The vegetarian argument, which you've touched on, is this: Because these ARE the conditions at meat processing/factory farms, then do not eat meat because of it.

Granted, not all vegetarians hold this view and some are nutty as you have described, but if the animals were treated "better" than this, I think you'd see less vegetarians.

However, as long as one's motives in business are to make money, all else goes to the way-side to achieve that goal, "unnecessary" care for the animals included.

I'd certainly love to see steps taken to mitigate the suffering we have to inflict to maintain our comfort levels. I just get a lot of flak for taking a position that no matter *what* we do, something must suffer for us to live; it's unreasonable for us to take every precaution feasible to minimize that suffering.

But yeah, this is the extreme end of the spectrum. Fuck the factory, fuck the business practices, and fuck the people who work there. We don't have to make it piglet daycare, but we can do a whole fucking lot better than this bull shit.

I once tried to tell my brother how awful some of these plants are. (I don't know how the conversation came up). His whole end of the conversation consisted of paraphrases of "Hey, we gotta eat." He actually could not see the distinction between eating the meat and torturing the meat before you eat it.
I try not to talk to him too much.

Generally our means of rapid mass death are neither pleasant nor do they leave the victims fit for consumption.

Totally agreed about the PETA thing. It's not like I ever buy Hormel products to begin with but thanks to this video I'll be sure to actively avoid them. I'll just pretend that the manufacturers of the meat I do buy don't do this shit even though it's probably wrong. (Although frankly I don't buy all that much meat anymore anyway.)

The problem with the idea of PETA not doing crazy things is that PETA's aims are not just "end animal cruelty" but "end all animal exploitation" which includes things like milking cows and pet ownership. They can't stop doing crazy shit because they are at their heart a very crazy organization run by crazy people and supported by a mixture of other crazies and celebrities who join either because they're also crazy or because it's an easy way to get attention.

zato, just so we're all clear. It's not simply "stop milking cows." It's stop milking cows because most cows are pumped with hormones to keep them artificially producing milk, and hooked up to a pump for many hours a day while their udder swells to disproportionate sizes because of all the excess milk they are producing.

I'm not a vegetarian, so I don't want come off as picking on anyone. I just want to make sure some "facts" are clear.

As for the ownership thing, PETA advocates "care taker" or some kind of simile. The idea comes from "Identity Politics" and "post-structuralism" that suppose the language we use creates structures that enforce a particular behavior. If we change "pet owner" to "care taker," IN THEORY, one is less likely to dominate the animal because they see themselves as someone to provide care.

Anyways, 5 for the vid.

"hooked up to a pump for many hours a day while their udder swells to disproportionate sizes because of all the excess milk they are producing."

fap fap fap

Yes. Fap fap fap.

what will it matter if lots of people see it or not, people aren't going to change their routines even slightly and they hate vegetarians a lot more than they hate people who torture small animals

PeTA seems to capture this happening frequently, so I'd say it's less about Hormel and more about the entire meat industry. It's probably hard as hell to go undercover in these facilities, so I shudder to think how much more widespread and how much worse it gets than any of us see.

How else are you suppose to tenderise?

(that said, poE apart, it's not cool)

Oh, was that the part you caught?

What? Want me to smuggle in a camera next time we do puppies' tails and dew claws? They scream and cry and whimper for a long time afterward. Lend me a camera.

I'm struggling here but your point is kind of floating around and I can't quite seem to catch it. Are you saying cutting off tails is bad? Okay! Well observed!

word.