"Peter Wiley" wrote in message
. ..
In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:

Actually I have. I've watched the process at three separate slaughter
houses, and yes it ain't pretty. But it's hardly clubbing the animals,
skinning them while still alive, and allowing them to die in agony.

Nope, it's raising them in confined pens, feeding them rations
formulated to maximise weight gain and desired marbling, loading them
onto trucks using cattle prods and the like, transporting them to a
place of slaughter where they are usually deprived of food & water, or
at least on minimum rations, then forcing them through more races to a
place of slaughter, where they can smell the ones in front dying.

That's a far cry from the description I gave above. Downright humane by
comparison, actually. They may be able to hear and smell the death of their
fellow steers, but they cannot cognitively process that information beyond
simply becoming alarmed. The beef I saw being slaughtered simply resisted
being pushed toward the slaughter pit, no differently than they resisted
being pushed into the barn back at the feed lot or being pushed into a
trailer for transportation.

Perhaps, but the differences are profound. Perhaps you should view a
harp
seal harvest before making such ridiculous claims.

What ridiculous claims have I made? I said that *both* were abhorrent.
Is this a ridiculous claim?

IMO, it's ridiculous to compare a beef slaughterhouse with the harp seal
harvest. That's my opinion, and you won't change it. I've seen both.

I think clubbing, and then live-skinning, any animal should be a
criminal offence. I don't care if they're being killed, as long as it's
fast & humane and the kill is within sustainable harvest levels.

Agreed.

As for intensively farmed livestock, the *only* bit of their lives that
may be described as humane is the kill. The differences aren't as
profound as you might like to believe.

I think you've tended to anthropomorphize livestock. Steers are not
sentient, therefore don't really give a rat's posterior as to what
conditions they live in, nor for the congestion or crowding. But animals
can suffer pain and a lingering death. There are huge differences between
the way livestock is raised and slaughtered and the harp seal harvest.

Max