http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/iowa-select-farms-mercy-for-animals-video_n_886743.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

more local - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/smithfield-pork-pigs-abuse-humane-society_n_798310.html

Quote :

"DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- An animal welfare group that has used undercover videos to generate public outrage over the treatment of livestock said it now plans to use secret recordings to pressure large grocery chains to stop buying from farms that use practices it considers abusive. The effort seemed to be working as several chains viewed the video and then either halted purchases from the targeted Iowa hog farm or expressed concern even before Chicago-based Mercy for Animals formally unveiled the recording at news conferences planned Wednesday in four cities. Earlier this week, Mercy for Animals met with or sent letters to officials at Costco, Hy-Vee, Kroger and Safeway and provided links to its 2 1/2-minute video, then asked them to stop buying pork from Iowa Select Farms. The group said it secretly recorded its video between April and June at an Iowa Select Farms operation in the small town of Kamrar, about 50 miles north of Des Moines. Nathan Runkle, Mercy for Animal's executive director, said his group and others have used secretly recorded videos to raise public awareness, but this was among the first major efforts to use such recordings to pressure retailers. The group previously used another video to convince Costco to change its policies dealing with veal obtained from an Ohio producer, he said. ..."

6/30/2011 3:39:57 PM

I'd like some please.

6/30/2011 3:50:52 PM

yum

6/30/2011 3:59:28 PM

So animal activists are driving up pork prices?

6/30/2011 4:00:02 PM

6/30/2011 4:00:04 PM

Quote :

"So animal activists are driving up pork prices?"

I think they prefer to be called journalists.

6/30/2011 4:03:23 PM

http://youtu.be/FOzOxPtYFsg

6/30/2011 4:12:26 PM

6/30/2011 4:17:39 PM

BACONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6/30/2011 4:32:08 PM

The federal budget has driven supply down.

6/30/2011 5:02:44 PM

"Pigs are very bouncy"

6/30/2011 6:02:51 PM

ibt holocaust comparision

6/30/2011 6:52:47 PM

My uncle has chicken and hog houses. They are all treated well there. Never seen anybody harming the animals, so I have no qualms about this. Bottom line some farmers/companies are shitty, but that doesn't mean the whole industry is shit. Some people don't treat their pet dogs and cats humanely either. OMFG BAN PETS!!!!!!

I will still be consuming some bacon and sausage for the long weekend breakfasts kkthxu.

[Edited on June 30, 2011 at 7:04 PM. Reason : mmmmm]

6/30/2011 7:03:48 PM

Two things.

Quote :

"They are all treated well there. Never seen anybody harming the animals, so I have no qualms about this."

I assume they slaughter animals for consumption, right. Seems pretty harmful.

Quote :

"Some people don't treat their pet dogs and cats humanely either. OMFG BAN PETS!!!!!!"

That's pretty much PETA's stance on the issue. Retards.

Don't get me wrong I love cooked animal flesh as much as the next guy, but to suggest farms are non-harmful to animals is inaccurate. By definition it brings harm to the animals. Eating animals does that.

6/30/2011 7:14:25 PM

i guess it depends on your definition of "harmful." I am assuming that he is excluding the obvious "death of the animal due to consumption" part from the definition. or would we suggest that lions are harmful to gazelles, as well?

6/30/2011 8:04:06 PM

abuse of intensively farmed/raised animals for consumption is pretty much endemic.

every 2 or 3 years some videos like this come out... do you really think the abuse happens in just a few farms every few years?

animals will be animals.

(p.s., the 'animals' above didn't refer to the actual animals being raised)


[Edited on June 30, 2011 at 8:11 PM. Reason : i am abusing some pigs (and birds) right now as i type, in another tab]

6/30/2011 8:08:18 PM

Quote :

"That's pretty much PETA's stance on the issue. Retards."

what is your point? is it a retarded stance merely because peta shares that viewpoint?

7/1/2011 12:30:26 AM

No, I'm calling them retards for having that stance. It'd be a retarded stance even if PETA didn't have it.

Quote :

"i guess it depends on your definition of "harmful." I am assuming that he is excluding the obvious "death of the animal due to consumption" part from the definition. or would we suggest that lions are harmful to gazelles, as well?"

Absolutely. You think gazelles being eaten alive aren't being harmed by the process? Hell, the aggregate suffering that every prey animal has gone through in the history of this planet is one of the strong reasons I don't believe in a compassionate god.

7/1/2011 1:21:14 AM

THIS JUST IN:

Animals kill other animals for food. Sometimes, this process isn't pretty. Sometimes it's painful to the one being eaten. But this process is natural and necessary. Humans are animals.

MORE AT NOON.

7/1/2011 8:53:28 AM

Quote :

"Humans are animals."

The important part is that we are also omnivores.

7/1/2011 8:55:24 AM

I didn't say that I think animals shouldn't eat other animals. Just saying that to say prey animals aren't harmed by predation is wrong and to say that animals slaughtered for human consumption aren't harmed is categorically wrong.

[Edited on July 1, 2011 at 9:00 AM. Reason : .]

7/1/2011 8:57:23 AM

Quote :

"THIS JUST IN: Animals kill other animals for food. Sometimes, this process isn't pretty. Sometimes it's painful to the one being eaten. But this process is natural and necessary. Humans are animals. MORE AT NOON."

That video doesn't even touch on the animals getting killed...it focuses on how they're treated from birth to death.

7/1/2011 9:06:53 AM

I worked on a chicken and hog farm for a summer. The chicken farm wasn't great but overall didn't bother me too much. I ended up eating a lot of chicken that summer. The hog farm was different though and I did give up pork . . . . . . for a little while.

I think it may because hogs are so much smarter than chickens. Hogs don't just look at you dumbly while you walk around, they study you. You can kinda sense their intelligance. They also smell hella worse.











note: both these farms were just the facilities where they raised the animals, not where the slaughtering or birthing happened

7/1/2011 12:09:37 PM

watched the video... think i'm going to make some bbq this weekend.

7/1/2011 2:22:58 PM

So if the pig is being bred to be killed anyway, does it really matter?

I mean, sorry if those of us who grew up watching these things get slaughtered for tasty food are desensitized. There are bigger problems out there. Like human hunger.

[Edited on July 5, 2011 at 5:33 PM. Reason : x]

7/5/2011 5:32:55 PM

^ being slaughtered for food is not the same thing as intentional cruelty (aside from the 'cruelty' inherent in the slaughter).

7/5/2011 5:47:36 PM

Yea I don't advocate treating them cruelly while they are being raised. Yes their life is only valid as a meat product, but just like a prison guard on death row, I want the inmates to be treated fairly and the cell block to remain calm and docile. I would imagine that animals that have been fed well and not stressed out by people getting their rocks off beating on something would be a better product when you go to sell it and this would make you more money and make everybody and everything happier.

Just my take.

7/5/2011 6:41:56 PM

Fuck Smithfield...

http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/facilities/markets/

7/7/2011 11:28:36 PM

Quote :

"There are bigger problems out there. Like human hunger."

And yet we still have human hunger and a plethora of food.

7/8/2011 12:51:39 AM

Quote :

"http://"There are bigger problems out there. Like human hunger.""

Spoken like someone who never spent five minutes reading about the issues

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/biofuels?page=1

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/101494/20110117/here-is-how-the-ethanol-subsidy-scam-is-screwing-americans-and-corn-consumers-globally.htm

The United States is the big daddy of the world food economy. It is far and away the world's leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In a globalized food economy, increased demand for corn, to fuel American vehicles, puts tremendous pressure on world food supplies. Continuing to divert more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the U.S. federal government in its Renewable Fuel Standard, will lead to higher food prices, rising hunger among the world's poor and to social chaos across the globe. By subsidizing the production of ethanol, now to the tune of $6 billion each year, U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing skyrocketing food bills at home and around the world.

[Edited on July 8, 2011 at 10:33 AM. Reason : e]

7/8/2011 10:32:25 AM

destroy all corporate and production subsidies.

7/8/2011 10:34:17 AM