Are PETA right or wrong

[corydoras]

Some may find this video clip disturbing

http://www.meat.org/index-1.asp?c=mymclba0209

 

Those who watch it may find it thought provoking.

[Elton]

I only got halfway through and it made me hungry. The wife made this lovely chicken, leak and mash pie thing tonight and there's still a bit left downstairs

 

As an animal, we used to hunt other animals to eat. Due to the sheer number of humans now, that isn't possible. We either accept this, push for more free range or go veggie. Personally, I'd go for the middle option, if I could afford to. Going veggie isn't even on my radar. Videos like that do nothing to change my opinion, but I always insist that my children eat all their meat at mealtimes, my argument being that an animal died and you should show it that level of respect. I don't like the idea of meat being thrown away.

[jeepster]

I don't treat animals that way, and don't support those that do.

 

It's been a while since I ate non free range chicken and pork, and the lamb, beef and goat I eat is from local farms who I know and trust. I buy from a local butcher that charges a lot less than supermarkets but beats them on quality and provenance every time, good 'ethical' meat is out there and it's not too hard to find. I agree with Eltons point about not wasting meat, but I take it a bit further, tonight I cooked a dish using leftovers from yesterdays roast mutton, and to make the prime leg cut go further, I added some lambs sweetbreads, which ended up being the best bit of the dish and cost nothing.

 

Some of the scenes in the clip are shocking, but they're no reason for the world to turn vegetarian, just to think about how it treats animals....

 

PETA have their own agenda, and it has little to do with what ends up on the plates of British anglers, I eat what I eat for my own reasons, it's a simple fact that meat tastes better if it's been well reared and led a decent life, eating decent food itself and getting up to whatever it wants.

 

I used to shop at a butcher who when I asked him about the provenance of his pork said, 'oh don't start all that, why eat the happy pigs? let them live and eat the miserable ones' Which certainly is one way of looking at it! Needless to say I didn't use him much after that.

 

I always make the effort to find locally produced meat reared and killed in the most 'natural' and 'humane' way possible if I can't find a decent chicken, we don't eat chicken, if the pork on offer is of dubious origin, we don't eat pork, simple as that. It's difficult to take these principles with you when you go out for dinner, but we eat out less because of it, and that's a shame.

 

I'm currently looking at some of the fields surrounding us with a view to raising some beasts myself, watch this space

[wayne baker]

I only got halfway through and it made me hungry. The wife made this lovely chicken, leak and mash pie thing tonight and there's still a bit left downstairs

 

As an animal, we used to hunt other animals to eat. Due to the sheer number of humans now, that isn't possible. We either accept this, push for more free range or go veggie. Personally, I'd go for the middle option, if I could afford to. Going veggie isn't even on my radar. Videos like that do nothing to change my opinion, but I always insist that my children eat all their meat at mealtimes, my argument being that an animal died and you should show it that level of respect. I don't like the idea of meat being thrown away.

Im exactly the same Elton, When my kids were younger i would always make them eat the meat on their plates if nothing else. As for the clips theirs a lot of footage on there that people would find disturbing. But they have obviously search for the worst they could find for maximun impact n the watcher. I use to work in the meat trade and the larger abattoirs can be a very busy and hectic place at times but all the ones i have worked in the animals were treated with respect and stress levels to a minimum. Which is important for the quality of the meat. A stressed beast= tough chewy meat. Thats why when you but meat from a proper butcher that uses local small suppliers, Not that there is many now the quality of the meat is uasully to a higher standard. Unlike some of that rubbish you can get in the big supermarkets.

[lyn]

That's factory farming for you, if you want cheap meat then that's the way it's reared although I suspect that film is quite old as most of what you saw has been abolished in the UK. The likes of Hugh & Jamie are fighting for a better life for chickens etc and it is happening slowly. Veal calves have always been chained up to stop them moving around to much so the they grow quicker, they are slaughtered at around 6-8 weeks so they don't know much about in their short life.

 

If this sort of thing has an effect on you then you shouldn't be fishing, hunting or shooting!

 

lyn

[peter mccue]

Of course we don't have the right to treat animals this way & of course PETA are right, but Cory has been irresponsible to highlight it using a PETA standpoint. This isn't earth shattering news, we all know it. The reality is, we need to start charging the proper price for meat to allow the farmers to raise free range animals with a reasonable quality of life, & a quick & relatively painfree end. But of course, until we can balance the cost so as not to return to the days when to have meat was a Sunday treat for people on low incomes, then we have to continue to try & educate the consumer & rein in the supermarkets using responsible organisations. To use an extreme organisation such as PETA to highlight an obvious problem, risks giving them credibility with the public.

[Peter Sharpe]

Programmes like that have been shown on television recently, made by both Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fernley Whittingstall, both avowed meat eaters. I am a vegetarian myself, but have no problem with people eating meat if it has been reared and killed humanely. The problem is that meat has become a degraded and devalued commodity that has become far too cheap. It always used to be a treat that either required a bit of real effort to procure it, or else was bought for special occasions. The proliferation of kebabs, gristle burgers and buckets of chicken is an obscenity.

Many years ago when I was training as a teacher, I was on a teaching practice at a school in Letchworth, where a teacher told me that many of the children had never been out into the countryside and didn't realise that there was any connection between the pies and sausages they were eating and real, live animals.

Nobody would suffer at all if they could only eat meat once a week and they might even be healthier as a consequence. People were complaining recently about a programme that showed dogs being brutally treated and reared for meat in China, yet it is morally no different from the way millions of animals are treated in this country under the factory farming system.

The difference in the way that these acts of cruelty are revealed to the public is that Hugh and Jamie are doing it for all the right reasons, whereas PETA is just a self-serving publicity machine that seeks only to generate funds tp perpetuate itself, from people stupid enough to fall for their anthropomorphic propaganda.

[Ken L]

Strong stuff but PeTA obviously have an agenda and will set out to show the very worst images that they can find.

Does it change my position on eating meat ? No. Having been a butcher, I'm well aware of the worst things that can happen in the meat industry and choose to spend by money in ways that don't encourage them.

Is vegetarianism the answer to animal suffering ? Well, if the experiences of having travelled extensivly through parts of rural India that are almost entirely vegetarian are anything to go by, the answer is most definatly no.

 

OFF topic, I know but the bit about getting the kids to eat the meat is one that flags red in my mind. I'm all for using leftovers to create something else but cojoleing kids to eat something that they clearly don't want and making them feel guilty about not wanting it just seems to be setting the stage for future anxieties about food that might manifest as anything from eating to much or to little to millitant vegetarinanism - but what do I know, I don't have kids.

[Elton]

LOL You think I beat them into submission, Ken? When you're a parent, you "insist" on your kids doing a lot of things, like wearing a scarf when it's cold, brushing their teeth, learning their spellings etc. It's done by positive encouragement, praise and the like.

 

I trust that doesn't flag red in your mind?

[Ken L]

what do I know, I don't have kids.

 

See. I knew that was comming