What's Love Got To Do With Meat?

In the recent winter storm named Atlas up to 70,000 cows, sheep and horses were left stranded, soaked with rain, and then were smothered or frozen in snow. Many of these cows were found in piles around the barbed wire meant to keep them "safe". Often buried in the drifts were young calves huddled by their mothers. 

On any site that reported this event, or in other instances where the "care" of "livestock" is scrutinized, animal users will defend their practices and habits with endless comments meant to illustrate how much they "love" their stock:

"We tenderly nurture and care for these production animals."

"Farm families love and care for each one."

"We do our best to keep our livestock comfortable; warm in the winter, cool in the summer, well fed, because we care."

"Although they may have death in the end, you can try to give them good care until then." 

"We love the animals we raise to feed the world."

At the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance you can see they "care" seventeen times on one page. Maybe they figure the more you say it... The more you mean it right? 

And Bonnie, a member of the National Turkey Federation, enters a grow-out barn singing Kumbia to the thousands of birds she claims to "love".

The pig pork people are just the same. They want you to know how much they "care" in one convincing logo. 

Dairymen are animal lovers too! You can read it seven times on one page, amid the photos of barren plastic hutches where the infant calves are "cared for" in isolation.

Or you could see the same line in a Dairy Farmers Care video where they "care" nine times in three minutes.

You can see the pattern over and over. Ranchers and "producers" "care" and "love" these animals so very much --- All the way to the kill floor.

But getting back to Atlas... The industry posted a series of photos that illustrate the impact this storm had. In one, the caption reads "Identifying and cutting ear tags from the animals we found deceased helped in keeping an accurate count of the lost." And other missing cows are being identified by their "brands" on left or right hip or rib, or elsewhere I guess...

Can't you feel the love?

And of course they have to keep track of the loss in order to be reimbursed via the Livestock Indemnity Program. Heck of a way to count the tears, through tags, brands, carcass disposal and cash. 

Any reasonable person can see right through this "love" and loss. It's not about the heartbreak of losing a friend and family member... It's about finances and lost profits. We should feel sorry for these ranchers we're told, for they'll never get to capitalize on flesh that's buried. Instead I and many others, weep for the cows, horses and sheep. I never knew a single one of them... But I know I love them more than those who "owned" them ever could.

I know what it means to genuinely care. It's someone who rearranges their whole day to rescue orphaned possums. It's someone who sets the alarm every 2 hours to insure that baby mice or rabbits are kept hydrated. It's someone who takes in a rejected calf from the dairy industry and loves him his entire life without a "lost milk tally". It's folks who pool their resources to rescue hundreds of "spent hens" . And they do it over, and over, and over and over again without the reward of one single egg as a "payment". 

It's finding a way to rescue one pig who then gives birth to sixteen others. It's rejoicing that all are healthy, without the calculated plan as to when they reach a market weight. Their value is priceless.

I could go on with how much authentic concern is given to these beings who have been rescued from the industries that profess to "care" while benefiting financially. And it's true, for some it is about the money... But not the making of it - But the sharing of it... Down to their last penny. That's a real love beyond counting ear tags and making meat.

Whether you are a consumer or a rancher - Words are hollow if they're not followed through with sincere action. Using others for your profit or personal benefit has nothing to do with love. Please if you don't do so already, live and Eat Like You Care.

Food Fight - Check Beef OFF! - Go Vegan

Thanks BeefCheck folks for the wonderful graphics! Couldn't have said it better myself!

Or maybe I can?

Here's the facts I'll fling: Barbed wired. Sentient, docile cows standing in their own waste on feedlots. Dehorning. Branding. Castration... without anesthesia. Downers. And forklifts. Manure. Cattle prods. Nitrates. Cows forced to eat an unnatural diet of corn, poultry litter and slaughterhouse waste. Recalls. Destruction of the world's rainforests. Water waste and contamination. "Calving season" and "culls". Methane. Antibiotics. Grazing land issues. Crowded transport trucks. Artificial insemination. Conflict with wildlife. Hormones. Rodeos. Irradiation. The hide pulling machine. The bleedrail. MadCow. E-Coli O157:H7. World hunger. Animals as "commodities". Poisonous "leather" processing chemicals. The captive bolt gun. Saturated fat. Evisceration. Fear. Death.

More reasons to get cows, all animals and the unholy stench of murder off your plate and Go Vegan: http://www.theanimalspirit.com/worldhunger.html http://www.mercyforanimals.org/beef.asp http://www.madcowboy.com/ http://www.chooseveg.com/beef.asp

Beef - Wasteful, Environmentally Irresponsible, Cruel & Deadly

BEEF: It's what's wasteful: A huge recall of over 210 tons of recalled cow parts is said to be contaminated with deadly e-coli bacteria. 24 illnesses are being investigated by federal officials that may be due to the tainted JBS Swift Beef. Of course the obvious "waste" is in the need to have killed these cows to begin with - because consuming animal flesh is totally unnecessary. But I'd like to point out the secondary wastes involved in this recall. Each pound represents at least 6 times more in grain than what was fed to these cows... There is also the water required... to turn cows into marketable commodities: Over 1,500 gallons of water/pound. Then there was the fuel to transport the grain... then to transport the cows... The electricity to "process" their bodies; then to ship the killed/cut up cow parts, in refrigerated trucks to refrigerated meatcases... All to be shipped somewhere else - to be dumped in a landfill, along with the plastic and cellophane that this garbage was wrapped in... All an enormous waste. Not to go unmentioned, is the huge amount of cow flatulence and poop that contribute to harmful methane gasses. BEEF: IT'S WHAT ENVIRONMENTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE: Meanwhile, JBS is being investigated by the Brazilian government for “bribing of public officials, racketeering, corruption, fraud and collusion,” Greenpece called out the company for knowingly buying cows raised on illegally cleared rain-forest land. In a report titled "Slaughtering the Amazon" the group accused the Brazilian government of being complicit in the illegal destruction of the rain forest due to its hefty funding of the beef industry. Cattle ranching is responsible for about 80 percent of Amazon deforestation.

BEEF: IT'S WHAT'S CRUEL:

Due to extreme heat/drought conditions in Nebraska, thus far over 2200 cows have been found dead. These numbers are likely to climb. Of course, if the livestock/meat industry is growing/killing 6.4 million of these beasts... what's the big deal in a few thousand dying of thirst and dehydration?

If anyone were to leave a dog in a car during the summer, or unprotected in 100 degree temperatures... there would be cause for officials to cite them for "cruelty". Yet, on a feedlot, these "food animals" bear insufferable torment and agonizing deaths, with absolutely no vindication. In fact, since the feedlot owners aren't insured for such losses, the deadstock industry will get federal compensation for these cruelly killed cows, via cruelly sucking off financially taxed Americans, (again).

BEEF: IT'S WHAT'S UNHEALTHY: One of the biggest and most famous "beef" eaters was Dr. Atkins who weighed more than 250 pounds at the time of his death.... The Framingham Heart Study and the recent findings of Dr. T Colin Campbell's China Study, shows that diets high in meat and saturated fat increase risks for heart disease, colon & breast cancer, prostate cancer, rheumatoid arthritis risk, pancreatic cancer, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, obesity, and a shortened lifespan.

Now... remember that little ecoli problem? Sure, you can bbq the poop bacteria out of the beef; but watch out for thoses high levels of cancer-causing heterocyclic amines (HCAs), that are found in grilled animal products! The top five worst foods to grill, according to The Cancer Project and The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine are: chickens, steaks, pork, salmon and burgers.

So... don't be cruel, wasteful or ecologically irresponsible - and don't be unhealthy -

Go Vegan!

More Wasteful Animal Agriculture

Wasteful Poisonous Animal Agriculture

Life is So Cheap When You Eat Meat

GRAZING CATTLE SPURS HELICOPTER HORSE ROUND UP

The February issue of National Geographic Magazine has an article, about the government's round up of Mustangs on behalf of cattle ranchers, headed, "Spirit of the Shrinking West: Mustangs." It includes gorgeous photos of the animals, and disturbing photos of them being chased by low flying helicopters across the plains towards pens.

"Wild horses are right in the middle of a culture that wants nothing to do with them. The wild horse has been despised ever since white men came west-blamed for everything that can and does go wrong on these grasslands. So in the mid-1800s, when stockmen released up to 40 million cattle on the plains, where horses had lived for centuries without destroying the grazing, at most two million mustangs were held responsible for the suddenly depleted range." J Kirkpatrick, director of science and conservation biology at ZooMontana

The article explains, "Traditionally ranchers haven't had much time for anything that competes with them for resources. It's not uncommon to find coyote carcasses draped over barbed-wire fences, as if Westerners had gone trolling for whatever offended their souls and, unable to shoot the wind, turned their ire on something more tangible." The article's author, Alexandra Fuller says "The Bureau of Land Management, is required to manage 258 million acres as "multiple use." In theory there should be enough room for everything, but in reality, from the moment pioneers settled here, resources have been extracted with little patience for anything that got in the way of a silver dollar. "The BLM decides what are appropriate management levels for horses. Advocates believe the numbers are fixed arbitrarily low, threatening the genetic viability of the herds; ranchers say they're unrealistically high, threatening vital grazing." The article includes distressing descriptions, as well as the photos, of helicopter chases during mustang round-ups. Chris Heyde of the Animal Welfare Institute says, "Every year they pull more and more horses off the range to keep the ranchers happy. Meantime the scenario for the horses is just awful." Though it is not supposed to happen, we are reminded that most of the mustangs, the symbol of the Great American West, end up in slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Killed for their flesh and their leather hides. There are contraceptive alternatives for these horses, however the BLM is resistant. Spending too little studying fertility control and too much on helicopter roundups. But when approached about using such wildlife contraceptives the response from the BLM was, "This is not how we do it out here. We do it with horses and ropes. And helicopters."

And it's true... it does seem like everything gets in the way of the space the cattlemen need... Or rather... the grass to feed the cows. The wolves, coyote, mountain lions, bison, elk, prarie dogs. Even birds are a threat to cattle interests once the bovines reach the feedlots. And anything that gets in the way of cattle interests are hunted, herded, trapped, poisoned and killed. Perhaps if we are running out of sufficient room to grow the cows - we might consider adopting a different, more sustainable plant based diet? This is the way to evolve while continuing to co-exist with other inhabitants on this earth. Unless all we want to have left on it is a bunch of McDonalds & Burger Kings?

As for me, I'd much rather eat my veggies and respectfully let the wildlife be. Go Vegan

Animal Agriculture Kills Hogs to Kill Cows Double Meat Murder

The Missouri Cattlemen's Association wants to eradicate feral hogs because they are damaging pasture land that cattle graze on. These pigs may also carry disease that would affect animal grower's "livestock"... But hey - don't they have a plethora of drugs to take care of those nasty worms, viruses and other ills that animals get? The Missouri Cattle people also say that wild hogs will: "kill fawns and eat eggs of ground-nesting birds". But wait! Could these be the fawns that were bred on Missouri "farms" to be released for Missouri hunters? And this excuse is for the birds too: Animal agriculture is responsible for millions of birds being killed every year... so that investments in "food" animals is not compromised. Again we see it's all about the money - keeping Americans buying and eating (unhealthy) animal products. That's the bottom line.

Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions because eating all those animals leads to degenerative and fatal health conditions. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."-C. David Coates

What an awful chain of killing to kill yet even more - Stop the murder, stop the madness... Go Vegan.

BULL SPERM THEFT - VULGAR COW CATTLE INDUSTRY

Recently reported is the story about the theft of yet more bull semen -

It's a very large business - that of making more cows...

Guess it's true what they say: "Some people would rather stick their arm up a cow's ass than eat a tomato".

Flesh Sciences & Sexist Cow Murder

How sad for animals, that there is this 4th generation cow operation in "Freedom", Oklahoma. The trope recalls railroads, great-grandfathers, and "proud tradition". For a hundred years, they have been breeding "multi-trait" cows. They mess with (and control) genetic lines. They make male cow widgets into "Franken-Bulls"...... I can hear a chuckle in the back ground.... However, these "studs" with all their manipulated and modified maleness, cannot even mount thier ladies. I know there will be further laughter (or disbelief) because these bulls are either ejaculated by human hand or by electrical/mechanical means. Hummmmm. The sperm is then matched to a suitable heifer or "dame". She too is a product of "lineage" and is the paragon of modern science and animal agriculture. She is judged by her structural soundness, calving ease, fleshing ability, performance, fertility and disposition. She has been closely scrutinized and monitored through a series of injected hormones and other drugs. Then she is placed on what the industry thugs call the "rape rack" to receive the sperm. This procedure, of course is only done by human hand. After impregnation she will continue to be confined and subject to more tests and evaluations. Gestation for cows is 9 months..... She will birth calves or daughters. They will never nurse their young - Thier offspring are immediately seperated and delegated to their own fated series of being pawed, poked and punctured. Judgements, charts and dollars come to play. If the "bottom-line" adds up they are "keepers". If not..... they face the final violation at the slaughterhouse.

Complete cow families that don’t "qualify" are often "culled" together.

Many pregnant female cows that arrives at the slaughterhouse give birth while waiting "their turn"..... Sometimes they are butchered while in eustris.

This is but one small facet of the harm and abuse inflicted on animals courtesy of the meat industry, funded by government and accepted by culture. This reproduction and killing cycle is NOT necessary. Man lives fine on a plant based diet.

We have all as a culture been duped. This cannot be called "humane". But it is called that. They have done a fine job of hidding and disguising these abominations to animals from thier inception to their disassembly. These are horrible acts. They should not be condoned. The bully needs to be told - we can live well without the killing.

The Animal Auschwitz meat business depends on the status quo...... and on silence.

Make a better world - for yourself and the animals...

For Health & Heart -

Go Vegan!