How we treat the animals we eat

[magayle]

Oprah's doing a show tuesday with lisa ling about how we treat the animals we eat...hope everyone will watch...i'm so happy that she is FINALLY touching on this subject after the texas cattleman law suit way back in the early 90's...my mom died of CJD (creutzfeldt jakob disease/human form of mad cow) in 1993.....our food supply has many dirty secrets that everyone needs to be aware of:(

[lovesfortune]

eee. I don't know if I would be able to watch. :( Thankfully we have our own beef cattle that we butcher every year so we know where it's been, etc.

Sorry about what happened to your mom.

[livaward]

I am very sorry about your mom......that is very sad.....this is also why we butcher our own cattle, hogs, and chicken.......

[starkitten]

I think that would be very interesting to watch - it may turn me away from meat. It is terrible the unnecessary cruelness that the animals suffer. It could be much more humane and safe for humans too.

[JackieB]

I'm very sorry about your mom, magayle. That's such a horrible disease.

I'm also glad that Oprah is devoting a show to this important topic.

[cloedoll]

Magayle, I am really sorry about your mom. :( I am a vegetarian because I just feel bad for the animals and I think it's a lot healthier for me. I don't mind what others eat, your body, your choice, but just saying what I am. :) I will be watching the show.

[rocknK]

The cattlemen that I know treat there herds very well. Its their living. They take animal husbandry very seriously. Skinny cattle equals skinny wallet. They get attached to the mamma cows, often they have names. Thats something I couldn't do. The feedlot & kill plants is another whole story.

[cloedoll]

The cattlemen that I know treat there herds very well. Its their living. They take animal husbandry very seriously. Skinny cattle equals skinny wallet. They get attached to the mamma cows, often they have names. Thats something I couldn't do. The feedlot & kill plants is another whole story.

I agree, a lot of local cattlemen treat their animals very well. I wish all livestock that are for human consumption could be treated like that. I'm talking more about slaughter house and big companies. Same goes for chickens, I wish all of them could be free range. I don't drink milk (I drink soy), eat eggs (unless they are from my Grandpa's farm, they are all free range chickens and are his pets) and I don't eat any kind of meat (including seafood, so many people think vegetarians eat seafood lol....if you eat seafood or chicken, you aren't a vegetarian xD).

[sugarsgirl]

I'm really sorry to hear about your mom, magayle. I'm gonna try and catch that episode, if I can. I'm really glad that she is doing that though, so people can be informed about the problem.

[EnglishGuy]

magayle, so sorry about your mother:(

I know there is plenty of situations out there where cruelty or shadey production practices do exist. But it isn't widespread by any means, and a lot of it depends on your definition of cruelty. At least with cows/lambs/bison/other large animals, the ranchers don't abuse them because they are money. Two of my co-workers' fathers own herds and they give them great care, but obviously they don't get too attached since they are slaughtered eventually. And some people think slaughter houses are cruel, its like what do you want? They get the animals, load them up to slaughter and then butcher the carcasses...theres not much else they can do to make it happy happy.

I don't know, its one of those things where ignorance is bliss. But don't let groups like PETA get to you with their crap.

I'm a meat eater and always will be.

[Remali]

Oh gosh I am so sorry that happened to your mother. I remember when that was happening and it was in the News back then, but it seems to have sort of been swept under the rug now. While some, and I hope most, ranchers and other places treat the animals well, sadly I do not think that is quite often the case. I think the treatment of animals is poor in this country, and the consumers are kept in the dark about many things. I will be at work so I won't be able to watch the show on TV, but I am glad that Oprah is getting the word out there.

[WashingtonBay]

I think our food animals suffer in the same way all our food suffers from mass production. Most of what is wrong is wrong because we have moved our source of food from our own farms to 'factories'. No easy way to make a large operation clean, humane, and as attentive to the details as a smaller local operation would be. Anything involving thousands of animals a day will fail to be clean, humane and careful all the time. The more I know about it, the more disgusting it becomes.

I think it's been a big mistake. Now, a mistake in quality of ingredients or the handling of a disease is a NATIONAL problem, instead of a very local one. It's made us very vulnerable.

[HeartofSteel]

That is awful to hear about you mom. That is why I don't eat alot of meat, I only eat chicken. Beef, pork, lamb, ect I don't eat but I don't mind It's healthier for me.

[vicklynn]

Sorry about your mom. ((HUGS))

[Country Girl 43]

I am so sorry about your mom..that is just terrible...:(

[Diane of Buck's Hollow]

Oh magayle, I am very sorry you lost your Mom to that disease. I will watch.

I was visiting my Daughter in Maryland once, she doesn't have cable or anything, so I watch what I can ....Anyway... I watched a program about just this very same thing. Ever since, I have been trying to stay away from meat...My daughter-in-law is a vegitarian and says it will just take some time for me. My favorite meat was always lamb and veal.

After that program...I ABSOLUTLY will NOT eat Lamb or Veal. That is a good start for me. Maybe tomorrow's program will "set me free". It is not that I want to be a vegan, I just don't like the treatment of the animals that we eat.

You know, as much as I don't like to know about the deer being hunted...At least that meat is meat that does not go thru these processing plants.

Actually, Sunday's Man wants to get chickens for their eggs, once we move to the "farm". I am not sure I could eat the chickens...just me...When I was young and visited my Grandmother in North Georgia...Everything, including the meat, eggs and chicken , milk and everything in between was from her farm. It was pretty cool.

Thanks for the heads up on the program, magyle. I hope she does a good job on it.

[outriding01]

Things like this are the reason I'm in the major I chose. I want to work with sustainable farmers someday to try and move our ag system away from industrial and mass production. People don't realize how benficial that would be for everyone. It would help our economy, our energy needs, our health, our environment, etc.

[magayle]

thanks all for your compassion and interest on this subject....outriding01, i think your degree will be in high demand....oprah did a great job on reporting about factory farms

[AUEquine]

This is one of the great things about living where I do. We have the University Meat Lab here! They sell beef and pork. All the animals were raised right here, you can drive by the fields everyday and see how well they're treated. And since we're a teaching and sales institution there is an inspecter present anytime slautering is occuring. So you know every thing was done right and safe!
Most of my friends raise small herds of cattle and then take them to a local slaughter house once a year. This again is good because it's your cow and you know what it's eaten and where it's been it's whole life. Mostly we raise holstiens because the University Dairy sells off the baby bull calves very cheap each year.

I'm not a huge oprah fan, and I sleep during the day, so I probably won't watch the show. I realize this is an issues that should have some light shed on it, I just hope they don't blow it out of proportion. Last thing I want is the beef market to take a hit because Oprah said all beef cows are tortured and abused!

[JackieB]

I watched Oprah's show yesterday. She was really quite fair to the farmers and highlighted (and praised) farmers who are affording their chickens, hogs, and calves a decent quality of life.

We don't eat meat anymore in our house (although I am not opposed to eating meat), but we do eat eggs, cheese, and drink milk. Well, I swore off eggs that aren't free range after yesterday's show. Each chicken has, as it's living space, an area that is about 3/4 the size of a regular sheet of notebook paper. That's it! Horrible.

On the other hand, they showed a farmer who have about 1,000 birds, lets them out to play in the yard and field every day, herds them back in overnight, and then collects the eggs the next morning. The chickens looked very happy, the farmer was making money, and people don't need to feel guilty about eating the eggs.