ABC 4 Corners, investigation into animal cruelty

[zdcol71]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Breeding them and killing them isnt the issue. They arent there to be tortured. They are still a living, breathing animal that has a brain and knows whats going on and can feel pain and fear. Just kill them quick and get it over and done with.

Actually ,a post that sums up a lot of juxtaposition in this thread.
My take on this ,is that "breeding them and killing them" actually is the issue here. I too ,like many here ,have worked ,at some stage of their careers, as casual labour in a food processing environment and been part of a culture that didn't care too much about animal welfare or rights or feelings or such. It was good money on school holidays, or between trade jobs ....whatever reasons that people take casual jobs in abbatoirs, or piggeries or cage hen batteries,feed lots ...hey the list goes on.
Animals are bred to be slaughtered, humanely or not ,the end result is the same. I have seen enough in my experiences in food processing, and seen enough docos on SBS.ABC,Nat.GEO...or any other number of "mobs" that want to show this sort of shock reality to know that this doesn't just happen in Indonesia..(I actually was more apalled with a show I saw not so long ago about a guy who went undercover in a yankee piggery and shot scenes that were comparable to anything being discussed here). A lot here are quick to jump on what is happening "over there" without giving too much thought that, on a (quantum based) measure of cruelty..the same thing is happening anywhere that we believe it is ok to breed /slaughter animals.
We build a multi million(billion)dollar industry around the concept of breeding and killing a (lesser) animal than ourselves, and are then indignant enough to complain when someone kills that animal(read slaughter/butcher) somewhat differently to the way "we" deem as humane.
To say "just kill them quick and get it over and done with" is like asking "is a hanging or bullet more humane because it is over a lot quicker, than having to endure the wait for the effects of a leathal injection to do it's ultimate work" The end result is the same ,yet there are many here among us who probably wouldn't care less which method was used as long as "we" retained the right to pass that judment on to anybody (or animal) we deem lower on "our" scale.
We (consumers..read in this instance"meat eaters") are the end user..we have a say in the matter, and that is not just to flame our indignation at someone who does exactly the same thing as we do ourselves,(just using a different manner) If you don't like the fact that we breed animals to eventually slaughter them....don't feed the machine. Yes I know the response to that..what of the jobs, the farmers, the truckies...we have built an industry around this (and every other multi billion dollar industry), to line the pockets of the the people who really don't care if you or I are particularly distressed with the way the Indonesians slaughter their cattle.
Despite the outcry over this(and I won't add to any religious debate going on here)..and the fact that an investigation has shown some dispicable handling of a slaughter, there actually is some sensibility of ritual in the halal slaughter, and I wonder do we have (if not show) the same reverence to another living thing when we slaughtewr and butcher our livestock to feed our need for meat.
Three more things very quickly..
I am not a green left wing vegitarian
I wonder why the same indignation as shown here hasn't been shown towards the way we process Indonesian (and other foreign) "meat"
And...I promise the next post I make will be car related!!!