Animal slaughtering is the killing of animals; most of them domestic, and mainly for the purpose of human consumption. Many different types of animal slaughtering methods have been created such as; carbon dioxide, inert gas hypoxia, captive bolt pistol, gunshot, exsanguination, and many other that are not regulated. Such varying methods have evolved since the beginning of times, but with the increasing rates of the human population a faster way of slaughtering needed to be created in order to keep up. The question here is, have we, in our attempt to provide for the many, forgotten about ethical ways to kill those that are gifting us with their life?
The problem we need to understand here is that many of these regulated methods are not ethical and cause suffering to the dying animal. Whether it causes them “pain and distress even at low concentrations” due to the carbon dioxide, “broken bones” due to shackling, “massive damage to the skull and a shockwave which stuns the brain” due to captive bolt pistol, or a slow and painful death if their “sticking wound is inaccurately placed” this methods need to be either reevaluated or vanished. It is not fair for animals to suffer and undergo horrible deaths just to satiate our hunger. When did we start forgetting how to take care of that that give us life? When did we start killing without mercy for the sake of our people? When did we forget to care for the minority in order to benefit the majority?
According to historian
The conditions for animals in modern slaughterhouses are unsanitary and violent. The lack of rules and regulations cause animals to be treated poorly because this industry is focused on mass production and profit rather than finding a more humane alternative to run the meat packing business. The most effective method to stop this cruelty is to learn about where meat comes from, start supporting the organic and family farms which will ultimately lead to the reducing the amount of animals that have to suffer.
The topic of horse slaughter doesn’t usually come up very often in everyday conversation. Horse slaughter is more of an implicit subject, which your everyday person doesn’t know much about. Because it is highly controversial, it has gone through the cycle of being banded and then reinstated twice in the last 5 years. With being involved in the horse industry my entire life, I have witnessed the effects first hand. Some people see it as killing pets, animal cruelty, and morally wrong. However, I see it as a source of income, a way to stop the starvation and abuse of horses, an export industry for the United States, as well as a quality meal for in times of despair.
If animals are provided with better accommodation at slaughter houses and provided a merciful, humane death, I would the ethical theory of Utilitarianism to justify my views. Utilitarianism refers to the morally right action that produces the most favorable balance of good over evil, everyone considered” (Pg. 69). As I mentioned above, I can’t change people’s way of life or their dietary habits so in this case best would be to make changes in slaughterhouse practices and looking for the best option for both
An ongoing ethical debate in America is whether horse slaughter should be legalized in the United States. This debate grabs the emotions of many individuals and arises many questions. Horses are normally considered companions that are used for labor and events. Isn’t it inhumane to kill a companion? Aren’t there enough homes for our furry companions? In all reality horses are expensive animals and aren’t always used for their breeding purposes. Humane societies/rescues barely have enough room for neglected small animals, bringing in larger mammals is not plausible. Saving every animal will cause an overpopulation problem and increase the rate of neglect. Horses are being neglected, starved, abused, and even shipped across the country, banning slaughter houses is the truly the inhumane route. Slaughtering isn’t an easy alternative, but allowing them to suffer isn’t any better.
Furthermore, there are a lot of fast food chains in the U.S. Therefore, amazing big demand for meat, so opposed to the slaughter of cattle is much to amazing. In addition, I think eating meat is not wrong to kill animals to eat meat. But the key of question is how to kill? Animals should be killed by cleanly, do not let them have died under great torture.
Horse slaughter is not humane euthanasia, while, euthanasia is defined as a gentle, painless death provided in order to prevent suffering, slaughter is a brutal and terrifying end for horses (“Horse Slaughter is not Euthanasia”). It is very shocking to hear all the awful things that horses go through in the slaughter process. When the horses are herded through the plant to slaughter, many workers use fiberglass rods to poke and beat their faces, necks, backs and legs as the animals are shoved through the facility into the kill pen (Horse Slaughter “). The USDA recently released photos of horses with broken bones protruding from their bodies, eyeballs hanging by a thread of skin, and open wounds, all taken at former U.S horse slaughter plants. This does not sound like animals that people love and have used as companion pets for many generations ( “The Horse Fund”). Former inspector has stated that horses are only stunned for 30 seconds, long enough to be hung up by a hind leg (“Jeras”) .The horse is still fully conscious at the start of the slaughter process, during which he or she is hung by a hind leg, his or her throat slit and body butchered. Death is the final step, is excruciating (“Horse Slaughter”).How does it sound okay to butcher an animal before it is even killed? Horse slaughter is a threat to human health because horses are given hundreds of drugs during their lives that have not been approved by the FDA for use in animals intended for human consumption (“ASPCA”). Horses are given medications , prescribed by vets that allows them to enter the human food chain, but yet people still consume it (“The Horse Fund”) . The slaughter process is also inherently cruel, as horses are difficult to stun properly and may be repeatedly injured or stabbed during the procedure(“How to Help a Horse”). Each year more than 100,000 American horses - working, racing and companion horses and even children’s ponies - are
“Perhaps a less brutal and less violent society will one day exist that will understand that life and earth are more important than products of death and cruelty” (Bond). Their four hooves led us to where we are today. They are every little girl's dream at night. They are a cowboy’s closest friend, always there with a shoulder to lean on. If you ask any horse crazy girl or boy you will be told that a horse is the most amazing creature you will ever meet. In return over 100,000 of these beautiful horses are sent to slaughterhouses yearly in the United States alone (“The Facts About Horse Slaughter”). Though euthanasia is not always financially feasible. Horse slaughter
Laws are not strong enough against animal cruelty and people do not know about this problem because it is not as prominent as others. Some of the reasons humans kill animals is for food, clothing, and entertainment. The way we kill animals in doing these are very brutal and inhumane. The only thing they care about is to produce a mass amount of meat, in a short period of time, and with little food to feed the animals. The last thing they are worried about is the animal itself and its feelings and needs.
Is the slaughtering of horses the most humane method? Horses get treated in brutal and cruel ways on a regular basis, but slaughtering is a painful and disturbing action to imagine. They do not deserve this treatment and yet, they still allow it around the world. The slaughtering of horses remains a commonly used method that has devastated the people that revolve around horses.
For the past five thousand years the horse has been of greater human interest for its strength than as a food source. However, American horses are still shipped over our borders and slaughtered for human consumption overseas. Horse slaughter and the export of horses from the United States should be banned because it is cruel and inhumane; furthermore, consuming American horse meat can be detrimental to human health.
Many people are concerned for the animals and saying that by killing these animals its causing suffering to them for no reason. When you go grocery shopping for meat what do you think the factories did to those animals. They did not just say okay cow lay over and die. A meat factory "in U.S., more than 42 million cows suffer and die for the meat and dairy industries every year" ("Cows" 1). Any animal is going to suffer when it dies nobody can help that. If you want any source of meat the animal suffered. At least with hunting the meat you can be sure it was cleaned in a area were you can watch were the meat sits. The cost of a box of bullets is less then the price of meat in a grocery store. Even if you were the worst shot in history the animal
Conversely, there exist equally as many challenges to raise had the ethicist taken the alternate position that animals have equal value and accordingly that their pleasure is impermissibly infringed upon when they are killed for human interest. Arguments could be presented for a bevy of actions taken on a daily basis by society as a whole. One might address the fact that using animal testing for the advancement of medicine has benefits that outweigh the pains. Similarly, while the development of land effectively kills the previously animal inhabitants, it is an accepted result that society has displayed it is willing to disregard. In each of these cases, the majority of society condones such behavior, as evidenced by their
Is the killing of animals wrong? This is an issue that is currently being argued. In the world there are people who kill animals to eat them while there are others that feel that it is inhumane to kill defenseless animals. There are many factors over which animals are killed. For example, animals that are suffering due to an illness, animals that have shown to be dangerous around us, for food, and to maintain the animal’s population balanced. Some people have argued that killing animals for food is not the only way to feed ourselves, since we produce vegetation. These people think that animals should have the same rights as humans. People feel this way because they feel that animals feel everything that we feel, such as pain, loss,
We are a nation of meat eaters. We are socialized from a young age to consume high levels of animal products. This deeply ingrained meat-eating tradition is a big part of the American standard diet. A visit to the local grocery store shows that there is no shortage of animal products. Isle by isle you see a plethora of meats, neatly packed and ready to be cooked, dairy products neatly shelved, and even candies that contain animal by-products. This is an omnivore’s utopia, allowing for a lifestyle that involves the overconsumption of meats and animal by-products. The rampant meat industry has managed to condition people to disassociate the meats in our grocery markets and the animals from which they came. Most people have become unaware omnivores, consuming whatever meats are available to them. This shift of moral degradation is evident in how we process and consume our meats. We have become a selfish society that values our own convenience and affordability of meat rather than the consideration of the animal. This begs the question, is eating meat inherently wrong and should we forbid meat consumption under any and all circumstances? To fully address this issue, we must first define the moral status of animals. So, are animals equal to humans in worth and value and should they receive similar treatment?
Hung upside down by their feet, their throats are slit to drain the blood. This is an image that appears in most every slaughterhouse across the globe. John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel, Let the Right One In, similarly portrays these scenes of slaughter with one difference: the victims of slaughter are humans not animals. Set in the suburbs of Stockholm, Lindqvist’s novel tells of a young and severely bullied boy, Oskar, who befriends a centuries old child vampire named Eli. Because of her childlike body, Eli requires her older male companion, Håkan, to procure blood for her. As he hangs his victims by their feet and slits their throats to collect the blood, Håkan’s process of obtaining human blood is clearly evocative of contemporary Western practices of animal slaughter. However, the difference between Håkan’s slaughter of humans and contemporary animal slaughter is not merely the victims’ species but is, more importantly, the space in which these acts occur. Despite meat consumption’s widespread acceptance, meat production by means of slaughter is still visually disturbing and thus, in order to be socially tolerable, must not be seen. Indeed, since the 19th century, the slaughterhouse has been spatially located at the edges of urban space in order to render its violent actions socially invisible. What happens, then, when the slaughter occurs within the urban space as Håkan’s acts of slaughter do? By comparing animal slaughter to the novel’s scenes of human slaughter in terms