How animals are treated when raised for food

In American society, there tends to be an idea that if we don’t see it, it doesn’t bother us as much. If we don’t know about it, it is all the better. The movie “Meet Your Meat” and the article “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken” gave some horrifying, yet necessary insights into the world of meat production. Most Americans don’t know exactly how the slaughter process works, but we have an idea that it can not be all that humane. As pointed out in “Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken,” we are more likely to dismiss the horrors of a slaughter house and buy the cheap product, because we still need to be able to pay the bills and save time. If everybody had to face the reality of how their meat was raised and killed, they would probably be disturbed, but would continue their current practices because they have no other way of getting meat, and are not open to becoming vegetarians. “Meet Your Meat” also gave insight into how other animals are killed. Sometimes the animal is still alive while having their throat cut, being dismembered, and skinned. It is a terrible, yet all too real way of life.
It is my opinion that eating meat is acceptable, but as long as the techniques to harvest the meat are done in the most humane way. For example, my grandma and grandpa used to raise beef cows. They would usually have two at a time, and when it became to slaughter them, they did so in the quickest and least painful way possible. Start to finish, the cows were treated with respect, fed and watered correctly, and taken care of. When they were slaughtered, it was with a high powered rifle that would kill in an instant, so no suffering occurred. And after it was all said and done, they had enough meat for quite a few people. I believe this to be an acceptable process for harvesting the meat you would like to eat. Because this is not feasible for most people, we have turned to other, more inhumane ways of slaughtering.

I found a few good resources with more good information about the raising and slaughtering of animals for food. The first deals with hunting and whether or not it is moral and the second deals with the unheard stories of American slaughter houses.

Laney, Dawn. Hunting. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2008.

Eisnitz, Gail. Slaughterhouse : the shocking story of greed, neglect, and inhumane treatment inside the U.S. meat industry . New York: Prometheus Books, 2007.