What goes around, comes around.
I was riding my bicycle back from the gym tonight and saw a White Tail doe and her two small fawns (a new group I hadn’t seen before) wanting to cross the road. I stopped about 30 yards away so that she would feel comfortable enough to signal them to follow. As they started to cross, a big diesel pickup truck came barreling down the hill and looked like he was trying to hit them or scare them. One of the fawns turned back, and then changed his mind and followed his mother. That one missed being hit by less than 20 feet.
It got me thinking about the disregard for life of the helpless in our society. People eat huge quantities of cheap meat from animals raised and killed inhumanely on industrial farms. Millions of unborn children are murdered every year, because adults are unable to take responsibility for their actions.
I’m a firm believer in Karma. We are aren’t punished for our sins, but by them. If we make life cheap, then our lives become cheap too.
Proverb 12:10, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
I visit the farm where the beef I eat is raised. I know the farmers and also know and have been to the slaughter house they use.
It cost me a buck more a pound and I have to drive an hour to pick up the meat at the farm but I know the conditions under which my food is raised.
The conditions under which your food was raised…. as compared to what Gail?
Here are some real videos depicting all natural free range organic forms of food production, all under non-industrialized methods. I hope you enjoy but be warned these natural production methods may prove disturbing. But what the hey, these methods are 100% natural.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZqNzZV5T7w
Troll. To in any way liken the methods of 21st-century American small farmers to hunter-gatherers (doing the best they can with much less sophisticated technology) is disingenuous in the extreme.
Was the cow my local farmer butchered for me butchered “humanely”? Well, as best he could but, more to the point, up until the end, I know it lived a happy cow life in grassy fields in the reasonable company of a herd, and not jammed cheek-by-jowl with hundreds of other beasts in a concrete-floored prison carpeted with excrement. I know my local guy values healthy animals, and because he gives them healthy (which, not coincidentally, equals “happy”) living conditions, does not need to give them prophylactic antibiotics to stave off disease — and thereby is not contributing to the evolution of superbugs, either.
is there a “humane” way to kill anything? love the word humane, is like who judges this?
Yes there are humane ways of killing. Both the Muslims and the Hebrews have thousands of years of practice in humane killing methods.
As to who judges it, there are scientists who have made studies on the most painless, least traumatic methods of slaughter. My Husband was just reviewing a video about it earlier tonight.
Do you think nature is kind?
A farmer who raises long horns found his quarter horse mare with a hole eaten through her side by coyotes. They had even chewed their way though her ribs to gut her.
Oh and she was still alive when he found her in the morning.
Coyotes grabbed and drug off a toddler who was the daughter of my brother-in-laws friend. If the coyote killed that child do you think it would have been ‘Humane” ?
The pretty little girl next door who was attacked looked worse than this. She lost her eye and had her face half ripped off.
http://www.varmintal.com/12953931.jpg
When it is over it is over, does the means justify the end or does the end justify the means? BTW using the word “Humane” is nothing but a cop out as is the word “fair” !
If you live in the country, you know on the food chain, the animal that gets killed has an unpleasant ending. But life ends for all living things.
If you did not have a means of defense (a powerful rifle or means of escape) you would not have a pleasant ending when meeting the poster child of warming, the polar bear.
Watching a bear hunting a seal sitting on the edge of an iceberg is interesting. The bear swims, sneaking along the edges of icebergs. Knowing that if the seal enters the water it will be gone, When the bear reaches the edge of the iceberg the seal is on It changes its method of the hunt. It dives under the iceberg and emerges more than a half minute later, attacking the seal in a fierce, explosive move. If the bear is successful its nice white fur is covered in blood and entrails. Its mouth is dripping in blood.
From natures point of view, it is either the bear or the seal!
Deer are like locusts. Except better looking. And thanks to stories like Bambi, many people value those fawns with higher regard than those unborn victims of progressives….
And as far as how your food is raised. All life is a energy exchange. No matter what you do, something must die for you to live. What I think you really should be after is not supporting cruel people. So buying from a farm may or may not be a good thing. But I’d bet your chances of finding cruelty toward animals a lot greater on a farm than in a factory….
You have that reversed. Farmers are not in it for the money but because they loved to farm. Only an absolute idiot mistreats their animals and they do not last as farmers.
The factory farms are in it for the money. I suggest you read this report:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Industrial_Agriculture/PCIFAP_FINAL.pdf
You’ve obviously never worked on a farm. It’s for the money. The wealth in the land will carry though generations. The work is hard, nasty and never ending. Factory farms risk bad PR if they mistreat the animals. Family farms rely on there not being a psychopathic kid living on it. And there always is, at least they act psychopathic for a short period. I think it’s a power thing…..
I grew up on an apple farm, cruelty to the apples made the bruised and lowered their price.
I see a bit of a contradiction between “it’s for the money . . . . the wealth” and “the work is hard, nasty and never ending”. The factory owners see none of the work (paperwork, at worst), or the cruelty, but somehow it’s the small farmer who is “in it for the money”?
Wow. Just . . . wow.
When I first looked into NAIS more than a decade ago, family farmers were LOSING on average about $14,000 a year. This was pointed out to Congress in 2000.
So the USDA CHANGED the numbers! Sound familiar?
Makes farmers look more WEALTHY than poor black city folks now doesn’t it?
So the USDA is saying ” the average farm household had an annual NET income of $81,480″
But the Ag Census 2002 (2.2 million farms) shows this GROSS income:
Farms by value of sales…….Number of Farms
Less than $2,500…………………….826,558
$2,500 to $4,999……………………..213,326
$5,000 to $9,999……………………..223,168
$10,000 to $24,999………………….256,157
$25,000 to $49,999………………….157,906
$50,000 to $99,99…………………….140,479
$100,000 to $499,99…………………240,746
$500,000 or more……………………..70,642
So how in the world do you get “average farm household had an annual NET income of $81,480? when over 1.8 million farms are grossing UNDER $100,000 and only 300,000 are grossing over $100,000. (Net for businesses is usually ~ 5% of sales. For farms, because the big buyer sets the price, often less.)
So how did the USDA jack up the income? First it is the HOUSEHOLD income not the FARM income.
In 2008, average farm income was projected to be $89,434, but $75,805 of that is OFF-FARM income, that is nearly 85%. that leaves only $13,629 as the FARM income.
On top of that outside income the USDA also includes what ever the USDA decides is the ‘rental value’ of the farm house(s).
In the USDA spread sheet it says: “The difference between returns-to-operators and net farm income is equivalent to the net rental value of farm operator dwellings” So “farm Income” includes the “the net rental value of farm operator dwellings”
Many farms have a couple of houses for the younger generation too. In my area you are allowed three homes per farm. So for the net ‘operator income’ you are adding the rental value of your home(s) and this very neatly turns the $14,000 loss I first saw years ago into a $13,000 gain.
For example a three bedroom house that is $1,020 to $5,968 per month across the USA or $12,240 to $71,616 per year. link
Mat Helm also says:
“You’ve obviously never worked on a farm. It’s for the money. The wealth in the land will carry though generations.”
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That used to be true a couple generations ago when farmland got a tax break and the kids were interested in taking over the farm but now it is just another fallacy trotted out by the MSM.
The American farmer is in their late 50’s
Most kids can not wait to get off the farm so when dad dies or heads to the nursing home the farm gets sold.
I went to college at Midwest Ag school. At that time farmers made up 4.6% of the labor force down from 6.4% a decade before. link The Secretary of Agriculture in that time period, Earl Butz had announced to farmers “Get BIG or Get OUT!”
(Part of the CEDs plans for dealing with the ‘Farm Problem’)
By 1990 farmers were down to 2.6% of labor force and that was before the 1996 Freedom to Fail Act bankrupted farmers as noted in the Congressional testimony above.
Now the USDA reports the Non-farm income is most often coming from work in management and professional occupations so the present day farmer is not some uneducated rube. but professionals looking for a better lifestyle.
The government, always hungry for more tax revenue, has decided to revamp the Preferential Assessment of Rural Land that gave a tax break to farmers.
My state this year just jumped the definition of ‘farm’ from earning $1000/year to $10,000 per year. It was “(e.g., 10 acres for farmland) and revenue (generally $1,000/year)” Of the 2,128,982 US farms, 1,263,052 (more than half) make less than that $10,000 per year threshold.
That means your property taxes just went to the tax rate for house lots!
That is ~ 0.78% of the assessed value in NC a low property tax state.
A friend had this done to her and the tax increase was enormous. While farmland may sell for $500- $10,00 an acre “house lots” can go from $10,00 an acre to $100,000 or more per acre and you are at the mercy of a tax hungry bureaucrat for the evaluation. Donna was unlucky and her farm was valued as one acre house lots based on the plan the developer who wanted the farm drew up. She had to sell under duress (low price) or lose the land since she could not possibly pay the new tax rate on a nurse’s aid salary.
The assessment for farm land is complicated. See this from the UNC Economic and Community Development group. link It is part of the same group that has been deliberately shoving farmers off the land since the 1940’s – In a number of reports written over a few decades, CED recommended that farming “resources” — that is, farmers — be reduced. In its 1945 report “Agriculture in an Expanding Economy,” CED complained that “the excess of human resources engaged in agriculture is probably the most important single factor in the ‘farm problem'” and describes how agricultural production can be better organized to fit to business needs…
CED links to a report by Professor England Reconsidering Preferential Assessment of Rural Land which also mentions:
…..
(BTW, I have owned a farm for over twenty years while working as a lab manager. My husband was a physicist working as a technical writer.)
Mat Helm, you write “I’d bet” the chances of finding cruelty are greater on the farm than in a factory. Means you don’t know, or you’d say straight up, “The chances ARE greater” and you would cite your sources. You don’t know, but you obviously believe. Why do you choose to believe that? It’s expedient? It absolves you of having to bother caring, or paying a little extra for local, well-raised meat?
Factory conditions alone are cruel enough; no psychopaths necessary — just people doing what is expedient without any regard for the feelings of the living beings they are dealing with. Which is exactly what our host was pointing up. When you don’t care — when you choose not to bother to care — what does that do to your soul?
“We are not punished for our sins, but by them.” Tony, that is masterfully expressed.
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” Matt. 16:26
Mat Helm says:
I’d bet your chances of finding cruelty toward animals a lot greater on a farm than in a factory….
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And you would lose that bet. For hogs, the USDA DEMANDS the animals be kept on CONCRETE. (per Dr. B… who inspected my farm and a friend’s farm. we had free range pigs.) This is horrible for the pigs since they use mud for cooling and protecting the skin from insect. More important a pigglet HAS TO EAT DIRT. This is the way they get enough iron. (Factory farms have to give injections) Also if pigs are kept in crowded conditions the tails must be removed from the pigglets to prevent tail biting. Finally standing on concrete causes the pigs to develop arthritis.
Then there are chickens. Because they are kept in crowded building they often have to be debeaked. They also have to be ‘walked’ twice a day to get them to move and the dead chickens have to be removed.
What about the untold numbers of cats and dogs that get euthanized every year?
I got a second dog because someone dumped it in a business we own. When our first dog died we got another from a shelter. Then we found a dog tied to our stoop. Can you imagine taking a pet you had for a year and a half, a pet that loves you unconditionally, and tying it to a stranger’s stoop? The dog follows me around all day, probably afraid I’ll leave it too.
I think most of you are laboring under a misconception about animals. They don’t fear death because like a child, they don’t realize their own mortality. In other words, while they do fear pain, they do not fear death. So the empathy is misplaced. Of course I wouldn’t want to be around people who do not feel at least some of that same empathy, so long as it doesn’t over rule logical thought…..
And you know this how?
Having been in an abattoir and having “put down” terminally ill animals in a veterinary situation, my experience is that they are aware of impending death, and that they are alarmed and fearful. I am not talking about fear of pain, as they are in no pain nor is there any indication of coming pain, only an awareness of “something” happening.
I do not “Know” either way, but then again, neither do you.
And to Steven/Tony
May you keep understanding.
I’m disgusted by the continued killing of squirrels on the roads and streets in my area.
I have heard otherwise intelligent people call them “tree rats”.
Squirrels apparently like to lick the road salt, a necessary nutrient not available in their regular diet. I consider them guardians of the forest, planting millions of nut bearing trees annually.
When you see a squirrel in or near the street or road, please slow down, they are unpredictable and may run the wrong way and get mowed down by you.
You might try putting out salt licks near you. The wild animals on my farm certainly love them.
I may be a meat eater but I will also stop and move a turtle or tortoise from one side of the road to the other when I see them during mating season.
When I’m driving, I will try to avoid colliding with any animal if I can. Getting crushed by a ton and a half to two ton metal object going as fast as a cheetah is not always a kind way to die. Sometimes it isn’t possible and it always saddens me. Squirrels are particularly problematic as they often find themselves unsure of the best path and panic.
Huh, try hitting an elk cow on I-40. Teaming. Headed west at 01:30 in the morning and there she was. Big animal like that can turn a rig over if it goes under the unweghted wheels when maneuvering (IOW the wheels on the inside of a hard turn or jog). We we were taught to just square up and take them head on. That is what I did. Destroyed the Grill and AC condenser and put some thumb sized holes in the radiator. Don’t think she felt much in her last seconds. Guess she went 600 to 700 lbs. There is a reason why they call elk cows and bulls instead of Does and Bucks.
My sister hit a 200 or so pound deer once. She had no choice. It wasn’t pretty to either the deer or the car. When the collision is unavoidable, I’ll square up too. That way the damage may be minimized, especially to bystanders.
My Cummins Diesel pick-up (aka Deerslayer) has taken out four deer without major damage. I would not want to hit an elk, moose or horse though.
Squaring up and hitting them head on in something smaller than a semi means you hit the legs and the body flips and comes through the windshield or the roof.
Happened to my boss’s horse. I saw the vehicle at the shop about a week later. Messy
Man I struggled into Flagstaff, 13 miles further west and put it in the All American Truck stop. Company sent another team to take our trailer on. There was not doubt about the cause since some of her hair was still imbedded by being pinched between the bent bumper and body of the truck. Freightliner couldn’t repair it quickly enough so the Company got a rental car for us sent us all the way down to San Antonio, TX to get another.
As far as what a person does the vehicle their driving always has to come into play. Hogs, though they rarely end up road kill anymore, if their big enough they are very bad for 4 wheelers because they tend to go under. Saw half of a black bear along I 80 in PA and kinds thought that would be a problem to hit.