Baa.
My career in vegetarianism began when I first realised what veal was. After eliminating baby cow from my diet aged 11 (baby! cow! tiny baby cow that had only drunk its mother’s milk!), it was swiftly followed by lamb. The pendulum kept swinging in that direction until I was only eating seafood and then, after about 10 years or so, it began to swing back.
But it never EVER swung back to veal.
Or any small or baby animals. No duckling or suckling pig or quail or lamb or veal or spatchcock. None. Which is why Masterchef contestant Claire Winton Burn’s recent piece for Fairfax about eating babies made me shudder.
From SMH, Claire writes…..
Claire Winton Burn
“You name it, we’re eating it younger or eating it smaller. Even
micro-cresses and micro-herbs are abundant in restaurants and at markets. Is it about flavour, or what looks good on the plate? Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, a reflection of a cultural obsession with youth and beauty. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt that the idea of eating vegetables young, fresh and sweet has a real allure.
Likewise, eating baby animals has become increasingly popular. Veal and vealer — traditionally a common flashpoint for protest — is a regular feature on menus around town.
Moo.
Suckling pig (which is slaughtered at about four to seven weeks) graces the tables of several of our best restaurants. Goslings and poussins or coquelets (small chickens slaughtered at about 28 days) are readily available in both restaurants and specialist poultry shops. If you’re very lucky, you might even find kid or suckling lamb from select suppliers (suckling lamb is generally slaughtered at least four weeks earlier than regular lamb).
This marks a subtle but palpable shift in public sentiment when it comes to the consumption of all creatures cute and fluffy, although it’s not hard to see why these diminutive delights are prized: their meat is sweet and tender.
Ugh. Seriously. How can you eat anything that’s prefaced by the word SUCKLING? That means breastfeeding!
Are you cool with eating baby animals? Is there anything you won’t eat for ethical reasons?
Comments
440 Comments so far
I was vego for about three months last year then caved. I went back to meat but didn’t purchase it from shops or cook with it (I sneakily ordered pepperoni pizzas or a lamb wrap when i went out!)
I saw the film Earthlings at a charity event in Brisbane two nights ago and oh my god. I will NEVER look at animal products again. Goodbye grilled haloumi, goodbye skin-saving Neutrogena (not cruelty free!). It should be mandatory for all humans to watch this film at least once to really know what’s going on in the world. Scary scary scary scary scary. I dare you, everyone, to hit up YouTube and watch it – if you make it through even five minutes without changing your views on LIFE AS YOU KNOW IT, you are a robot.
Thank you Earthlings, for making me a better person and thank you Mia for bringing up such an important topic!
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OMG ! Could not get past the kosher killings.
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I know! So wrong. Those poor people feeling all good for buying “respected meat”. The skinning was the worst for me, I’m pretty much scarred for life which is what I wanted! A nice kick up the butt for a weak vego
Now when I walk through that cold pink vac-packed isle in the grocery store rather then be tempted to grab some for dinner I just replay some scenes from Earthlings and run to the produce section!
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I just watched the beginning of this – I must confess I’m having trouble getting past the voice over and comparisons to the Holocaust. Is it worth sticking with?
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It is worth sticking with. We owe it to the animals of the world to understand what we are doing to them. It’s a hard film to watch but it’s important. It changed my life.
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Seriously, they compared slaughtering animals to the Holocaust? That is So.Goddam.Offensive it’s not funny.
My relatives died in Hitler’s death camps. Claiming a cow or a pig is morally equivalent is sickening to me, and completely offensive to the people who were killed, and their surviving families.
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After reading this article and the comments I spent the arvo doing some internet research.
I am now in tears.
I will never eat any kind of meat, or wear or own any kind or dead animal product again.
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Isn’t it incredible how much of our lives we spend not knowing these things?
Good luck!
Good for you for making the choice
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Wow. You are really a rare person. This is so admirable – I hope you can keep it up until it feels normal. It’s really hard to keep up sometimes in the early days, because it can be really inconvenient and time-consuming – not to mention having to resort to bread and salad at restaurants, unless you have friends who don’t mind finding a restaurant with a vego choice.
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Yes but we ate meat back then as it was neccesary to survive. Now we have endless choices and do not require it.
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but why hurt and kill animals when we can life off food without a heartbeat?
it’s completely unnecessary to eat flesh, not to mention unhealthy and expensive.
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Watch the film Earthlings then tell us you still feel exactly the same.
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I was referring mostly to an ethical and environmental standpoint, not a nutritional one. Though it is healthier to consume pulses and legumes than meat. Cholesterol is the big one.
From an ethical perspective we do not need to torture millions of animals each year just to eat them.
and environmentally- the land used to ‘farm’ these animals could be used for grains instead, and ease the worlds hunger problems. And lets not even get into the water argument.
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What is the difference? (I am genuinely interested). From what I gather, cholesterol build up in your blood vessels can be due to eating meat. Plant-based foods contain no cholesterol. Are the two types not linked?
Because kangaroos need to be culled you are justified in eating factory-farmed beef? I’m confused as to your point there. By reducing factory farming, especially in the US, land degradation would be significantly lessened. It is fact that factory farmed animals use more water, land, grain and medication than humans. “Organically farmed” animals are not necessari;y cruelty free, nor are there proper labelling systems in place for consumers to make an informed choice.
In part yes, but animal welfare is also an issue. If politicians as well as the general public had the decency to effect change it would happen quite easily. All everyone has to do is make the right choice. Sadly there is unlikely to be great change any time soon but that will not stop me from making my tiny bit of difference each day.
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If I don’t eat meat, I don’t feel full…
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Just eat different sources of protein.
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I haven’t eaten mammals since my teens and as a result can’t cook it for anyone else. Also trying to increase our vegetarian options all the time, and though generally it’s almost impossible to do so 100%, at least as ethically as possible (only free range eggs and GMO free tofu). OMG coffee and chocolate too! Yikes, it does get overwhelming. Soon it seems I’ll be spending more time researching the groceries than buying them, and I’m sure in the craziness of life and responsibilities, many many more won’t be doing that at all.
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I spent the first 9 years of my life on a large a dairy farm – witnessed calves being taken away from their mothers & mothers crying for their babies until their voice was hoarse. 20 years ago at age 24 I became vegetarian & have never looked back.
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ooooh that’s horrible. By eating meat, we are perpetrators in so much violence and sadness.
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I respect your opinion Camille, but it is comments like this that make us meat eaters feel like the vegos are lecturing/looking down on us.
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What, being faced with reality??
Go spend some time on a dairy farm and see how you feel then.
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i ve spent time on a dairy farm when i was young and have always eaten meat…. i agree that methods of production can be cruel and unethical but i also agree that comments like Camille’s do not make any sense and sound immature. Are lions, dogs, and so many other wild animals perpetrators of violence because they eat meat? nonsense really.
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When I read this whole post it just reminded me to keep to my beleifs – not EATING anthing BABY LIKE or MOST ANIMALS – I myself started this when I was around 15 years old doing my PIP for Society and Culture on Cruelty to Animals – I have gone back and forth from non vegetarian to vegitarian although I have to say that I have never EATEN BABY since this revelation at 15 years old – Today I am Vegetarion at this moment – apart from some seafood which I am even struggling with at the moment – no one understand why and at the end of the day – do I question why anyone EATS MEAT??? Let me be – because at the end of the day my choice to not eat meat does not affect anybody but ME!!!
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If you eat seafood you are not a vegetarian. Sorry, but you’re not.
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I go out of my way to try and choose from ethical and sustainable sources. I am against industrial factory farming and farmed fishing.
I am a member of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, and choose sustainable fish from their fab “Sustainable Seafood” guide. This means not buying farmed fish, overfished species, fish routinely slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity, or fish that are caught using methods that damage precious ocean ecosystems.
I choose free range eggs ALWAYS, and buy organic free range eggs whenever possible. I also choose NOT to support farmers who have free range egg lines but who also have caged egg production. Defeats the purpose in my opinion. I want to support farmers who are doing the right thing by all of their chickens! Thankfully I now know a few people with their own chickens who send eggs my way whenever they have some spare – yum!
I eat organic and free range chicken sometimes.
Basically, I have exceptionally high standards when it comes to eating anything of the flesh or eggs. I used to be a vegetarian, so my return to eating fish, and then chicken, has been a very slow and well thought out process. I read “The Ethics of What We Eat” by Peter Singer & Jim Mason a few years ago and it changed my whole view on the food we buy and eat. I have an 18-month old son and I want him to experience many different foods, and that includes meat, but I want him to understand where the food he eats comes from, and I want him to be raised in an environment that considers ethical choices and sustainable farming.
I know the options I choose are more expensive, but I do believe we’ve become a society of people that want the OPTION to eat 7 different types of meat at every meal. If we ate meat in the quantity we were supposed to eat it and if we weren’t expecting all of the choices we have at our disposal, then cost wouldn’t be such an issue. PLUS, I am a firm believer that what we pay at the register isn’t the only cost involved. So cheap caged eggs come at a huge cost to the welfare of the animals and the environment, etc.
Wow, that’s my rant for the arvo. A welcome break from studying – LOL!! I’m used to having to explain my choices about the food I eat – for some reason people find it fascinating that I’m so fussy and choosy. I call it just THINKING about what I feed my body and educating myself on food and nutrition.
And don’t get me started on baby animals and foie gras, veal, etc etc …..
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Wow loopylol, I do admire your commitment to knowing where your meals come from and how. Like I’ve said above, I’d love to have that level of integrity and peace of mind, but gee it takes a lot of guts and work and it sure narrows the choices down too. The more I aim to educate myself, the more horrified I become and have to back off for a bit as the sticky web of connections never ends. Cosmetics and orangutangs anyone? Taking just the fish example, has anyone seen the doco Darwin’s Nightmare on (available in our supermarkets) African Nile Perch farming? Can’t even watch. Wish I wasn’t so darn sensitive.
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Thanks for your feedback Ms Twitchy! I must admit, I do feel better making the effort to look into these things and over time I’ve found all sorts of people trying to do the right thing, which is a tricky thing to achieve, between animal welfare, environmental sustainability and a business that actually makes an affordable product so that they can in turn make a profit.
And so far, I’ve been very satisfied with the choices I’m left with after my conscience has given me a good going over about making better choices!
My hot tip when I’ve been looking for new pet food or make-up, etc, is to Google what I’m after, eg “best mineral make up not tested on animals”, and, among other sites, I invariably I find a chat thread on the vegsociety.org.au website.
I’m not vegan, never have been, but I respect what they believe in and I love the intense thought they put in to choices they make about the food they eat, make-up they use, pet food they buy, etc. And I know they research things like animal testing to the ends of the earth to make sure someone’s not pulling a swifty on them. I’ve found many a great thing reading through their forums and I appreciate them doing a lot of the leg work for me!
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I’ve been vegetarian for years. I choose not to consume animal products as they are certainly not essential for me to survive and I cannot justify the torture of an animal for a few minutes of eating it.
While I understand why you’re not eating veal, at least they have the benefit of being slaughtered young rather than enduring months and months of torture before being hacked up and ending up on your plate. Mass production of meat is the problem here. It’s entirely an animal welfare issue.
As a side note- chickens (the regular bbq chook in coles, or red rooster, wahtever) are only 10-12 weeks old when they die. Essentially they are babies but they are fed things that make them grow way too fast, many of them have under-developed organs or legs and cannot eat or stand or even breathe properly.
So if you really want to stop eating babies you should also cut out chicken.
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I am also a vegetarian. However, I’m not entirely sure that tourture is a word you should use so lightly. Yes, many animals are farmed in less desirable situations. However i know farmers that love the animals they farm and would never dream of torturing their animals. Many farmed animals are treated with the respect they deserve before they are ‘hacked up’ and put on our plates for millions to enjoy.
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But many are not, and it is not easy for the consumer to know which is which when standing at the supermarket freezer.
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Go out into cattle country and tell them all that & tell the farmers how to produce beef etc, you’re being highly emotive
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Please tell me why that is bad?
I am not a robot. For me, eating dead flesh IS something to be emotional about.
Raising an animal in a tiny pen so it doesn’t see sunshine and can’t even walk, feeding it things it is not meant to eat, and then herding it off to get slaughtered is something we wouldn’t allow to happen to humans. Most of us wouldn’t allow it to happen to dogs and cats either. But it’s okay for farm animals? It is just hypocritical and that is my opinion.
Maybe that doesn’t bother you and I am not judging you for eating what you want, but this is what I mean about vegetarians being condemned for their choices. I shouldn’t have to justify my decision not to eat meat. I never passed judgement on your decision to consume meat, but merely stated my view and the fact that ‘normal’ chickens are actually still babies.
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I won’t eat anything that contribute to human trafficking and child labor. Only fair trade products as much as possible.
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Good point. I’t snot just animals who sometime suffer for our grocery list.
I use the Ethical Consumer Guide and have found it very useful -it’s even purse sized, so it comes on the shopping trip with me.
I stopped eating Nestle chocolate (goodbye Fruit’n'Nut, you were my first love!!), then was terribly excited when I read that they now used Fair Trade cocoa – but only one one line of their chocolate product!!?? WTF?? It’s such a blatant marketing ploy, it doesn’t mean anything, they still use non-Fair Trade cocoa for all their best selling products!
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What about the fact that as far back as the 80s they’ve promoted formula in third world countries to the detriment of many & still refuse to sign up to ethical promotion of formula, that other companies have?
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Yup – that’s another reason for the ban in our household.
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same… so terrible they convince mothers that their formula is better for their babies than their breast milk in 3rd world countries where the breast milk contains so much nutrition that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get from other sources. very dodgy company!
Not to mention their deforestation in indonesia for palm oil!!!
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Im a strict vegetarian but I dont think calling someone hypocritical for not wanting to eat baby animals or for not being supportive of the choice to eat free range meat is helpful.
I hate telling new people Im a veg because some of them do assume that youre going to be shouty and judgemental, which for me just isnt the case.
My only complaint with being a vegetarian is that I wish we had more vegetarian friendly food in Aus and a better labelling system.
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Agreed! I don’t like the instant judgement that I get from a lot of people. Or the ‘hilarious’ jokes.
I agree with the labelling also, admittedly it took me a while to catch on to gelatine, rennet, cheese powder etc…
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ugh, i know, i went to the UK for christmas last year and was amazed at the giant range of stuff i could eat, as well as the fabulous labelling system, which meant i didn’t have to trawl through the ingredients list! so jealous of their veggie friendliness
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Well, I’m torn. I’m a huge animal lover having owned and loved a menagerie of pets in my lifetime. I support the RSPCA, humane treatment of all animals and feel sick to the pit of my stomach when I hear of animal cruelty eg, starving dogs, drowned cats, crippled horses, mulesing of lambs, live export of beef etc.
However…..I have leather handbags and shoes, my car has leather seats and I’m sure a tiny amount (I’m careful) of my cosmetics have been tested on animals. But I can’t deny I love the taste of meat, all meat and can’t really imagine my diet without it. Beef, chicken, duck, lamb, pork, fish, you name it. Draw the line at offal – ironic?
So what does that make me? I would LIKE to make the world a better place for these animals but don’t know how to get there.
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not be a psychologist and all… but I think at the moment, you’re separating animals/animal cruelty etc. to the steak that sits on your plate… I think to get your ideas around it, the documentry a while ago promoted on this site Food Inc. is really a good doco to watch to further understand where exactly meat comes from.
and I guess ultimately, start making the association between both, and the more you understand, the more you’ll base your decision making on.
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I recommend reading ‘Eating Animals’ by Jonathan Safran Foer also. Grab a copy from the library- I did and it was such an eye-opener and very well written.
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‘Earthings’ is another must see if you are having a crisis of conciousness on this issue. http://www.earthlings.com/
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Bravo for your honesty! A lot of vegetarians are very self rightious about their beliefs yet wear leather shoes and handbags.
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I am vego and don’t buy leather, have no problem with buying leather items from op shops though! the damage by that stage is done so might as well make sure it wasn’t for nothing!
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That’s how I feel about furs! I have some gorgeous ones from 20s-50s that used to be my grandmother’s.
But… you can’t always know or tell that you didn’t buy them new, so I think it can definitely look hypocritical
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Yes that’s true. I guess it’s about not caring what people might think and just being comfortable with your choices.
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Don’t start on mulesing Jenna, if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Better to be mulesed than to be fly blown & eaten alive by maggots.
Yes I did grow up in the country & yes I have seen sheep killed for meat, & fed poddy calfs, & milked cows, & helped load steers for the abbatoir.
I buy my meat locally, from a butcher, not a supermarket. All the animals are grass fed & hormone free.
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Cleo, you obviously know more than me. I just don’t like that it’s done without anaesthetic. But I totally understand that anaesthetic for 10,000 sheep at a time is probably expensive and hard to carry out. That’s the only bit about it I object to.
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too far! anaesthetic for sheep? at least it might give you a bit of a high when you eat it lol lol lol sorry Jenna, no offense, just striking how far the human race has come from its origins
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Whilst I also draw the line at anything with ‘baby’ in the description (unless it’s baby corn. love that stuff), I think political vegetarians are mostly hypocritical. not only do they mostly get around with dead animals on their feet (leather shoes etc), but do they really think that animals such as pigs would still be around today and have any life whatsoever if people didn’t farm them for meat? Seriously, who would feed them?
Animals eat other animals so why shouldn’t we?
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I think there are so many different types of vegos! Environmentalist vegos tend to eat no meat, but wear leather due to the pure fact that leather is a much more environmentally friendly option in comparison to much of the synthetic counter parts.
Vego for the purposes of religion, and cruelty related, tend to not touch anything animal related (like myself) – we wouldnt even eat gel coated panadols.
I guess it just depend on what you stand for really…
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‘Seriously, who would feed them?’
This is one of those strange questions that never made sense to me. Do we feed animals in the wild that we don’t farm? Does someone go and feed the lions, the monkeys, the flamingos?
So yes, pigs would be around. They’d just be living normal free lives like other animals in the wild.
Maybe it’s theoretically not so bad that we (not myself) eat animals. But it’s how they are treated before they die that is the real problem here.
Read ‘Eating Animals’ by Jonathan Safran Foer and you’ll understand.
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I disagree that pigs would still be around, even if no one fed them. The value of land, particularly in places such as the UK where there isn’t as much going around, means that any land holders would not want pigs on their land because of the destruction they would cause to the crops.
Don’t get me wrong, I love animals as much as any person, vegan, vegetarian or otherwise, and I could easily go with out eating meat as I can either take it or leave it in most circumstances, but I feel that most vegetarians I have come in contact with are morally smug, thinking that they are giving up this huge sacrifice because they are better people.
Providing animals are treated well in their life (and death) I really don’t think people who enjoy eating meat should feel they have to give it up in order to feel better about themselves.
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Given that there are actually pigs in the wild already, I choose to disagree with you here.
I am not smuig, nor do I go around preaching about morality. I make my choice as you make yours however I do tend to bear the brunt of more vitriol than omnivores. My dietary choices have been questioned far more times than I’ve questioned anyone elses. So again I disagree. If I am attacked for my choice I will retaliate, as would you, but I would never assume that I am a ‘better person’ than an omnivore. I ate meat for many years before becoming vegetarian and while I am mostly vegan now I still slip up. However I am comfortable in my choices and can look my dog and cats in the eye knowing that I place them in the same esteem as all animals. I don’t eat dogs for the same reason I don’t eat cows- I don’t feel it’s necessary, and I love animals and do not want them to come to harm.
No one is telling you to give up eating meat. But how do you know the meat you buy is ethically produced?
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do you feed your pets meat? Is it ethical to kill another animal to feed your pets? PETA would say you are keeping your pets prisoner and torturing them by denying them a free life.
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My dog frequently catches her own meat, usually rabbits and occasionally pigs (as they live in the wild, causing destruction to natural vegetation and crops). Are you suggesting that my dog’s instincts are unethical?
Try telling my dog she is free, to go live in the wild, no warm bed, no exciting human adventures to join in on, no tummy rubs – she would howl and whimper at the back door until I let her back in.
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I would say don’t listen to PETA.
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My pets are actually mostly vegetarian. They don’t eat a lot of meat but I will continue to feed it to them until I have done enough research on animal vegetarianism. It’s do-able however I will not let their health suffer in the meantime. They have different nutritional needs to humans.
On your other point- I have rescued all my animals who could otherwise be dead by now. You are bringing up ridiculous arguments now, in order to… what? Justify your reasons for eating meat? I am not trying to change your opinions, I am merely stating my own.
Why do so many omnivores get so upset by the mere mention of vegetarianism? We have to endlessly justify our choices and answer the standard questions (do you feed your pets meat? do you wear leather? what if you were stuck on a desert island with only animals to eat?) yet I have NEVER quizzed a meat-eater on their choices.
It gets tiring.
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It always seems like vegetarians are labelled “morally smug” when others who fight for different kinds of rights are not. For example, am I morally smug if I object to racism or prejudice in any form? Am I morally smug if I object to child abuse?
Seems like on this page, the vegetarians calmly put their point, and others are the ones reacting so strongly, and sometimes meanly.
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you have a strange vision….. i see plenty of vegos attacking meat-eaters here! and i believe you have been told off for being aggressive already…
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Hi Charlie’s Mama. Maybe I do have a strange vision. Maybe we should count up the comments that are “attacking” either meateaters or vegetarians. have to say I can find plenty of assertive vego comments saying what they find unethical about meateatING, but not many saying that meateatERS are horrible, murdering, bloodsuckers. On the other hand, there are many, many comments saying that to take an ethical stance towards meateating – rather than just saying it’s fine to do as you choose – is “lecturing” “shouty” etc.. Often from people who express quite moralistic “shouty” views on other topics. Seems like it’s the meateaters who are quite sensitive, claiming we are somehow damaging our children if we don’t provide them with meat until they can decide for themselves. If that’s the only damage I do to my child in this life, I will be a very happy woman.
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I think linking a debate about the ethics of eating younger animals and likening it in any way to child abuse is a little sensationalistic and insulting to those have been abused.
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I did not in any way compare it to child abuse. It is two examples of having a moral stance. Charlie’s mama calls what I wrote above agressive – what is aggressive about it? I simply disagree with what has been said in the original comment about vegetarians being morally smug.
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…….. this is too much for a vego to read….. but its something that has been known for a long time… unfortunately… many still don’t know what most of those things are.
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‘We’- as humans (I am vegan), only eat meat & consume animal products because we are conditioned to!
I think that if people want to eat an animal they should have to kill it themselves. I’m sure this would certainly convert many a carnivore!
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Not this one – I have done so.
I do think you have a point though, if you want to eat meat, you should be prepared to kill it yourself, otherwise it probably is pretty hypocritical.
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“only eat meat and consume animal products because we are conditioned to”: really? Are we not naturally omnivore? Were we not naturally programed to eat meat AND vegetables/fruit? Are you saying the human race used to only eat vegetarian food? However, it does ring true to me that if we eat meat we should be prepared to face an animal being killed for that purpose, whether we do it ourselves or somebody else does it for us. I respect your choice as a vegan but to say that humans are defying nature by eating meat is a bit far fetched to me!
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Eating any type of sentiment being is not on. There are so many choices on what to eat without resorting to eating any animal of fish. I am a vegetarian and i am always spoilt for choice on what to eat. It helps that i live in Melbourne where there is an abundunce of choice.
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In Australia we are spoilt for choice as vegetarians!!!
My Vegan sister has been travelling the world for the last 5 years and still says we are the best.
She had to revert to vegetarianism in Canada because her diet and body were suffering too much! But could manage (just) in Ireland… go figure!
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What’s weird about being able to manage in Ireland? (if you don’t mind me asking…)
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I didn’t say it was weird. I simply said… go figure. To Elaborate:
I just thought that considering Canada’s proximity to the US might mean that they would have more vegetarian products and resources.
They are also both 1st world countries where you would think a vegetarian/vegan diet would be well provided for.
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Okay. Thanks. I just wondered
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I was thinking about the abundance of potatoes
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The RSPCA has a website full of where you can buy humanely treated meat! I won’t eat lamb until Mulesing is stopped.
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Mulesing is a tricky issue. The alternative is fly-blow, which is the most horrible, painful, cruel death you can possibly imagine.
Farmers mules their lamb out of their care and concern for them and their welfare (as well as the bottom line- if all your lambs die you dont’ sell any), and lacking a viable alternative in the past, they reckoned that a brief period of pain weighs up against a long, slow agonising death. There is now a viable alternative in the form of anaesthetic sprays, which many producers now use and (I believe) are legislated to be mandatory within a few years. I would encourage anyone to try and buy lamb (if they choose to eat it) from farms currently using the anaesthetic sprays if they are concerned about this issue.
Mulesing is unfortunately one of those topics that is easy to misunderstand, especially when you see inflammatory images and advertising from the likes of PETA etc, as P!nk found out when she initially supported a ban on Australian wool clothing etc., then after accepting an offer to hear from farmers and do her own research (something I greatly admire her for), she retracted her PETA-sponsored comments on the ban.
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Sheep that are mulesed are wool sheep NOT meat sheep. I don’t mind your stance but I do believed it needs to be an informed one.
My family farm breeds both wool and meat sheep, meat sheep are crossbreds, which are naturally plain bodied sheep which means they don’t have wrinkles, thus no wrinkles (particularly around their rear end) means no need to mules as they don’t have the folds of skin where flies can burrow in and lay their eggs.
On the other hand wool sheep are merinos and they have wrinkled bodies, including around their rear end and thus require mulesing to prevent flystrike.
If you still chose not to eat lamb given this information then that’s ok however don’t make your reason mulesing.
This is an important distinction – not all sheep need mulesing, only the wrinkly ones.
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I’ve been a lifelong meat lover until I spent some time on Scotland’s Isle of Skye in the middle of lambing season…those lambs acted like puppies!! They cried for their mums and played together and seeing them act so much like our dogs at home really put into perspective for me that they were living creatures, many destined for dining tables. I said to my partner “I don’t think I can eat lamb anymore”, which he totally understood. Within a couple of months I’d gone from not eating lamb to not eating any meat – it’s now 2 years later and I’m a proud vegetarian, mostly for environmental/health reasons but also because I can still see those lambs crying for their mummies across the field. Not a vegan though – I can’t imagine my life without cheese!
I don’t think it’s super hypocritical to not eat veal but eat other types of meat, or to not eat meat but use leather (which I do) – every action, no matter how small, has to be seen to be making the world a better place. We can’t all do everything but if we all do something it’s a start, right?
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I agree completely. I have been a pescatarian for about 12 months now. I still have leather shoes and bags, but avoid eating meat. I eat eggs, but only buy organic free range from businesses who don’t also provide cage eggs. I only purchase humanely treated meat for my family to eat. I also avoid using a tumble dryer to reduce energy consumption, but still do drive my car. I don’t feel as though I can do everything, but if everyone was just a little more careful, the world would be a different place, whether you’re talking about cruelty to animals, sustainability, etc.
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It’s probably okay to still have your leather bags/shoes from your pre-vego days; it would be hypocritical only if you continue to buy them after becoming vegetarian. If you have already purchased it, you may as well get full use out of it.
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I don’t eat meat for a whole range of reasons, although to simplify it when people ask why I’m vegetarian I just say ‘I can’t stand the thought of eating the flesh of another animal’. While I originally became vegetarian because of the very fact meat was once an animal (I was very young), my reasoning behind my decision is much more complex. For one, something seems wrong (to me) that something else should die so I can eat, when there are plant alternatives that will sustain me just the same. I also do it for health reasons to some extent. While humans are omnivores, the average Western diet contains far, far more animal products than humans are actually supposed to consume. There’s also the environmental considerations. Something I only really considered recently, but that I consider very important, is also the humanitarian side. If the land devoted to animals and their feed were instead devoted to grain for human consumption, much more people would be able to be fed. I know that’s a simplistic answer and won’t solve world hunger, but it’s something to consider.
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Ugh, I get what you’re saying about the veal. Call me a mushroom but I had never even considered where veal came from until a German colleague informed me and I promptly started crying at my desk.
It goes without saying I have never gone near veal since!
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Why do we have teeth that can eat meat?…just wondering
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Because if we had to survive without supermarkets we would eat whatever we could get our hands on just to live and wouldn’t be too choosy. We are soooo lucky.
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we don’t! ‘Meat eaters’ have sharp front teeth for ripping flesh and no flat molar teeth for grinding.
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Well, in fact we do have ripping teeth, they’re just diminished in size compared to other omnivorous primates.
But strictly speaking teeth don’t really ‘eat’ anything, they’re just a lazy bunch of masticaters.
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We’re predators Meg. We have eyes in the front of our heads, we curl up & sleep for long periods at night – ever seen a prey animal do that?
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Uh huh – and when was the last time you went hunting? Just because we might be built with certain capacities, doesn’t mean we have to use them in every situation.
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I have two pointy ‘canine’ teeth at the front, which somewhat remind me of vampire teeth, I find them quite helpful when ripping into a steak!
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Rather than the age, you should be concerned about the quality of life the animals you are eating had.
Considering how some animals are farmed, I’d rather be a suckling pig on the table than an old sow being bred in rotten conditions (which are legal in Australia).
(OK so I wouldn’t actually want to be a suckling pig on a dinner table, but I’m sure you get my drift!).
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If God didn’t want us to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them out of meat
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what a ridiculous comment!
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comment of the day LOL
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As a christian, I have to say… ROFL.
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wow i hope that was a joke
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Thank you, Homer Simpson.
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“You don’t make friends with salad”
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I’m not sure what the difference is between eating a baby or a mother (or father). I understand emotionally babies are cuter and haven’t “had a life”, but neither do caged pigs or factory chickens. Just because something isn’t cute doesn’t mean it should be killed! I don’t eat dead (or live!) animals. Its not my place to participate in the death of animal for my eating pleasure.
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Exactly what I was thinking, Catriona.
There is an inherent hypocrisy about this, just like the protests against live exports. I mean come on, whether they’re slaughtered overseas or here it’s still just as bad, though i guess exporting them alive stresses them out even more.
Even “free range” meat still requires killing an innocent animal.
People are against animal testing but happily tuck into a steak or roast for dinner.
There is no logic.
-veggie to stay
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I agree with your point about the ‘cute’ factor of baby animals, but have taken it to the other direction I’m afraid. If someone is ok with eating meat (and I am), I think it’s hypocritical for them to differentiate between ‘cute’ and not cute animals. Some people won’t eat a calf or lamb but are fine about eating it when it’s only months older, and dogs and cats aren’t eaten in this country because they’re ‘cute’.
For me, the important thing is whether the animal was humanely treated, and so I buy free range and organic meat and eggs.
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Meat is meat. Young or Old.
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That’s the most sense I’ve seen from a comment on here today.
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Quail is just a small bird that doesn’t fly. Not a chick (baby). They are basically just like a mini chook.
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And they are delicious… especially with spices or salt and dried mmm
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I haven’t eaten veal since I was about 13 and found out what veal was and how they were treated when alive. I don’t really have a problem with other people who eat it, that’s their choice, but I was a little shocked when my partners mum who is a nature, health and environmental consciousness nut (we lovingly call her a hippy, to which she agrees) ordered veal at a restaurant one night.
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I recently found out that to get veal, baby cows are pulled away from their mothers after birth, shoved in a tiny space so they can’t exercise their muscles and are fed special liquids all day to tenderise their flesh. What a (short) life hey? I wish people cared more about stopping this then filling their stomachs with flesh.
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not all are shoved in a ‘tiny corner’
most have a paddock to run and play in with the other billy’s. they are initially bottle fed, when they are older they are given a bucket of milk to drink from.
don’t generalise one bad farming practice to all of them please.
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mmmmmm….. yum. veal schnitty is the best!
i have no ethical problem with eating adult forms of meat, so why should I worry about the young ones?
There is something just a teeny hypocritical about refusing to eat young animals for ethical reasons but continuing to eat older meat.
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Exactly!! It’s not an ethical argument, more of a personal one.
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For me it’s their treatment more than their age. Most veal cattle are kept in tiny hutches or stalls so they cannot move around in order to prevent development of their muscles so they are more tender.
I think there are a lot of animal treatment issues that are easier for us to be ignorant of. And it really is easier to be ignorant. We’re all guilty of it.
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This is a misconception, in Australia at least. See the RSPCA site :http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-veal_273.html
The system of calf production where calves spend their entire lives in individual crates with solid wooden sides that do not allow the animal to turn around or express natural behaviours, are not used in Australia.
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thankyou sarah! I hate how so many people think australia’s meat is farmed the same as the US or UK!!
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Anyone interested in reading about meat production (uh, that sounds so clinical), The Ethics Of What We Eat by Peter Singer was certainly an eye opener. I read it a couple of years ago and while I still eat meat (though much less and I now buy organic/free range when our single-income budget allows), it definetly gave me a graphic idea of what my choice means.
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Yes, Peter Singer’s,’The Ethics of What We Eat” was defiantly an eye opener. I too only eat ethically family grown organic or free range meat on the occasion that I do eat meat. I was vegetarian and tried to explain to my grandfather that I didn’t eat anything with a face, when he offered me a prawn. He responded with “oh for god’s sake love, you take the face off”!
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Only the other night as we ate our “meat on a handle” aka Lamb cutlets, my 4 year old who thinks everything is chicken actually asked what the meat was. After I told him it was lamb and then some strange looks across the table my 6 year old said, “they should just call it sheep ’cause they wouldn’t kill and eat the baby lambs.” Hmmm, made me think! I really didn’t want to have that conversation especially as I had been enjoying my dinner till then!
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Oh I totally get that conversation! My 4yo son was asking about meat the other night too. It really made me stop and think. I am personally OK with eating meat and I do TRY and souce it responsibly but sometimes that’s just not possible or affordable. It’s hard for a 4yo, who is naturally curious, to wonder why we eat cows and pigs and lambs but not dogs and cats and horses….
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Plenty of people have no problem eating dogs and cats and horses. It’s just not done in Australia. It really makes you think, doesn’t it. What’s good for one grosses out another.
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We probably don’t eat cats & dogs because they eat meat themselves. We don’t generally eat horses because they’re more use to us as a form of transport – even now when it’s a leisure activity/sport. Apparantly, if early man hadn’t figured out how to ride them, they would have been hunted to extinction.
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I think a lot of what we do and don’t eat date back to Leviticus in the Bible (the chapter that tells Jews they can’t have shellfish), is quite prescriptive about what types of animals people were and were not allowed to eat (eg, no badgers!)
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you could tell them that cats are hard to herd and that dogs can run quite fast. That’s what I did!
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It’s a little hypocritical to be sensitive about eating baby animals when you eat adult animals with no concerns. What exactly is the “ethical” difference there? Just the cute factor. Why is it more ethical to wait until the baby has stopped suckling than to just it eat straight away? In the meat industry animals are deprived of all sorts of aspects of their usual development – staying with the parent as long as they would usually, staying inside in small pens (yes, in Australia, the wide brown land), and all sorts of other manipulations. Not to mention the cruelties that are just built into the transport and slaughtering industries because those of you who eat meat are not prepared to pay higher prices for decent treatment of the animals.
Interesting that those who campaign for action on climate change are often not prepared to even countenance refraining from meat – a major contributor to the greenhouse effect with massive land clearing being done to grow the crops for the cattle to eat so that you can eat the cattle. It would be much better if we ate the crops ourselves – and shared them with those who don’t have enough to eat – rather than feed it to methane farting cows. Yet those vegetarians who point this out are still lambasted as loonies.
I wonder if the mass of people who go on about the effects of an “overpopulated” world are prepared to stop eating meat? Somehow, it seems unlikely.
The sheer scale of the meat industry, and seafood industries is having massive deleterious effects on our natural environment.
You cringe at eating babies, but where is the leather from your bag and shoes from? Your purse. Your belt. Your car seats…… As is so often the case, making a “stand” on one tiny thing (not eating babies) somehow makes people seem ethical and reasonable to themselves, whilst the rest of life goes unexamined and unchallenged.
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I agree… How is eating babies worse than eating adults? My best friend won’t eat veal for this reason (ethical) but will happily eat a big juicy steak… I am a proud meat lover and eat everything… I really love suckling pig… But I do agree about this strange hypocrisy!
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Hmm, part of me wishes I could go vegetarian, but I can’t deny I am a meat lover. I agree that the word suckling is not terribly appetising. When I was a kid mum made veal schnitzel and that night I ended up throwing up. Have never eaten veal again. Not exactly an ethical stance.
Was pretty urked by the Lateline story on the chicken factory last night though.
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Hi Yos, I didn’t see the Lateline story, but I live near, very near, a chicken factory. The trucks drive past that deliver the chickens, they are semis stacked high with plastic crates, like the ones that hold the bread at supermarkets. The poor chickens are squashed in, with legs and beaks and wings hanging out of the crates. I’d hate to see what happens when they arrive at the factory for processing.
I only buy free-range eggs, I think it’s time to start buying only free-range chickens.
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You can also buy free-range ham.
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I do buy free range chicken and bacon, I love bacon. The thing that concerned me was that it was the processing plant for a particular chicken company that I patronise (free range too), among others. The story was actually about migrant workers being abused for basically slave labor in this place, so not about the way the chickens are treated. The stories of abuse was bad enough for me to not want to buy anything from this one company again though.
There was some hidden camera footage of the workers with the chickens. Wasn’t too graphic at all really, but enough to make me not want to see more.
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I’m not a vegetarian..but rather a person who is conscious about what meat they eat?
I don’t eat veal or lamb or pork
But, I do eat chicken and beef – only sometimes. Usually its veggie dishes for me, maybe once or twice a week i’ll have chicken or beef or something.
I usually only eat beef if its ‘hidden’ does that make sense? In spaghetti bolognaise or something.
Hmmm….but yeah, NEVER eat veal, lamb, pork or quail or anything else like that. My boyfriend has quail all the time and ugh, makes me sick
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Hahaha I read the caption under Claire’s photo as ‘Claire Winton BURN’
…as in ‘Claire I hope you burn in hell’ – was thinking geezuz Mia, a little harsh..
Silly me. Didn’t realise it was her last name.
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Mmmmm. Veal. Nom nom nom.
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Have a look at Alicia Silverstone’s site, The kind Life. Only yesterday she did a post of a huge veal farm (in the US) which showed a secret recording of the (totally inhumane) treatment of the calves.
Yes, I eat meat (not veal), but I try my best to ensure it comes from a humane producer.
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There is still no logic in “human producer”. They deliberately breed/bring into this world an animal, what pat it on the head a few times and feed it nicer food only to still kill it? It’s not humane at all, merely a way of justifying that it is.
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I was raised a vegan and am now a vegetarian, as i introduced eggs into my diet (mainly in cakes etc) but thats the extent of animal products i will eat. I never preach to anyone or suggest they do anything in their lives differently on any subject, i believe live your own life; but vegetarianism is THE ONLY thing i would suggest people do. The animal had a life and was slaughtered in probably inhumane ways. how can anyone continue to eat animals when they do a little research from farm to plate?
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i hear ya Mia. i know it’s kind of irrational that i do eat meat but will not eat veal. but there you go. i also will not eat foie gras. no thanks!
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Nothing irrational about it, veal’s a pathetic device for allowing people to eat meat if they don’t like the taste or texture of it, I don’t know why they bother and I don’t touch the stuff personally — if an animal’s died for my dinner it’d better make a decent course.
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I am an omnivore, I eat both white and red meat and go out of my way to source locally grown produce, organic if possible. I do however draw the line at eating shark (ie: flake, shark fin sushi or soup) – despite the fact I’m most of the way through a marine biology degree, its doesn’t take a degree to realise that populations of ALL shark species are in serious decline with some population ecologists predicting local extinctions of certain species within our lifetimes!!! Seriously Alarming!!!
Fish stocks are also under enormous pressure and if possible, I try and source fish that has been caught in a sustainable manner – longline fishing is atrocious, prawn trawling totally destroys benthic (bottom of the ocean) habitats and in some countries, they still use cyanide to poison fish – which are then served to clueless travellers…
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I first became vegetarian when I was 6, much to my parents dismay. I think it was because I felt very sorry for chickens like my chook Brownie. Eventually I was coaxed back into meat when I was 8, but I still only ate tiny amounts of beef, rarely at that!
When I was 13 I found out that I’m anemic and I also got two pet lambs that I raised from the bottle, the whole concept of meat disgusted me so despite my low iron I became vegetarian again. And joined animal welfare groups and signed petitions. After a while my supplements weren’t working, so now I eat a small amount of beef about once weekly if that. For other anemic people: I’ve heard that parsley is rich in iron.
Thankyou for this powerful message!
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I never understand why parents force meat upon their children. For me it’s like religion- when I have children they can decide for themselves.
Children (and adults) can lead healthy lives as vegetarians or vegans, it’s merely about educating yourself. This is not a dig at you anon 15, a few people have a genuine medical problem absorbing it but stick with it. At least you’re trying your hardest and doing what you think is right, and THAT is whats important!
Always remember that iron is more easily absorbed when consimed with vitamin C, so eating your leafy greens with a glass of orange juice will help, for example. And broccoli is a great source of both. This may help!- http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm
If you eat your 2&5 each day and get a wide variety of vegies and pulses it makes all the difference.
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Does orange juice still help you absorb iron when there’s vodka in it?
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Thanks! I’ll be sure to try your suggestions. Vegan recipes are also very useful.
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I grew up in a rural environment, and was under no illusions where the meat on my table came from. I then worked as a vet nurse and volunteered in wildlife care and rescue, so I believe I could definitely be classed as an animal lover, and… I eat meat. Yes, even baby meat.
I do, however, buy organic, and only buy ethically sourced meat (free-range, well-treated, humanely-slaughterd animals ). It makes it very expensive, but it simply means we eat less meat per week than the average family. When you think about it, 50 years ago, meat was a once-a-week treat.
I don’t have an ethical problem with eating meat (despite a teenage phase of vegetarianism that left me ill and fainting all the time), I do believe humans are omnivores and designed to need a certain amount of meat in our diets, but I do have an ethical problem with battery farms, sow stalls, and inhumanely produced animal products of any sort.
Eat meat, but respect it.
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Well said! Your post is me in a nut shell.
I too went vego for a few years in high school (much to my farmer dad’s distress) but the real reason was that being at boarding school – the vego meal was really the only meal worth eating…
I now only buy organic meat which as you said is expensive but I would prefer to pay good money for good meat.
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Good for you, but not for the animal.
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vego was the way to go at my boarding school too!
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Genuine question: how do you know if it’s ethical meat?
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It can be tricky. Usually, organic free-range foods are the best bet.
I buy my lamb, chicken and eggs direct from the farm via a local Farmer’s Market. I’ve talked to the people who raise the animals, and checked they have appropriate accreditation (certified organic, etc.
I buy pork, sausages and beef from my local Wray Organics store, they pride themselves on the “traceability” of their food, they know where it comes from, how it was raised and slaughtered, they even know the producers name usually!
The beauty of this is the food is also local, with very few ‘food miles’.
In a pinch, I’ll buy from a supermarket, but I’ll buy the organic range, hoping that this means it’s also been ethically treated.
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Baby animals are cute! That’s why I don’t like eating veal. Plus it tastes weird. I do feel better if the animal I am eating has had ‘life experience’. I don’t think that’s wishy washy or ‘self-righteous’. It’s not really for ethical reasons it’s just I think they’re cute and they should get to wander around eating grass in the sun for a while before they die.
I buy RSPCA tick free range eggs, and eat mostly fish, chicken, and beef. I like lamb, but I feel guilty after I eat it.
Oh well. I try to think of it as.. if we humans didn’t have the resources/technology/whatever to be able to buy our meat from the shops, then I would be prepared to go out and kill me a cow and stick it in my freezer. Probably after much screaming and sobbing.
As long as the animals have a good life before I eat them I’m ok with it.
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How do you know they had a good life before you ate them??
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And that just because it has the RSPCA tick it’s okay. “free range is becoming a joke with the major egg manufacturers all they do is still increase the cages but there isn’t any humanity to it at all.
if you want real free range eggs get them in the country from a local small farm who have afew chooks roaming around
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Or if you have a backyard set up a coop and have a couple of girls of your own!
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No I’m not cool with eating baby animals and haven’t done in about a decade!!
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We often have this discussion at the dinner table with our 9 and 10 year old, who love trying all sorts of food, but struggle at times when they think about where it came from. They have only ever refused goat (in Dubai earlier this year) in respect to their pet Charlie back at home. They looked at the meat on the plate and saw his gorgeous blue eyes.
I must admit to feeling a little wrong when eating lamb chops at the in laws, when I know they had been running around the paddock not all that long ago.
I take it Mia that we should not send in any Veal recipes for you to cook for us in the kitchen
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I care about animals, i get sickened by cases of extreme animal cruelty but…. i eat meat. Its the natural food chain, and as cute as little lambs and calves are, i dont find myself weeping for them when i eat. Maybe some of you think that makes me harsh, but thats how it is.
I like meat, i eat meat, but i like fruit and vegies too. Just think of me as an equal opportunity eater…
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part of the ‘natural food chain’ does not include mass production of animals purely for consumption. You are deluded if you think humans are part of the natural food chain. The respect for animals has long passed whereby they are now only considered a commodity. Equal opportunity eater? Ha! Not a chance for those animals -many of them have never had even the opportunity to be with it’s mother for a short time. In the words of Steve Irwin: ‘The only animal Im afraid of is humans”..
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what was his position on creatures of the sea?
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Tara, i said eating meat is part of the natural food chain – i didnt say that cruel methods of ” harvesting ” that meat is. Since the dawn of humankind, man have been both “hunters ” and ” gatherers “…. its just that the hunting has gone out of the equation. I’m not saying i agree totally with that notion, however thats how the world has evolved.
Oh, and i think you missed the point of the ” equal opportunity eater ” bit…. it was more a nod to the fact that i, like most humans, am an omnivore. I’m not some rabid, carnivorous, feral human, nor am i a strict vegan…thus the ” equal opportunity “. Don’t take everything so seriously…
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the world evolves through conscious choice. We are not victims of circumstance – we create our circumstances. We as humans can choose not to commodotise animals purely for consumption. That’s the beauty of being human – we make choices. Choose to eat a baby animal, an old animal, it really doesnt make a difference, but how does it feel in your conscience that a choice you’ve made has caused a baby and mother distress?
Im sorry I get passionate about this stuff..
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I agree with you Perle – one of the beauties of humanity IS choice and free will. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that the farming and “harvesting ” of livestock and animals was ok, and a majority of the population chose to go along with it. Now a lot of people are deciding that its not ok, and are trying to do something about it. Thats a good thing.
However, as others have said, meat is meat. No, it doesnt particularly sit well with me knowing i’ve caused ” a mother and baby distress “. That is, when i sit and dwell on it. I choose not to dwell on it – i dont particularly like that some farmed animals are not treated all that well, and i do try to buy humanely farmed meat, free range etc, but when it comes down to it i ( and billions of other humans ) am going to eat the animal whether it has lived its whole life in a shed or was allowed to roam free.
The choise i’m making is to use meat, a natural food source for a lot of animals ( and when it comes down to it, humans ARE animals too ) to keep myself and my family healthy…
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Since when are fish and invertebrates not considered animals? Fish may be tasty but they do not die in a humane manner when we harvest them. And an octopus has a more complex nervous system than a cow. And is more intelligent.
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I think the argument for eating fish but not ‘meat’ generally stems from the idea that fish don’t feel pain, at least not to the degree other animals do. That’s what I’ve heard via vegetarian friends over the years anyway
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I think its just something we tell ourselves to make eating meat easier. But i doubt that the fish dying of suffocation would think that its a truly “humane” death. I think what is more important is that we TRULY understand what has to happen to get those little pre-packaged trays of steak and mince into our supermarkets. Once we do understand we might treat it with respect in our own homes. I mean we as a nation throw out so much wasted food into landfill- is that really ‘ethical’? Or is it just easier to make someone else grow it ethically so we can throw away the left over roast in the fridge.
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Oh I agree – it’s disgusting the amount of waste we produce just from food alone. I’ve recently gotten a worm farm up and running, and have some compost bins being set up this weekend (I’ve wanted both for a while but had to wait for us to move house) and even just from the worm farm it’s stunned me how much fruit and vegie waste we have that would have been going straight into landfill, and that’s just from the fresh produce. I’ve often thought wasting food is such a shooting-ourselves-in-the-foot thing anyway, I mean, we as consumers have paid money for it, why throw it in the bin?! And that’s all before we even think about the animals/crops/water/food miles that have been wasted.
Oooh side note, but man I am now craving a left-over-roast-meat sandwich for lunch
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Fish weren’t considered ‘flesh’ by the Catholic Church for its fasting rules in Lent because there is no blood.
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And frogs were once considered fish and were eaten during lent. Fish have blood- frogs are not fish. To eat both requires a creatures death. I’m not too sure what your point is?
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Has a Catholic ever sliced open a fish? Eating a fish is more cruel than eating a lamb. Suffocation vs quick slaughter. Also so much prettier than a lamb.
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Ah yes- but lambs are cute and warmblooded. Very hard to get emotionally attached to a fish. Its not like you can hug them and relate to them. Therefore they feel no pain because we cant recognise their pain signals.
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That’s really interesting! THanks Angelica.
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Having spent a sizeable chunk of my childhood on the land, I can honestly say I like my animals on and off the table, large and small. That said, I’m not crazy about things that come to the table with eyes because it creeps me out.
Ethically I’m fine with my choice, and your choice is yours. I respect that, and I know you’ve got vegetarian rising. But for the sake of discussion, to say you won’t eat ‘baby’ anything is a hyper-emotional argument that makes no sense, especially if you’re happy to eat adult animals.
Is it better for us or for them to have had life experience before we slaughter them? I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever.
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I think another thing you have to realise is that in the case of veal- these animals are usually the unwanted male calves of the dairy industry. Its the glass of milk that you have each day that put these calves on plates. As one dairy farmer I know said- if you drink milk then you should also eat veal because its a by product of the industry.
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I am vegan and while I don’t begrudge people of their choice to eat meat, I do have a problem with the way meat is produced in the modern world. We eat far too much of it! And as our demand for meat continues to increase, it puts pressure on the farmers to pump out more animals. The result? Disgusting, disease-ridden and completely inhumane factory farms. If we were allowed to see inside a factory farm, most of us would be vegan. Eating meat from these farm (which is pretty much ALL the meat on the market including free-range) is bad for us, bad for the environment and unnecessarily cruel to the animals. I wrote an interesting post on my blog on this topic last week: http://thewellnesswarrior.blogspot.com/2010/10/meatrix.html
Sorry to come across as a raging vegan, but the more I learn about this stuff the more I feel that everyone has the right to know where there meat comes from and what is really in it.
Jess (The Wellness Warrior – http://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au)
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I agree and I don’t think you should apologise. You’re stating facts. It’s time people understood and made a conscious decision about the logic of their decisions.
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I agree with some other posts that said that meat is meat, regardless of age. Why take a stand and not eat young animals but still eat the older ones who could have had any number of traumatic experiences in their lifetime.
Sows don’t even get to move in their entire lifetime, they’re stuck in stalls that are just big enough to fit them. And they have to be reproducing and lactating pretty much all year. Would you like it if you had to carry a child every year with a 10 day turnaround after having the child?
‘Free range’ chickens, depending on the farm, sometimes only means that a small percentage of the chickens/hens on the farm are allowed outside. I had to do a research report on a free range farm and we saw that only a couple hundred out of the thousands of animals on the farm were allowed outside because the more dominant animals wouldn’t let the others out. The ones outside looked moderately ok but we weren’t allowed inside to see the condition of the other animals (who would be subjected to aggression by the dominant animals).
Both pasture fed and grain fed beef cows develop illnesses and injuries in either system.
Dairy cows have to be lactating pretty much all year.
How about some sympathy for all these animals who can think and feel pain?
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http://veganeasy.org/Recipes
This has some really good recipes (you can make them vegetarian if you don’t want to buy non-animal products).
The roasted vegetable lasagne is amazing.
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