Comments due by 11:59pm Sunday, November 3, 2013.
In this post I want to direct your attention to some recent and relevant articles in the popular media (in addition to one a few years old now) as well as a webpage hosted by the the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
This article was just published by The Washington Post on Tuesday, October 29th. It is entitled "USDA plan to speed up poultry-processing lines could increase risk of bird abuse." (Note that it is a 3-page article. Be sure to click on pages 2 and 3 when reading the article.)
Here's a graphic that accompanies that WP article. It is entitled "For birds on the slaughter line, two ways to die."
Speaking of being boiled alive, here's a report that came out in The Huffington Post this past August 8th. The report is entitled "Lobsters, Crabs Feel Pain, Don't Just Respond to Stimulus: Research."
Back to birds: This report from a few years ago identifies a different way millions of baby chicks die.
Finally, here's that page from the Animal Legal Defense Fund entitled "Animal Testing and the Law".
Read all of these brief articles carefully. What strikes you in each? What implications (if any) does any of this have for our common social practices? Be sure to interact with each other as you think together about these relevant and practical moral issues.
P.S. Here's a reason to ban hunting! (This was reported on Friday, October 25th.)
In each article the point that animals are used specifically for human pleasure without the consideration of the animals own pain is illuminated. For example, in the article "USDA plan to speed up poultry-processing lines could increase risk of bird abuse" the author displays how only the speed of the processing and how many bird carcasses are produced is cared about and the pain the animals endure is completely ignored. The USDA doesn’t even consider this to be inhumane, thus they will continue to encourage human gain and animal loss, instead of gain for all species.
ReplyDeleteThis point continues in the graphic “For birds on the slaughter line, two ways to die”. This displays that the process of killing birds isn’t strict and companies can basically do whatever they want to the birds and they won’t have to pay any consequences for it. This causes procedures to be so quick that if they are not hung right they are boiled alive. The pleasure for human life overrules the morality of caring for other living beings.
Even in the next article, "Lobsters, Crabs Feel Pain, Don't Just Respond to Stimulus: Research”, humans knowingly cause lobsters and crabs pain. Science has discovered that lobsters avoid things that cause pain, thus they can feel pain. However, even while knowing this, humans cut them apart while they are still alive and then continue to boil them alive. Humans don’t care about the pain they cause to animals, just the great meal they will have later.
The pain animals endure is not just in a few instances, but also throughout the entire United States. Painkillers are too expensive for making a huge profit and slow processing is too time consuming for the number of animals they plan on killing. Humans in today’s society completely ignore the pain they impose on animals and only think about their own pleasure. Our common social practices have transformed from what they used to be into a selfish way of life that ignores everyone but ones self.
Mollie Backode
In regards to speeding up factory lines in chicken slaughter, I think that whenever people speed anything up there becomes more room for error. Animals are not machines. They are a lot more unpredictable and their movements do not always allow them to be killed instantaneously. It is a mistake to further increase the speed at which any animal is killed because that will only lead to more abuse.
ReplyDeleteThe chickens were already being slaughtered at 140 per minute--so there's less than a second to kill each one. Is that not fast enough?
I also do not see how speeding up line speed would decrease the amounts of pathogens in the meat. Common sense would say that if you move faster, more accidents can happen, so a higher chance of food infection could occur. How would going faster decrease pathogens anyway?
As for the crabs and lobsters, I would not be surprised if they feel pain. It is safer to assume an animal feels pain than not. That way you cause less harm.
--Monica T
Well from the readings I understand that they want to increase the speed of poultry slaughter which I think is fine just making sure the birds are dead before they are put in scolding water. By paying attention to how the birds are put into the shackles there would be less birds boiled alive and then wasting money because they are no longer able to be processed since the blood is now infused in the meat.
ReplyDeleteNow for the chicks I think that is morally wrong. Us humans have no right in to say what animals can and cannot be slaughtered and just thrown away. These chicks are truly being treated inhumane and shouldn't be. By grinding the male chicks alive should not even be tolerated and there should be a stop to it. These baby chicks have nothing wrong with them they just won't grow to potential size and cost the factory money. My opinion they are spending more money by grinding these chicks alive and just letting some of them suffer after getting washed and ending up on the floor of the factory!
There is no question that these animals should be put through this type of treatment. They all have their rights and deserve to get the very best out of what they deserve and not live such a short life or being harmed throughout their life and live with chronic pain.
~Tara J
It amazes me how many chickens are still alive when they are being scolded into the water and even through any of the processes. I do feel that speeding up the process is just going to result in more chickens not being killed properly. I feel like instead of them speeding things up they need to maybe think about slowing things down a little bit? by slowing things down and giving things more thought would benefit the animals being slaughtered. it would ensure more that the animals are not feeling anything and better yet not alive when going through the process. I don't understand however how some animals can be protected to a certain point and others not protected at all. I do think that lobsters and such can feel pain. they obviously have some kind of nerve impulses or they wouldn't be able to move different body parts. I feel sad when I read about how people treat animals like they are just to useless. I think some things need to start to change.
ReplyDeleteChelsea M.
The introductory statistic of the 825,000 chickens being boiled alive each year is simply inexcusable. If the slaughter houses are reporting that huge amount of error at the slower speed, then what right do they have to want to speed the process up? I'm sure we have all seen the episode of "I Love Lucy" where they are required to sort a certain number of chocolates into boxes. At first, the two women were completing the task with fewer errors. As the belt sped up, there were many chocolates flying by and they were unable to keep up with the high speed. The same principal applies to this case. I agree completely when Mollie states that this new bill is only being passed to increase productivity and to completely ignore the animals' rights simply to put more money in the factories' pockets. It is absolutely insane to think that the problem of boiling chickens alive is not going to increase whatsoever. The normal worker simply cannot keep up with the amount of chickens missing the knife. These animals are giving their lives up for our food. The least we could do is to show them a clean and painless death instead of gruesome torture that many endure.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the article about lobsters being boiled alive before they are placed on the dinner plate, the research is starting to turn the tables on the current beliefs. The fact that they lobsters prefer a abode that does not shock them does mean that they feel something. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the sensation is pain. In fact, the fact they move away from the shock could be simply because the sensation is more of an annoyance than pain. Any good scientist would not jump to conclusions on this until all of the facts were clear. In my opinion, the evidence on the fact that lobsters feel pain is inconclusive.
Lastly, the testing of animals in laboratories is honestly pointless; especially for pharmaceuticals. There are so many variables that are different in animals' bodies compared to human bodies. Many of the drug interactions target specific human transcription factors and will not work on animals simply because their genetic makeups are different. I agree that in vitro experimentation is far more efficient and it actually uses human cells. The results of the interaction can be reliable because the cells are human. The fact that animals are subjected to this torture is completely unethical because not only are the animals' rights not taken into account, but also there are not many major breakthroughs in medical science to justify the cruel treatment.
To start out, I do not understand how a human could just throw a chick in a grinder and let it die that way. These articles all seem to be very graphic in explaining how animals are miss treated.
ReplyDeleteI do believe we need to do better at regulating our factories and process lines. In regards to the processing lines speeding up, there is no need for this. The lines are already efficient enough to provide food for everyone. If we need to do anything it would be to slow them down and build more factories in order to say the animals from being boiled alive.
Now the article about the crabs and lobsters, I can almost ignore I guess because I think there is no way of giving them a more humane death. You really cannot cut their throats or stun them that easily. Simply dropping them into the boiling water is a pretty quick and easy death.
The throwing the chicks into the grinder is disgusting and needs to stop immediately. Out of the comments made so far most of them seem to be against speeding up the lines for the chickens and turkeys and to totally eliminate the chicks being throw into the grinder. I am no stranger to this belief. All of this behavior is morally and ethically wrong and needs to stop now.
--Matt Pulter
I'm honestly not surprised about the first article about the adult chickens and turkeys. I feel like on rare occasions this would also happen in the slaughter houses with a lot of the larger animals, it's just going to happen a lot more with the birds obviously because they are small and can move their bodies around more easily. With the baby chicks video, that was shocking to me, I had no idea that they would actually just grind up the males only because they can't lay the eggs, you'd think they would keep them to grow for meat or even fertilize eggs too if needed. It's upsetting and disgusting that we have to come to this where we don't even care about the well being of other animals and just throwing them in a grinder because they're not needed has become a part of our daily lives.
ReplyDelete-Kiersten Johnson
I think the idea to speed up the slaughter process for birds is not a good one. To start the idea that we will cut down on pathogens because of this seem a little cheap. i think there are probably much better ways to control pathogens, that won't involve risking the animals welfare. On top of that there are already a lot of incidents where the chicken are boiled alive so even if this didn't make those numbers any higher, it is making it much tougher to make sure they are secure to their chains.
ReplyDeleteThe article about crabs and lobsters feeling pain is an interesting one. I believe it should be payed close attention to as more information comes out. Because there are still conflicting reports and no one conclusion that is clearly right, i don't think people should hop completely on one side, bu i do think they should put more thought into their choices.
The video on the chicks had some shocking moments. The handling was not as big of deal to me as the grinding of the male chicks. not only is this cruel to the animal, but it seems wasteful as well. I feel like there could still be some sort of use for those, but instead there is just a bunch of needless killing. It really gave a good insight into the industry, and can definitely challenge some peoples eating habits.
When it comes to animal testing its a tough debate. I do think that it is a problem that many of the animals are not protected. if it was all important research going on it would not be a big deal, but the fact is much of it is for our own vanity, so i do hope to see big changes in the animal testing in my lifetime.
-Matt Powers
The first article about the USDA plan to speed up the processing lines was not surprising to me. I had already known that the poultry used in the slaughter houses were subjected to a greater chance of being inhumanely slaughtered. The fact that they are wanting to create a faster approach to this slaughter, will end poorly. If the workers cannot ensure the humane killing of all of the birds at this slower rate, there is no way that they can insure it at the faster rate. I also do not think that speeding up the process will reduce the risk of pathogens and the like; that makes no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteIn the article/video about the baby chicks, I wanted to puke. That is disgusting. I had no idea that they slaughtered 200 million male chicks each year, by throwing them into a grinder while alive. How is that humane? Sure, they might die quickly, but that is just disgusting and morally wrong. Sure they might not make as much of a profit growing and slaughtering the chicks for meat, but is that what it comes down to? The killing of animals for profit? That's what dictates this needless slaughter?
I was interested by the lobster/crab article. I had heard that scientists had been conducting research on this topic, and it interests me that they are making some type of progress. Regardless of if what the crustaceans feel is indeed pain or not, the fact that they even show preference to the non-harmful ends proves that we need to take more care in our slaughter of them.
The last hunting article just proves once again that hunting is very dangerous, and needs to be either more strictly controlled or banned altogether. Seeing as how too many people would object to the banning of hunting, I think that more control over hunting is needed. This incident should never have occurred. If the hunter had no idea that he was close to a cabin, why was he hunting in new territory. Or at least, why didn't he map out the territory first and make sure there were no dangers before hunting? There are many things that could have made this situation better.
These articles were very hard to read and the video in one was very hard to watch, but I do see how the processes for getting chickens ready to be eaten needs to be changed. There are not enough regulations to help these chickens. But I do understand why these companies are trying to increase the process speed of killing the chickens. There is to much demand but not enough or efficient processes to help the chicken and other turkeys.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the male chickens that are just tossed away, I think they can be sent to other farms that grow chickens instead of constantly breeding new ones, and they can be used as the poultry.
It is not right that all of these animals are not thought of as creatures with feeling both emotional and physical. I do agree that these processes need to be rethought of and better regulated. But I also understand that the demand is too large for this to come about anytime soon. The animals sadly have to wait, which is what should not have to happen.
Alyssa T.
These articles and video really put emphasis on the harsh conditions animals live in before being killed. These processes have become what they are due to the demand of them, it may be hard to kill them slower due to how many chickens are eaten daily. I do agree that the processes should be revised, but I am not sure how this would happen. I also agree with Alyssa that the male chicks thrown away could and should be kept and used for breeding after they mature. This would cut down on the cost of raising chickens and the number killed unnecessarily.
ReplyDeleteThere should be more regulation regarding ensuring that poultry is dead prior to being boiled. One it is humane and two it helps to increase production rates.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is horrible the the chicks are ground with no help to not be at least conscious. I can't even imagine. Also just throwing away the males, because they aren't as profitable does not make sense.
Hunting is always going to have its flaws. There us a certain number of risks that are involved. It is unfortunate that that man was shot, but that is irresponsibility by the shooter not looking what is beyond the target.
~Kimber C.
After looking over all of these articles, I can conclude that they stress the poor living conditions of the animals before they are put to death. In the first article discusses a new mechanism for slaughtering birds. This would be used in order to increase the efficiency of cutting the chickens heads off so they would not be boiled alive. The birds being boiled alive would cause them to have a more painful death.then the blade cutting the head off. I agree that this machine would be for the greater good since factory farms aren't just going to disappear over night, we should hope that the animals have the most humane death they can. The next article discusses animals such as lobsters and crabs ability to feel pain. That many people believe that the do not feel pain and that their movement is based on reflexs. Although this is an interesting idea, some animals are being boiled alive such as lobsters, which if it is a reflex instead of pain, while the animal is boiling then there would still be a large stimulus that would have to cause the animal some sort of discomfort. The video was very difficult to watch. As stated in previous posts, its sad to see that male chicks just being thrown away. Watching videos really hits the audience harder because they are forced to witness what is actually happening and they have to see how each animal reacts to the situation.
ReplyDelete-Cameron
In reference to the first article about speeding up the processing, I agree that the number of chickens that do not receive proper treatment is significant and should have some form of protection. I feel that increasing the processing speed will also increase the number of miss treated poultry. However, since these animals are not mammals and are not included under the protection acts, the industry should see to it that the workers are fast enough to keep up with the belt and if not, they should be replaced by those who are quick enough. If they can do this and increase the efficiency then speeding up the process can become an option but not until the workers can keep up.
ReplyDeleteAs for the video of the processing, I think that the person who recorded the video should be punished for violation of the plant’s privacy. The video does however show a very truthful side of the industry that many people should learn to either accept or ignore. If a person has a problem with any industry, that individual should take it upon themselves to boycott the industries product. The power of supply and demand is held in balance by both parties.
----Nick----
While reading the first article I do believe that birds should be included into the humane methods of slaughter act. I personally think this is very wrong condsidering they are living breathing animals and as far as research shows have the same pain threshold as other slaughtered animals. I think this is discussed in both of the first articles. THey talk about how the regulations on slaughter of poultry is very lightely regulated. This is just wrong in my eyes. While watching the video I believe it is very biased towards showing the negatives. I think with every industry there are execptions to the rules and the bottom of the barrel. That is what I personally believe is shown in this video. People must understand that the workers and owners of these slaughter houses are just as much human as you and I. A vast majority of the industry has morals that dont allow them to throw away animals for no good reason.
ReplyDelete-Josh P.