Great reference from Sonia on the Hitchhiker’s Guide, I had totally forgotten about that.

Anyway, I got what you meant, and did not think you were unsympathetic to how cows are treated before the slaughter. In fact, your title made me think of ….those “Laughing Cow” cheese wedges!

Maybe that’s what they could be focusing on in those huge feed lots.

Oh, and I grew up in what was formerly the town with the world’s largest stock yards (place where farmers sell cattle and slaughterhouses ‘process’ them). In college I had an apartment just up the hill. There is nothing quite as unsettling as trying to drift off to sleep on a beautiful summer night when you hear the lone moo of a cow down in a holding pen. It always made me wonder if they knew what tomorrow held.

1) I do not endorse, condone, encourage or enjoy the mistreatment or torture of animals. (I don’t condone it in people either, but that’s another post). The fact that it is common practice is tragic, unfortunate and wrong. I was not making fun of how animals are housed and slaughtered.

2) I was poking fun at the label idea because the concept of “Truth in Advertising” isn’t something our country takes pride in anymore. Just because the label is slapped on a package of meat doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the treatment of the animal in question was really…you know…humane. More humane that the hell hole they lived in previously? Possibly, but it’s all a matter of perception. Are they still knee-deep in their own manure or now just ankle-deep? And how much “good treatment” is enough? Plus there’s the irony of great treatment that still ends in death. I was really just trying to mine the humor I found in the irony of trying to find the gray area between treating animals like animals and treating animals like people. And in a country where our public schools are underfunded and so many go without health care or insurance, who really expects the powers that be to change how animals area treated. We just signed a bill that makes it okay to torture people in this country. Do you really think they care about cows that are earmarked for hamburger?

If I had the choice between steak from a cow that had been treated well and one that had been tormented I would, of course, pick the former. It’s a no-brainer. But I was just poking fun at the label. Period.

You know I love you and your blog so no hard feelings here, but I don’t actually think this is a funny topic at all. I posted about this once on my personal blog here: http://mommyofftherecord.blogspot.com/2006/09/food-for-thought.html

I am not against killing animals for food, but I am against torturing animals while they are alive just to cut costs. Since corporate/“intensive” farming has taken over our nation’s agriculture, very little of our nation’s livestock is being raised under humane conditions. At the very least, I think that people should be informed, take this issue seriously and not make light of it. Most of the animals being raised in this country are being tortured while they are alive. Tortured. Read more here about how these animals are suffering: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp

If Whole Foods is able to label its meat products to help educate its customers that the meat it is selling was raised in a humane way, then I think “Great! Finally, someone is taking notice of this issue! Now, if only our major supermarket chains would do the same.” (Now, I would question how they define “humane”– but that is a separate issue.)

Remember, the time that these animals are alive is when they are suffering the most. The slaughter is just when they get put out of their misery.

I’m a meat eater as well, even though I struggle with it ethically. And while the phrase “animal compassionate” does sound funny to me, too, I do like the idea of supporting meat producers whose processes are *not* like those described in “Fast Food Nation” and “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” If that’s the phrase markets are going to use to identify meat that comes from those producers, then I may just have to stifle my giggles and pay the price because that issue is at least as important to me as what the animals were fed (i.e., whether they’re “organic” and such).

But really, the life story of Mavis? Freaking high-larious.

When it bothers me, I eat bologna!

My Grandfather was a farmer and logger his whole life. A good man. A good man that raised cows and didn’t care for ‘em much. They did have good lives…pretty much did whatever they wanted which was eat grass and lay around.

When I was young, maybe 6 or 7, my brother and I grew fond of one his cows and named her “Big Red”. We’d go out to the pasture and helps Gramps feed ‘em while my Grandma would complain that she feared our growing attached to damn thing. We didn’t understand what she was talking about.

Unbeknownst to us, we also happened to fall in love with the meanest cow on the planet. She would charge my Grandpa and was a bully to the other cows. One day, my bro and I were out in the pasture and she charged us. We’ve never run so hard in our short lives.

The next day, it was curtains for Big Red and we cried and cried.

I’m not sure what the moral of my story is, only that your funny post reminded me of it.

I guess the bottom line is, I like not to think of where my steak came from or that it once had eyes. I also think that animals like chickens, wouldn’t know the difference between being treated well and not. They’re really gross.

Most cows today are raised in feedlots. This means that they are packed into tiny little spaces, knee-deep in their own manure. They are fed stuff their stomachs can’t digest, which makes them sick (and which is why we need to pump them full of antibiotics to keep their meat ’safe’ to eat). They are treated, not like living things, but like stock, from teh moment of their birth until their slaughter. It is incredibly inhumane and painful AND it makes the meat less safe for us to eat, so it’s all around stupid. If you want a full description of exactly what kinds of horrible living conditions exist for cows on factory farms, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” is a really good book.

Or this will give you a brief intro– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_operation –but don’t read it after lunch.

There is a farm close to my house that raises grass-fed cattle. THe cows are out in the field, eating what they’re meant to. They have space. They live like actual animals, not products, until they are slaughtered. That is where I buy my beef.

All life feeds on death to one extent or another. There’s no way for me to stay alive except by eating something dead (even plants). In fact, if we stopped eating cows, the species would simply die out b/c they’re too domesticated. But I don’t think that requires animals to be in agony from the moment of their birth until their slaughter. We can breed them in order to kill and eat them without torturing them from birth onwards–and that’s what things like “compassionate animal” are getting at.

Personally I’m happy to see these alternatives coming on the market. Not everyone lives within a few km of a farm where they get to see first-hand how the animals they eat are treated, whether they’re healthy or sick, what they eat, etc.