XPost: alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian, misc.rural   
      
   On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:39:12 -0500, ToolPackinMama    
   wrote:   
      
   >My favorite food used to be chicken.  recently, while I was preparing   
   >chicken for my family, I had an epiphany.   
   >   
   >I was handling the chicken parts with great caution.  I had vinyl gloves   
   >on, and I was working hard to keep the process sanitary.  I am aware of   
   >how unclean chicken meat generally is.   
   >   
   >It suddenly struck me:  "If I believe this has to be handled like toxic   
   >waste, why am I feeding it to my family!?"   
      
       It's not that way with "meat". It's that way with *some* meat. Notice that   
   it's that way with meat from omnivores, which we are. So it makes sense that   
   there is a danger of exchanging microbes that can thrive in the bodies of   
   omnivores if you eat the bodies of omnivores without doing something to kill   
   those particular microbes. Notice that it's a danger in pork and chicken which   
   are both omnivores, and not in beef and fish because their systems are too   
   different. But the good part is that if you kill the microbes which is simple   
   enough, then the meat is good for you and your family.   
      
   >It hit me like a bolt of lightning:  I believe that meat is unwholesome,   
   >so why am I still eating it, and serving it to others!?   
      
       Just make sure you kill the microbes which also results in better tasting   
   meat. No one likes rare chicken, and though rare pork tastes awesome it can   
   make   
   a person horribly sick. So cook it.   
      
   >I have always hated the cruelty that "food animals" were subjected to.   
   >I had to not think about it, to be able to eat meat at all.  Well, I am   
   >thinking about it now, and it makes the thought of meat even more repugnant.   
      
       Broiler chickens and their parents are not kept in little cages and the   
   vast   
   majority of them get to enjoy lives of positive value, imo. The same is true of   
   cage free laying hens in general so if you buy cage free eggs you are   
   supporting   
   a system which deliberately tries to provide lives of positive value for laying   
   hens. There's reason to feel good about doing that, not reason to feel bad   
   about   
   it. There's reason to feel bad about buying battery cage eggs though especially   
   if you could get cage free simply by spending more money. Not only does buying   
   cage free eggs and whatever other animal friendly products deliberately   
   contribute to lives of positive value for livestock animals, but it also puts   
   you in the position of deliberately contributing to a more considerate type of   
   society and thinking in general. Notice that it's a level of consideration and   
   participation that eliminationists do NOT want other people to intentionally   
   rise to because it works AGAINST their selfish and lowly elimination objective.   
      
   >OK!  The solution seems simple:  vegetarianism.   
      
     · Vegans contribute to the deaths of animals by their use of   
   wood and paper products, electricity, roads and all types of   
   buildings, their own diet, etc... just as everyone else does.   
   What they try to avoid are products which provide life   
   (and death) for farm animals, but even then they would have   
   to avoid the following items containing animal by-products   
   in order to be successful:   
      
   tires, paper, upholstery, floor waxes, glass, water   
   filters, rubber, fertilizer, antifreeze, ceramics, insecticides,   
   insulation, linoleum, plastic, textiles, blood factors, collagen,   
   heparin, insulin, solvents, biodegradable detergents, herbicides,   
   gelatin capsules,  adhesive tape, laminated wood products,   
   plywood, paneling, wallpaper and wallpaper paste, cellophane   
   wrap and tape, abrasives, steel ball bearings   
      
       The meat industry provides life for the animals that it   
   slaughters, and the animals live and die as a result of it   
   as animals do in other habitats. They also depend on it for   
   their lives as animals do in other habitats. If people consume   
   animal products from animals they think are raised in decent   
   ways, they will be promoting life for more such animals in the   
   future. People who want to contribute to decent lives for   
   livestock with their lifestyle must do it by being conscientious   
   consumers of animal products, because they can not do it by   
   being vegan.   
       From the life and death of a thousand pound grass raised   
   steer and whatever he happens to kill during his life, people   
   get over 500 pounds of human consumable meat...that's well   
   over 500 servings of meat. From a grass raised dairy cow people   
   get thousands of dairy servings. Due to the influence of farm   
   machinery, and *icides, and in the case of rice the flooding and   
   draining of fields, one serving of soy or rice based product is   
   likely to involve more animal deaths than hundreds of servings   
   derived from grass raised animals. Grass raised animal products   
   contribute to fewer wildlife deaths, better wildlife habitat, and   
   better lives for livestock than soy or rice products. ·   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)