Carnivore
Well-known member
Well, since my concept of letting nature take it's course and let the strong survive seems to run counter to some people's view, I figured WTF. I'll really make some people mad.
How I view this whole cow raising business, is that we, (humans) are at the top of the food chain. This is what gives us the right to artifically inseminate the females of the species, (cows) and take the males of the species and cut off their balls, and eat them two years later. Then, after we have forced repeated pregnancy after repeaded pregnancy on that cow, we will kill her and ground her up for hamburger.
Is what happened at my 40 acre parcel of the world any more cruel than the above? I hardly think so.
We, as the world's best predator, have sterilized the predator/prey world to the point where most people get their sustenance from a refrigerated counter in the grocery store, with pieces of cow flesh neatly wrappped in a styrofoam and plastic package.
Is it more cruel for me to take a step back and see if a cow will figure out how to be a mother to a calf, and to see if that calf will be able to survive, than to take a male calf, cut it's balls off, burn it's hide (branding), or punch a whole in it's ear (tagging), then cram that castrated, mutilated steer into a holding pen and feed it unnatural (as in not found in the real world) feed until it is so fat it cannot take on another pound, then stun it with a hammer or put a bullet in it's head, cut it's throat and let it bleed to death?
Like it or not, that is the nature of the cattle business.
Anyone here have a living will? A living will means you command your loved ones to pulling the plug, and letting you starve to death, or become so dehydrated you organs shut down.
Anyone ever done this? Well, I had to a few years ago. My dad had a massive stroke, and I found him, as he was living with us at the time. We rushed him to the hospital, and in the emergency room, the doctor gave me a choice to make. He told me that they could operate on my father, relieve the pressure in his head, and he could likely live for a year or two on artifical life support. Or, I could stand back, try to make my father comfortable and he would pass on.
My father didn't have a living will, and I had to make that choice for him.
When my father passed away, while we were going though his effects, I found an Ann Landers clipping in his "box" which gave me some insight of what my dad would have wanted me to do if faced with that decision. I am glad I made the right choice.
Cows are creatures which have been manufactured by man to feed him. Man has found out how to get the most flesh for the dollar.
Cows are not equipped to survive on their own, all the survival instinct has been bred out of them, so we can kill them and eat them.
Turn cows loose in the wild, and they will all be eventually killed and eaten.
When I say "natural selection", I am referring to the theory of letting the strong survive and the weak perish. By doing so, we get better animals, (at least that is the theory).
Three years ago, I decided to intervene and put a little bull calf back inside the fence, when the stupid mother head butted it accross the pasture. The reason, is that I couldn't stand to see the little bull calf suffer, and perhaps nature would win out. It did, and I thought I was a pretty good cattle man. (I say this tongue in cheek). If I had figured out at the time, that this mother wasn't a very nuturing animal, and should be culled, it never would have been bred back by it's very own bull calf, which would not have survived, and we would not be sitting here discussing the results. I let my feelings for this cow, (it was my first calf I raised myself) interfere with my logic. I should have culled it last year, instead of slaughtering the other heifer that neither my wife or I liked because it was loud and obnoxious, (but a good mother).
So good folks on Cattletoday, that is how I view this whole cattle business. Be compassionate, but remember your role in the food chain.
There is nothing humaine about the cattle business. All beef cattle will die at the hands of humans, or die by natural causes.
It's been a long day, I'll see you all tomorrow evening.
How I view this whole cow raising business, is that we, (humans) are at the top of the food chain. This is what gives us the right to artifically inseminate the females of the species, (cows) and take the males of the species and cut off their balls, and eat them two years later. Then, after we have forced repeated pregnancy after repeaded pregnancy on that cow, we will kill her and ground her up for hamburger.
Is what happened at my 40 acre parcel of the world any more cruel than the above? I hardly think so.
We, as the world's best predator, have sterilized the predator/prey world to the point where most people get their sustenance from a refrigerated counter in the grocery store, with pieces of cow flesh neatly wrappped in a styrofoam and plastic package.
Is it more cruel for me to take a step back and see if a cow will figure out how to be a mother to a calf, and to see if that calf will be able to survive, than to take a male calf, cut it's balls off, burn it's hide (branding), or punch a whole in it's ear (tagging), then cram that castrated, mutilated steer into a holding pen and feed it unnatural (as in not found in the real world) feed until it is so fat it cannot take on another pound, then stun it with a hammer or put a bullet in it's head, cut it's throat and let it bleed to death?
Like it or not, that is the nature of the cattle business.
Anyone here have a living will? A living will means you command your loved ones to pulling the plug, and letting you starve to death, or become so dehydrated you organs shut down.
Anyone ever done this? Well, I had to a few years ago. My dad had a massive stroke, and I found him, as he was living with us at the time. We rushed him to the hospital, and in the emergency room, the doctor gave me a choice to make. He told me that they could operate on my father, relieve the pressure in his head, and he could likely live for a year or two on artifical life support. Or, I could stand back, try to make my father comfortable and he would pass on.
My father didn't have a living will, and I had to make that choice for him.
When my father passed away, while we were going though his effects, I found an Ann Landers clipping in his "box" which gave me some insight of what my dad would have wanted me to do if faced with that decision. I am glad I made the right choice.
Cows are creatures which have been manufactured by man to feed him. Man has found out how to get the most flesh for the dollar.
Cows are not equipped to survive on their own, all the survival instinct has been bred out of them, so we can kill them and eat them.
Turn cows loose in the wild, and they will all be eventually killed and eaten.
When I say "natural selection", I am referring to the theory of letting the strong survive and the weak perish. By doing so, we get better animals, (at least that is the theory).
Three years ago, I decided to intervene and put a little bull calf back inside the fence, when the stupid mother head butted it accross the pasture. The reason, is that I couldn't stand to see the little bull calf suffer, and perhaps nature would win out. It did, and I thought I was a pretty good cattle man. (I say this tongue in cheek). If I had figured out at the time, that this mother wasn't a very nuturing animal, and should be culled, it never would have been bred back by it's very own bull calf, which would not have survived, and we would not be sitting here discussing the results. I let my feelings for this cow, (it was my first calf I raised myself) interfere with my logic. I should have culled it last year, instead of slaughtering the other heifer that neither my wife or I liked because it was loud and obnoxious, (but a good mother).
So good folks on Cattletoday, that is how I view this whole cattle business. Be compassionate, but remember your role in the food chain.
There is nothing humaine about the cattle business. All beef cattle will die at the hands of humans, or die by natural causes.
It's been a long day, I'll see you all tomorrow evening.
