Open the Slaughterhouses

[groovedaddy]

IN 1999, as a writer for The American Prospect, I went into a slaughterhouse undercover, with the help of some rebellious employees. The floor was slick with the residue of blood and suet, and the air smelled like iron. A part of my brain spent the whole time trying to remember which of Dante’s circles this scene most resembled.

Today, under legislation being pushed by business interests, that bit of journalistic adventure could earn me a criminal conviction and land me on a registry of “animal and ecological terrorists.” So-called ag-gag laws, proposed or enacted in about a dozen states, make, or would make, criminals of animal-rights activists who take covert pictures and videos of conditions on industrial farms and slaughterhouses. Some would even classify the activists as terrorists.

The agriculture industry says the images are unfair. They seem to show cruelty and brutality, but the eye can be deceiving. The most humane way of slaughtering an animal, or dealing with a sick one, may look pretty horrible. But so does open-heart surgery. The problem with making moral arguments by appealing to revulsion is that some beneficial and indispensable acts can also be revolting. With gruesome shots of cadavers, a skilled amateur could make a strong emotional case against using them to teach anatomy in medical school.

Moreover, the industry says, the activists are trespassers, or, when they’re employees working undercover for an animal-rights group or news organization, they’re going beyond the terms of their employment. Slaughterhouses and confined-feeding operations can be dangerous places. Although the industry surely exaggerates the risk, guerrilla actions are not the safest or best way to spur reflection on how we treat animals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/opinion/open-the-slaughterhouses.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130409&_r=0

[Macoy51]

1. It May Be tresspassing, but....

Yes, technically, it is trespassing. However; I think undercover journalism like this would fall under the 1st amendment. I am not impressed by the “but it allows one-sided reporting”. So what, if the meat industry feels the story is inaccurate, let them publish their version and let the people decide. That is the whole point of having a free press.


Macoy

[libodem]

2. Makes me have the ultimate respect

For Kosher butchering. It is more like a sacrement than a bloodbath.

This kind of stuff makes me wish I had the discipline to be a vegetarian. Yuck.

[groovedaddy]

3. I hear you. The thought of going vegetarian has crossed my mind

a lot lately. So many reasons to go that way but I still like to eat meat. I just don't won't that desire to be supportive of factory farms and inhumane treatment of animals.

[daleanime]

4. If you cant do with out......

do with less. Cut back what you can, it all helps.

[libodem]

5. Can you imagine the cortisol

And the rise in the level of fear neurotransmitters in the animals' blood, a violent, painful, death, and then, we consume it, plus the antibiotics and hormones.

As the poster above says maybe I can at least eat less.