I have a bone to pick about the way that carcasses are disposed of...
One of the biggest is the absolute waste of it all... The "meat" I mean... Or at least that was my only concern when years ago I watched the cook and hostess of the meal I had just eaten, take the "left-overs" (consisting of 1 "drum-stick", both "wings", 1 neck and a considerable amount of "flesh") and dump the entire into a "waste" can. In my thrifty mind... I remember using every possible bit - even to the "marrow" in a soup... Guess I had a hunch as to the true value of the (stolen) life ~ Even then and before that...
Still --- these do appear to be fatter years in the land of plenty - And abundance is reflected in our frivolous excesses... I mean how much "work" should one have to do to utilize a "free" turkey? Or, at a mere .39 cents/pound -Why worry with the economics of a bag of bones?
And speaking of a skeletons and disposing of dead bodies... I was at a neighborhood park recently with my dog... A car drove up close to us (and the trashcan nearby). He warned me... "Don't let your dog near that - It's rotten chicken!". Huh? I said to myself... Gosh I wouldn't let anyone I cared for, near dead "chicken" --- "rotten" or not! The guy drove off thinking nothing of the foul, disgusting and hazardous "thing" he just deposited in MY neighborhood! "Typical meat-peep" I mutter to myself.
I also remember driving around hillbilly town once... I was at a light behind a couple who were feasting on a "value" box of "chick'n". Chomp, chomp, chomp... Out the window on each side, went the flying bird bones! Absolutely gross...
And I can't leave this post about carcasses, bones and wasted life without the mention of the pigeon pile discovered through a SHARK investigation...
Head and limbs of "nuisance", "pest" or "game" deer
Or the "spoils" of the "victors" during their war on the innocent:
Or the leavings of the angler who took "souvenirs" from the sea:
Face it... wouldn't it be a kinder and healthier decision to just leave the critters alone... Stop breeding them - Stop killing them - Stop eating them - And stop creating problems of what to do with "their" waste. Be Vegan.
We all hear so much at this time of year about the plentiful resources we are blessed with. And I certainly am grateful too... The bounty we have is immeasurable. But in all those "things" to want and have... The details in acquiring those "things" is often shielded from our view. How eggs, milk and meat come to be is not without extreme cost to innocent life.
Over 9 billion birds are slaughtered in the US every year... None are considered "animals" even under the ridiculous pretense of the "humane" slaughter act. Birds... "poultry"... turkeys endure a horrific short life and the most brutal treatment at their death. I wished I would have known that when I was younger. I would have spared many lives with better choices... I would have been healthier - And emotionally happier with decisions that reflected my values. That is the bounty of a good life that was denied to me before.
My experience and teachings centered around "tradition"... Tradition dictates that it is "normal" on this 4th Thursday in November to place a beheaded corpse of what once was a living, sentient being on a festive table. A "plump" one... With any other "plump" one's gizzards, hearts and necks stuck in their cavity... The void is then filled with another substance that surely contains another animal ingredient.
Yes, I did once stuff and "lace" birds... I did cook, carve and consume their flesh. But I did so without the thought or care to the life I was taking. I did not adequately question the life that was taken by force, might, greed and for the sake of the sacrificial "ritual".
But I am grateful for the knowledge that I have now. No animal wishes to die. And the truth is - We don't "need" to eat them to be healthy and to thrive. A plant based diet can provide all that is necessary and satisfying. Seems that at some point we should be returning the gifts to the innocent that have "provided" so much in the past... Isn't it about time that they have something to be "thankful" for? Perhaps thankful for man's compassion?
Not all traditions are worthy of admiration and respect. Tradition should never be an excuse for cruelty, and surely harmful practices should not be condoned just because they are cultural practices.
Michele Pickover, a spokeswoman for Animal Rights Africa
The life of a turkey is filled with suffering that you and I cannot fully imagine.
Thanksgiving is the celebration of a dual genocide: one against native people, and one against turkeys.
The first Thanksgiving Day celebration in 1637 was proclaimed by the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, not as a festival of the Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal to celebrate the cooperation between the two communities, but as a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children.
The Pequot were celebrating their annual green corn dance when white mercenaries ordered the Indians out of the building in which they were celebrating. As the Pequot exited the building, they were shot to death. The remaining Pequots were burned alive.
If anything the first Thanksgiving was the kickoff to the systematic obliteration of a race of people that continues to this day, and is evident in the disproportionate poverty, poor health, and unemployment levels. Native Americans living on reservations have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, and disease of any ethnic group in America.
This does not sound like anything to celebrate or be thankful for, but in some great cultural conspiracy, we’ve been manipulated to believe Thanksgiving is a day to spend with loved ones in a state of patriotic fervor while devouring shameful amounts of calories.
Neither is there anything to celebrate in the murder of 45 million turkeys for one day (an additional 22 million turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas). Over 280 million turkeys are slaughtered every year in the US for food.
The life of a turkey is filled with suffering that you and I cannot fully imagine. The majority of turkeys for your Thanksgiving table are raised in warehouses where they will never see the light of day, and allotted three square feet of space to live their abbreviated life. To prevent them from injuring each other in such cramped quarters, most turkeys have one-third of their beaks seared off with a red-hot blade, and their toes cut off, all without painkillers and all within the first few days of their lives. It is also typical to cut off their snoods, the fleshy appendage above the beak, with scissors.
These naturally sweet and social animals are unable to engage in normal turkey behaviors such as perching, dustbathing and sunbathing. Mothers and babies begin to bond while the baby is still inside the egg, as do chickens. When inside the egg, little turkeys are already able to vocalize and “talk” to their mothers. Young birds are completely dependent on mothers, and their absence renders commercially bred turkeys helpless. Sometimes they cannot find food or water because no one ever showed them how. Turkeys often form strong bonds with each other as well, sometimes with other animals. They do not have the ability to do so in crowded warehouses.
Since they have been genetically manipulated to develop extremely large breasts in a short period time, they grow so awkwardly large that they are unable to hold up their own weight. Because of this they are no longer able to breed naturally, so females must be inseminated through rape. This also causes serious health problems like heart attacks and organ failures, however, most turkeys never live long enough to experience these issues since they are slaughtered at around five months old. (Yes, you are eating a baby bird.)
If you feel smug about only eating free-range turkey, there is very little difference in how the turkeys are treated on these farms. The term “free range” only means turkeys are allowed outside 51 percent of their lives. They don’t live idyllic lives on a farm, as the term implies.
Free-range turkeys are also genetically manipulated to grow unusually large and still undergo the same tortures as factory-farmed turkeys such as debeaking, detoeing and desnooding.
Whether a turkey comes from a free-range farm or a factory farm, they all undergo horrific conditions on the way to slaughter. Turkeys are gathered up and carried upside down by their legs and thrown into crates on transportation trucks. Most trucks have no protection from the weather, whether that be extreme heat or cold, and are usually denied food and water in transit. All turkeys end up at the same slaughterhouses where they are hung upside down by their legs and dipped in electrical baths to “stun” them. If they are not stunned, their throats are slit while they are still conscious. There are many occasions where they miss the hot bath and the blade, and end up plunged alive in scalding tanks to remove their feathers. It is all perfectly legal, since birds are exempt from the ironically named “Humane Slaughter” Act – ironic in the sense that of course there is no such thing as humane slaughter of humans or non-human animals.
I have a difficult time experiencing gratitude on a holiday that celebrates and worships the dual genocide of a race of people and a species of animal.
If you wish to truly express and share gratitude on Thanksgiving, how about choosing to eat a vegan meal? There are a myriad of satisfying and cruelty-free seasonal vegan recipes on the internet.
How about taking some time to meditate on the genocide of the Native Americans? Or kick off your holiday meal with a reading from A People’s History of the United States by the late, great Howard Zinn.
Instead of being forced to spend the holiday with shirttail relatives, feeling faux gratitude, take back Thanksgiving and celebrate the fact that your Thanksgiving has been respectful of people, animals, and the planet. I know that I’ll be grateful.
Grace:
Isn't animal ag is hoot? We know that often they are starving humans to fatten animals...
And well sometimes they just starve animals directly as in this case of the 1,000 pigs in Penn. or the 3,000 in Canada and countless other cases of neglect, ignorance and greed that is common in the flesh producing industries and flesh eating culture.
It is estimated that by 2020, 40% of the American population will be at an unhealthy weight... (25% are already considered "obese"). But this is very easy with "cheap" meat, milk and eggs.
Wake up America! Wake up world --- Your priorities are skewed. Your "kind" sentiments are disingenuous. You cannot profess to "care" without acting in the appropriate manner that illustrates that you do!
You must walk the walk - Or you're as phony as the fake sympathy I've heard you claim you have.
If you care about life - A Vegan option is the only sincere path. All the rest is just window dressing.
This story Digging Through the Dirt: Two Trucks Hauling Pigs Crash This Week reminds me of many others I've seen regarding road accidents while transporting "livestock"... It should be a wake-up call for those who think their "meat" was gotten "humanely". These trucks get packed for the maximum load - These animals endure the most extreme of weather conditions - In the brutal heat of summer, the inside of these boxes can reach 120 degrees... In the winter - many animals are frozen to the rails, and their skin must be sliced off before they walk the final steps... And of course there is the occasional threat of a traumatic road accident.
"The Line" begins in the warehouse barns...
And continues with the tractors that relentlessly push the pedal to deliver the "product" with haste...
And then - the final "line": Each step... Faster, faster, faster... Can't wait to kill and eat those animals quick enough it seems. So sad.
Here's a song that tells the story of this endless line of carnage: Stop the Line by Rosebud
You can stop it... choose compassion .
Just this morning a guy whined about a finger that was filling with infected pus after a catfish barb punctured his delicate flesh while he was "fishing". Awwww.... For all the hooks, gaffs and knives that fish-hunters pierce innocent bodies with - I can only hope a similar experience to all of them.
Ya'll want sympathy? Try showing some!
I mean really... What kind of decent person would deliberately try to get an animal "caught" by a "hook"? What kind of decent person does this for "fun"? Either their parents never taught them empathy... Or they just didn't learn very well. It is terribly cruel. It is mean! It is wrong! Literally "catching" them as they are trying to do what it takes to survive: "eat". These animals never did anyone harm - There is no self "defense". Yet people go out of their way into the "domain" of the sea to pursue the lust for blood and victims... All under the guise of a "sport". Pitiful bullies is all they are!
See the terror as these people are fearful that they might loose an eye... Imagine the fright as a living being fights for their life as their lungs are crushed by our oxygen. It's like a human suffocating and GASPING for air to breath. Ah... But this is what these fish-hunters enjoy - "The fight" and the "victory" over little fishes... Sad, puny people hurt defenseless animals for entertainment.
It's always easy to use might on those who are smaller and more helpless than you... But often Karma has a way of equalizing the score. But not one to spread any ill will - I must ask ---
