than the ending of the practice, what we are doing, if we really do in fact come up with any of that extra room, is expanding our species’ share of the earth’s space. I understand that three-fourths of U.S. continental land is already taken up in corporate agribusiness, and much of that is for animal grazing or for cultivation of massive quantities of feed (not food)—produced to raise animals who are born only to be consumed. The obvious flip side of the free-range coin is that we take up enormous swaths of land which could have been—which actually once was—free-living animals’ homes. I’m constantly amazed that welfare advocates and environmentalists (e.g. Sierra Club’s True Cost of Food campaign) aren’t clearer on this point.

    In any case, you know… No matter free-range or caged, “it” all goes to the same place in the end.

    If you’re not having any part of it, the beauty is that you spare animals from needing to be rescued in the first place. Think about the power we have. Each of us is in the position to spare more animals each year than could be taken in by any sanctuary I know.

    True freedom, for them, will be freedom from our charity.

    Love and liberation,

    Posted by Lee Hall from   on  07/16  at  08:51 PM

  6. Absolutely gruesome but necessary piece, Mickey!  My husband has said on more than one occasion that he was about to go vegan and then .. he met me, so I should plead guilty, I suppose!  I rest my case.

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  07/16  at  11:27 PM

  7. And Joe from Oregon, I’m absolutely certain that I read somewhere that pigs are the most intelligent animals.  Btw: if you haven’t read Jeffrey Masson’s book “The Pig who sang to the moon” already I highly recommend it.  Thank God I have never liked pork ..

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  07/16  at  11:30 PM

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