Meat
Thursday August 23rd 2007, 2:03 pmFiled under: Misc, Posted By: Harley
Harley
I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland and lived there till I was 17, then I moved to Finland and have been staying here ever since. I study, work and take care of a Finnish Hound puppy, two budgies, a tortoise and a boyfriend. I like Carnivore, Type O Negative, The Pixies, Rasputina and a zillion other bands. I also play bass in a band ;P
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URL: http://www.harleyquine.com
I’ve watched two interesting videos this morning, the first was >> 100 Reasons why Evolution is Stupid and the second was a short clip entitled >> Meet Your Meat.
They both got the cogs in my brain clanking, the second especially, so I went digging for more information. In case you didn’t know already I am a meat-eater. I eat beef, pork and chicken. I also eat eggs and drink milk. Meet Your Meat showed recordings of animal abuse in cattle-sheds and slaughter houses. It showed the cramped conditions in which animals raised for slaughter or for products are kept. There wasn’t anything in the video that I hadn’t seen before so it’s not like a big revelation, but obviously it’s not pleasant to watch. I watched another related video ‘30 reasons to become a vegetarian’ and those were reasonable arguments. The thing that’s always bothered me about these animal right petitioners is that they’re so damned self-righteous. They can’t present an argument without insulting the opposition. Something along the lines of “it takes a small-minded person to beat a defenceless animal, it takes an even smaller-minded person to eat it.”
It’s exactly the same with smoking. A non-smoker or worse yet a reformed-smoker will have no problems with bashing a smoker. Smoking is an addiction, it’s a mental/physical addiction, yet those who haven’t got a clue about the addiction (non-smokers) still feel they can give out their opinions. A reformed smoker forgets quite a lot of what they went through while they were a smoker. It’s human nature, we weed out the bad things so we’re able to continue functioning.
The chicks in the 30 reasons to become a vegetarian were hot. It makes me think.. just how much animals/plants had to suffer in order to make them pretty and stick them on film for a few minutes? Then there’s distribution costs on top of that. Electricity runs their web server, the film alone probably cost a pretty penny. If environmentalists were so interested in saving the earth as much as they say they are, then they’d all be living in wooden shacks completely cut off from the modern world.
Just cos I rant about these things doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit.. I hate the idea that animals are suffering for food, you know what I really hate though? I hate that animals suffer for our clothing, or make-up. Oil-drilling causes huge disruptions for marine-life yet it powers our over consuming modern world. We have TV’s (I don’t ;P), widescreen, flat and LCD. We have computers, internet, digi-boxes, videos, dvd players, coffee-makers, kettles, toasters, ice-cream makers, popcorn makers, hair straighteners, hair dryers, clothes dryers, microwaves and god knows what else.. all stuff that we don’t really need. Those things cause as much impact on the environment as raising cattle for slaughter.
Another point I’d like to make is that the only people who campaign endlessly for animal rights, smoking bans and other related things are those people that have the luxury of being able to do so. If Angelina Jolie really wanted to save the world she’d be giving ALL of her money to charities, but no.. she still has to have enough for those fancy dresses, hair cuts and a few mansions. It’s all very well saying ‘feed the starving children of Africa’ when you have enough money to eat what you like. Processed food is cheaper, two euro will get me three chicken thighs from which I can make three meals. Fresh vegetables are expensive and no matter what way you cook it it all basically boils down to… water :O which doesn’t nourish.
Our modern society wastes a lot, things suffer because of our thoughtlessness. Even as I write this I’ve got junk mail coming through the letterbox. Things I didn’t ask for offering me a choice from 12 digi-boxes, all on paper that came from some poor tree somewhere. I say we put a stop to that kind of shit and maybe once we’ve done that we can find better more humane ways to eat.
By the by.. I’ve tried to do some research on farming methods here in Finland and it does appear to be more humane than the U.S way of ‘cut their throats and dunk them in boiling water’. Dairy cows get milked if they chose to. I think I’ll go for Finnish meat products in the future. A small change maybe, but a small step towards something better.
