From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
Subject: Re: Better to be slaughtered than never to have lived? Re: Meat eaters (LONG)
Keywords: meat vegans vegetarian food veal factory farms
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 08:53:31 GMT

In <1992Dec25.154537.29709@bmerh85.bnr.ca> myhui@bnr.ca (Michael Hui) writes:

>If the only criteria you use to guide you in the proper treatment of
>food animals is by their weight, then by golly you really care very
>little about their welfare. All you want is rapid weight gain. Period.
>Face it, isn't that the whole purpose of your suggestions above?

	Yes, all I want is a *proper* rapid weight gain.  By proper, I mean
weight that is mainly muscle, with fat interspersed in the meat.  This comes
solely from a proper diet and good genetics, but it's worth dollars at the
sale barn.  That means I have to tailor diet very closely and monitor what
each animal and the herd as a whole are doing so far as health are concerned.
This includes enough room to walk about (exercise is important to health),
shelter and clean bedding to reduce disease, checking at least twice daily
for any indications of a sluggish or sickly animal (isolate and treat them
as necessary), and above all ensure that the cattle get exactly what they
need when they need it.  I'm not concerned with any emotional problems
they might have -- cow psycihiatrists don't exist as yet so far as I know.
I am likewise not concerned with their view of the lot arrangement, nor do
I particularly care if they don't like the color of the feed bunks or if
they want to run and frolock through the alfalfa patch on the other side of
the fence.  The former is not relevant, the latter will kill them.

	I am concerned with their welfare because they represent thousands
of dollars paid out, and will represent a few thousand more at the sale
barn.  A cow that dies represents a loss of around a thousand dollars.  A
cow that is sick represents, maybe, only a few hundred dollars lost.
Maybe you missed it somewhere, but this is a business.  It is not about
liking the animals, it is about taking care of them so you can later sell
them for a profit.  Abusing them, or placing them under excessive stress,
will cause a weight loss.  Cattle in particular can lose seven pounds
just being run through a chute into the trailer.  That's a full day's
weight gain!  Scratch a day's work and ten bucks worth of feed and
machinery costs then.  With 1000 head in the yard, that's $10,000 lost
that day alone.  Obviously, their welfare is my welfare, but I'm not
going to subscribe to any wishes you might think they have just because
they have brown eyes.  It either helps the bottom line, or it doesn't.

	I see you can't refute the arguments I made previously, and are
now suggesting that I don't really *care* about the animals but just
use them.  You're right.  Oh, I'm just *SO* immoral!  Maybe to you,
but I see nothing immoral with providing the best care an animal can
recieve before sending it off to slaughter.  Perhaps you might ask a
doctor in a military field hospital how he feels about it.

< Dan Sorenson, DoD #1066 z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu viking@iastate.edu >
<  ISU only censors what I read, not what I say.  Don't blame them.  >
<  "This isn't an answer, it's a pagan dance around a midnight fire  >
<   written in intellectual runes." -- Rich Young                    >