the people farming and eating dogs in Asia are still people, just people raised in a different culture. they aren’t barbaric inhuman monsters to gawk at. they aren’t to be pointed at to be like “hey those terrible Asians eat dogs! Doesn’t that disgust you?”
people get killed for eating beef in India. western ideas of what meat is acceptable are not universal.
I’d also like to point out like the main reason people started eating dogs is because it’s a commonly avalible meat in those regions
This reminds me of these damn things on change.org
They( as in american citizens, not the citizens of china where it takes place)are litterally calling a small meat festival “ barbaric” and “ devilish”. They are calling poor people barbaric.
Keep in mind this is a poverty stricken province where living conditions arent great and their main concern is the dogs and cats involved? Not the people? I love cats as much as the next person but they have to use “ barbaric” tools aka not guns to kill the animals for meat to celebrate the summer solstice. They prepare meat like any other hunter prepares a deer. This is the issue with applying western ideologies to eastern cultures. Over there, dogs and horses are commonly consumed but here they are pets.
We dont starve like they do. We dont live under that government. Stupid ass americans stop calling poor people of color in other countries barbaric for eating the available meat they have cause they arent as privilaged as you and your vegan diet are challenge
would like to point out that a vast majority of “meat dogs” that get imported by rescues to the US (and other western countries) are bullshit, lies, and a marketing scheme, and the US general public falls for it because they believe chinese & korean people are heartless savages who eat every dog they see:
think about it. do we eat every chicken, hog, cow, etc. we have here in the west? no, because some are meat breeds, some are milk/egg breeds, and some are purely ornamental. an ornamental chicken breed is not going to taste good.
dog meat is exactly the same. the nureongi, a medium-size yellow spitz-type dog that’s bred for meat, is the most frequently eaten dog in korea & china. they aren’t eating desirable dogs like purebred beagles, poodles, goldens, and designer mixes. and yet, what are 99% of these alleged “meat dogs” being imported?
you guessed it, desirable dogs. never any nureongi - only purebred & designer mix ”meat dogs” that rescues buy en-masse from chinese & korean puppy mills to sell back in the US. both the rescues & the east asian puppy mills make a huge profit off of the ignorance of US “animal lovers”.
also, hot take: even actual meat dogs don’t need “rescuing”. people have every right to eat whatever animal they please. do you ever see people flying in from india to come “rescue” our cattle? no? so why is this acceptable? after all, we - the west - are the reason these people are so poor that they have to eat carnivores like dogs and cats. and they’ve been that poor for SO LONG that they’ve had the time to develop meat breeds.
rescue has become less about being practical, and more about virtue signaling & saving dogs with the most marketable sob stories rather than the ones that are actually adoptable. unlearn animal rights propaganda and realize that rescues are perfectly capable of lying and being greedy.
I wish there was more unbiased info on the markets. Most of the pictures I can find are, to be honest, horrific. BUT they all come from these groups in the US and Europe trying to get it all shut down so its seriously suspect if the pictures and videos are even real.
IF the conditions are what is in those pictures, the markets should be urged to change how they treat the animals. We have laws that dictate how beef cattle can and can not be treated. If they are abused, the farms and processors can be shut down and their animals taken away because, despite being raised for consumption, its the moral thing to do.
BUT, taking these sites at face value is like taking those PETA-light websites about “cow abuse” at face value.
not to mention banning something is a piss poor way to stop it from happening. if raising dogs for meat becomes illegal chances are those that still want dog meat will go underground. they’ll have to hide their operations and the dogs will likely be kept in worse conditions because of it. if its legal we can push for better inspection/welfare laws.
personally i think its more ethical to raise healthy dogs for meat than breeding pet pugs who have to spend their whole lives struggling to breathe.
“rescue has become less about being practical, and more about virtue signaling & saving dogs with the most marketable sob stories rather than the ones that are actually adoptable.” OOP
listen. listen. the consumption of animal products is about mutually beneficial relationships Not domination and that’s why prioritizing animal r*ghts over animal welfare is an absolutely brain fungus take to have
urban leftists who’ve never so much as raised a chicken will be like “umm think about the politics of your diet???” because they can’t conceive of the fact that domestication is an incredibly sweet gig for most livestock where they don’t have to look for their own food or shelter or water are protected from predators and also get free healthcare and a quick clean death
100%
The actual issues with our current livestock system are because of capitalism and industrialization. Can we please focus our energy on the global paradigm being cruel and unsustainable to us, the planet, AND livestock instead of getting lost in virtue signaling
This, and the fact of the matter is that modern agriculture (in the US especially) is built on the backs of poor migrant workers who harvest crops and run slaughterhouses.
Industrial scale slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants cause many workers to develop PTSD from how horrible it is for workers and animals both. This is not fucking normal and needs a serious overhaul.
But plant agriculture ain’t off the hook either. People (overwhelmingly people of color) are paid pennies on the dollar if they’re even paid at all (agriculture is actually a growing cause of human trafficking at least in the US but I’m sure this is FAR from just an American issue.)
Our food production system is fundamentally built on the backs of exploitation and horrid conditions for the people involved too, which is something my fellow vegans who call themselves “animal rights activists” forget.
Ignoring human beings in your activism is not only fucking evil, it also makes you a massive fucking hypocrite because humans are animals too.
/steps off soapbox thank you for coming to my TED talk
It has been argued by many that one of the great crimes of our times isn’t the product of action, but of passivity. It is undeniable that every waking moment of our lives we are constantly making decisions to do or not do things. Most of these decisions are so small and inconsequential that we aren’t even conscious of making them. However, the realities in the world beyond our decisions are often…
As someone with fancy goldfish and in a program aimed at animal welfare and education (veterinary school), I feel the need to add a short blurb about basic fish care:
Fish require, at minimum, 1 gallon of water per inch of fish living in the tank. More than one gallon of water per inch of fish is better, but as a hard rule 1 gallon works. If you have one six inch fish, you need at least six gallons of water. If you have five one inch fish, you need at least five gallons of water. If you have, as is my case, one eight inch fish, and two two inch fish, you need at least 12 gallons of water (mine live in a twenty gallon).
A lot of this has to do with keeping water quality high and offering the fish appropriate space to swim and be a fish. If you have multiple fish, it allows them to avoid or interact with their tank mates. Filtration can go a long ways to improving water cleanliness, but stocking too many fish in one tank means filtration alone won’t cut it with the amount of waste produced.
Too small of tank size for the number of fish in the tank (even if it’s a solitary betta fish in a half gallon) is highly stressful for the fish for a number of reasons. Stress decreases immune system, a depressed immune system leads to illness, and you can guess where that leads to from there. Obviously some fish will be more sensitive, some less, but this is something important to remember when deciding on tank size and the number of fish to fill it with.
This is especially true for small fish tanks as is mentioned in the post above. Living in a tank too small for them is an awful way to spend a life. Can you imagine living in a 12x12 room your whole life? It might look cute from the outside, but it’s unfathomable from the inside. Betta fish aren’t actually lazy slugs floating at the top of the tank all day- the ones living in tiny, tiny environments are just absolutely depressed.
I am by no means a fish expert, but I feel like this is one of the most important things to know if you’re thinking about getting a fish. Do your research and help put an end to fish bowls. Knowledge seeking is your greatest tool in learning to take care of a pet.
Okay, mini essay done. Happy fishkeeping from me and my tiny school of goldies!
I don’t really have the time to go into depth here but the inch per gallon rule is outdated and inaccurate. And @doodlehorseafternoon,pleasedo some research on the minimum tank size of the fish you are keeping. There is no 8 inch fish that can be ethically kept in a 20 gallon tank. A 20 gallon tank would be at most 3 times the length of your fish. The width would be 1.5 times the length of an 8 inch fish. That fish barely has room to move! Not even considering it’s level of activity and waste production (which are different in every fish, one of the reasons why the inch per gallon rule makes no sense).
The beauty, songs, and flight of birds have long been sources of human inspiration.
Today, nearly 12 percent of the world’s 9,800 bird species may face extinction within the next century, including nearly one-third of the world’s 330 parrot species.
Birds are sentinel species whose plight serves as barometer of ecosystem health and alert system for detecting global environmental ills.
Many of the world’s parrots and songbirds are threatened with extinction due to pressures from the illegal pet trade, disease, and habitat loss.
Public awareness and education about the physical and behavioral needs of birds can go far in improving the welfare of the millions of birds kept in captivity.
The survival and well-being of the world’s birds depends upon public education and support for conservation.
This is the reason for National Bird Day. Find out more about what’s taking flight for 2016.
Today is #NationalBirdDay! Check out this video to see why exotic birds like parrots DO NOT belong in cages! (If you have more time, watch #ParrotConfidential on PBS.org or Netflix!)
Quick Reminder that if your respect for the bodily autonomy of others stops where your personal pleasure begins, then you have waay more work to do to practice what you preach. All sentient beings should have their bodily autonomy respected based on their sentience. This includes non human individuals.
One of the problems with promoting animal welfare when it comes to farmed animals is that even if you like, make regulations that say the animals must have more living space, it doesn’t change the fact that those farms are still owned by people who would be 100% OKAY WITH keeping them in tiny cages.
The only reason they’re willing to change is because of public pressure and fear of decreased income. At the end of the day, they’d still be okay with keeping animals in horrible conditions if it saved money / time (as evidenced by factory farms).
You can’t truly care about animals when you see them as money machines - commodities - and not individuals. And you can’t keep up with the demand for animal products if you see them as individuals and care for them as such; it wouldn’t be sustainable in any way.
Farmers are literally dying in Texas and Tennessee, right now, trying to save their livestock, their neighbors’ livestock, and complete strangers’ livestock from wildfires, but you keep on believing that none of them care about their animals’ welfare in the absence of legislation.
I work with Agricultural Education/FFA kids. We had a kid die last year attempting to save his cow from a flooded ditch.Flash flood came along, he was slammed against a tree, his parents said they couldn’t talk him out of going out in the storm to save his cow. But no, op is right, farmers are evil, evil people.
As you seem to have missed it and are derailing the topic, I shall quote my original post:
“You can’t truly care about animals when you see them as money machines - commodities - and not individuals. And you can’t keep up with the demand for animal products if you see them as individuals and care for them as such; it wouldn’t be sustainable in any way.”
What happened is unfortunate and very tragic, but I’m talking about animal welfare on large farms and businesses, not one person saving a cow which probably ended up slaughtered anyway.
Do you even know what FFA is? If there’s anything in the greater farming world that’s absolutely not about money, it’s that. I have witnessed first-hand how those animals are treated, I have kids break down when they eventually have to sell those animals, and I have also witnessed farmers spend money they really didn’t have to waste in order to buy those animals and give them right back to the kids who raised them.
If you really want to talk about the commodification of living beings, let’s talk about the immigrants that ensure your fruits and vegetables get to your table.
don’t know any farmers who think their animals are just money machines. we know they’re living individuals.
In NSW Australia we’re in the middle of a drought and our farmers are suffering for it and struggling to feed their cattle let alone make any profit. Majority of farmers I know in Australia also have secondary jobs so they can actually make money before they work the rest of the day on their farm taking care of their animals, because more often then not they’re family farm land.
The latest farm I was on, which raised emu’s, which if you knew anything about farming in Australia you’d know there’s pretty much no money in emu farming. Australian’s find emu meat too oily and we really only use emu or emu oil which again isn’t super popular either. This farmer as well as working two full time jobs was also letting his neighbour keep his cattle on his land, because of the drought leaving his neighbour unable to feed them.
Farmers have always been the most genuine and compassionate people I’ve ever met and their love for animals and caring for them outweighs their need for money to survive.
Anyone that suggests differently has no idea how farms work, or have ever been on a farm.
So. There’s been times we had grass fires that raced threw the fields and farmers and the likes all came out from their homes to help put it out. We had a terrible barn fire years ago that took many animals lives. My great grandmother was one of the first to run into the burning barn to release everything she could. Throwing piglets and chickens out the windows to save them. Neighbors came over and helped put the blaze out and helped save animals. Grandparents where both badly burned and couldn’t even feed the family so the neighbors all came together to farm and feed the family and animals. Some families took the burned animals and helped heal them and once the family was back on their feet they returned them or gave some of there own to make sure the family would be ok. I’ve stayed up many nights with sick animals. Including the beef cattle that would go to market to help the animal threw illness. I could have not bothered with meds and sent them off to market but there’s many times I’ve held them over to help them get better. Yes they did get shipped later when they where healthy and stress free. When we had brd go threw the herd the nights I was up with humidifiers.. cupping sides with my hands to help them cough. Making them move threw the night to keep the lungs loosened. Saying we don’t care makes me so mad. We work so hard to keep the animals happy and healthy. We stress ourselves out over them and we get told we are terrible for eating them. If we really cared we wouldn’t eat them? No. We understand death is gonna happen to us all. We understand that for many that death will be fast and painless and the meat won’t go to waste. We use everything from them rather then wasting loads of perfectly good meat. We also tend to keep more strays and provide more places for wild animals to live and eat then any city would. I have three dogs right now! I never asked for any! They get dumped. Same as cats. I’m all. Oh well. I got the food. I got the room. I put out money to make sure everything gets neutered.. useless cats and dogs but I keep them all. Won’t even catch a mouse half the time. Dogs hardly leave the house where it’s warm in the winter but they are fed and warm. When it comes to a sick animal I treat the animals the same.. I’m going to heal them if possible no matter who or what it is. The amount of times I’ve had a picked on chicken in the house. A basket full of lambs I’m bottle feeding. Even a calf that was born super small. Was in my room for awhile. So don’t be telling me I don’t care. I do care. I just think because I live it I understand it better then someone that has nothing to do with the day to day conditions.
I reblogged this once but I feel the need to do so again to dispel the myth that large-scale “factory farms” are the norm. So in my Animal Welfare class from a couple weeks ago I mentioned in this post we learned about what the average beef cattle raiser in Texas is like. Texas is 1st in the United States for cattle numbers and beef cattle production.
Do you know what the average number of cattle owned by producers in Texas is??
And I garuntee you if a rancher only had 32 head he can identify them on sight, knows each pedigree back three generations, and loses sleep over their welfare each night.
Beef cattle raisers are not in this business for the money. It’s one of the worse ways to make money out there. We do it because we love it and it’s part of our heritage. We feel a responibility to care for these animals and to feed people. It’s never about the money. If it was we would all be in oil and gas.
It was recently brought to my attention that one of the videos I reblogged was almost certainly from a tiger farm, in which tigers are bred for commercial sale or for their body parts. Tiger farms are not conservation. These products lead to increasing poaching and weakening of legal protections for tigers.
Tigers are solitary animals and almost never appear together in large numbers, and photage of such should be considered suspicious.
There could be as few as 3,890 tigers in the wild. If you love tigers, don’t buy tiger products, visit tiger farms, or support cub petting.
ARAs are physically incapable of realizing that talking about the cruelty of farming quinoa or almonds or avocados is not about shaming vegans for eating those things or saying they’re evil for eating food grown unethically or they shouldn’t eat anything unless they’ve grown themselves but about pointing out how they’re not morally superior for eating food that is just as unethical as animal products.
It’s like talking to a conservative that thinks because they think a certain way, leftists must think the exact opposite and purposefully misrepresent what they say.
ARAs think meat eaters are inherently evil. Their talking points are about how producing and consuming animal products is evil. So if you talk about the unethical practices of crop farming you must be calling vegans evil! Nevermind what they’re ACTUALLY saying about crop production, they’re just hating on you
