Slashdot Mirror
Chicken Run
Applying modern technology to the task of corraling chickens for the slaughterhouse results in a chicken-catching machine that surprisingly is not as gruesome as it appears. Never thought about a "chicken vacuum" before? After reading this, you won't be able to get it out of your head. :) Sadly, scientists are already researching ways for the chickens to fight back.
Some of the biggest fans are animal-rights groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The machines are far more gentle on the birds than human handlers are. "We support using machines that reduce the panic, fear and horror of chickens," says Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns, a Machipongo, Va., group that opposes eating chickens and also runs a sanctuary for a few lucky birds that manage to escape the farms (usually by falling off a truck).
They do realize the bird's final destination, right?
Mike
...and the world will come clucking at your door.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
I personally would like to see more effort and ingenuity go into finding ways to kill the birds more humanely. I for one wouldn't want to go by being dipped in electrified water *then* beheaded. Just the beheading will do me, if it has to be done.
Don't get me wrong - I support the eating of meat, for those who choose to (like me) - I just wish we could do it in more sensible, humane ways.
Ok, this is just a wee-bit off-topic, but...
It's already been done. Check out "Watership Down".
Karma: Food Fight (Mostly affected by Date Plate).
It's nice to see technology being applied to making the food industry more humane. However, I must use this opportunity to bitch about the quality of meat in the US. The poultry here, at least the stuff you buy at Giant or Safeway, sucks. Totally bland and tasteless. My family lived in Bangladesh until I was 4 or so. There, it takes six months to get a chicken ready for sale. Here, thanks to all the growth hormones, it takes a few weeks. In the process, the chicken is robbed of all flavor. When we moved here, it took me months to get used to the chicken here. Even now, the only way I can stand it is to cook it in tons of spices or deep fry it in grease.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
What PETA seems to realize - and you don't - is that no matter how zealous they are, there's not going to be a widespread ban on animal food anytime soon, and chickens will continue to be "inhumanely kept and slaughtered".
Activists like to make you think that the act of buying one brand of chicken over another is a strike against the huge, faceless, cruel chicken industry and its sadistic practices. It's not. They won't even know it happened, because the store already bought the chicken.
Furthermore, it's "almighty buck". And what you imply to be obsession with profit is actually just being efficient with money. If you have two gas stations to patronize, and one is clean, has efficient service, high-quality gas and a lower price, and the other is expensive and has crap gas, are you going to go to the better, less-expensive one or the other?
The world can be wrong today for once.
Where did you use the "=" sign there? You said scientists who create a technology should be put to death "at the least" (I'm wondering what your "most" would be...). You did not say the users of the machines should be put to death, you said the creators. That's like suing Ford for a drunk driver killing your relative. (Pssst... it's not equal.)
I didn't insult your education, call you a fool, or discuss your drug use or lack thereof. I merely said you were being hypocritical, and you didn't answer my question: do you eat vegetables for which you must kill the organism in order to produce the food? (Carrots, potatoes, beets?)
But carrots, potatoes and beets cannot regenerate; you kill them by harvesting them.
And just because a plant doesn't have a nervous system doesn't mean that you're not removing a life force from the Earth when you kill plants. They have a Kirlian aura which you're snuffing out. And check out PEVA, who argue that plants and even single-celled organisms can feel pain ("Some single cell organisms are known to react and withdraw (run!) from heat. Is this not a single-cell pain reaction without a complex human-like nervous system? How can a single cell make this determination without having a 'brain'?")
Oh, and as for religious references? Let's take Genesis:
Now, from Dictionary.com, dominion is:
Combining the two: God gave us supremacy over the animals. The power to govern, control, possess, and use them for our purposes.
And if you follow a more scientific track, we evolved as omnivores and the few people who I have seen attempt a vegan lifestyle ended up emaciated, weak, pale, and short. (Yes, this is anecdotal evidence.)
I'm not trying to pick a fight -- but you obviously are, given the wording in the great-grandparent post:
Calling something the truth without providing references is a Fallacious Argument. There's lots on that page; take your pick.I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.