Hard News: Current affairs TV in "making difference" shock!
170 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 … 7 Newer→ Last
-
One thing that boggled me was that there are no welfare inspections unless a member of the public makes a complaint. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't casually drop into pig farms for a look around. I imagine most pig farms don't have strangers visiting from one year to the next.
How could this possibly pass for a reasonable regulatory regime?
-
I am not a moral crusader for the vege lobby: I am not moral enough or veggie enough. I just think that if you want pigs to be happy you should think about not eating them; which is not a threadjack, but a logical progression in the discussion.
-
But Paul - it is hard to be a happy pig if you don't exist in the first place. I am reliably informed that Afghanistan, for example, has only one pig.
Lots of un-pigs are not happily snuffling about Kabul.
Sure, we eat them. But that is the reason they are in my paddock in the first place.
-
You are suggesting ,Paul...that a logical progression of the discussion is to not eat anything that is dead?
-
I'm gutted that I won't be having any more roast porks from the Roast shop in the future as that is bound to be the cheapest they can source, therefore, guaranteed to be crate-farmed. Love a bit of crackling on occasion!!!
-
So it wasn't just sour grapes about sow crates... about time these chickens came home to roost.
Big business will always be cagey about their fat margins and lean with the truth.Given the choice, pigs don't shit where they eat or sleep.
unlike many politicians it seems - quite often when given things on a platter they'll still make a pig's ear of it and then sweat and squeal later - witness the farce-tracked Supercity (sty?) that may well turn out to be a pig in a poke...
The days of Swine and Roses are over
The Boar War redux begins here
let the rasher gnarl be woven into some common sense and decency, and hopefully we'll revisit our lapsed social contract with the animals that we insist on living for us and in our midst and purview.yrs Eric Blair
Animal Farm
Guantanamo -
Paul,
eating them is whole reason for their existence - we don't get wool or milk from them, nor even antler-velvet. Just lots of pig-meat, and pretty much nothing need be wasted.
If you don't want to eat them, fair enough. But domesticated farm animals were reared for what we can get from them (nasty despicable manipulative humans) so we owe it to them that they should be allowed as happy a life as possible and with enjoyment of their meat.
-
Stewart, but it would still be better not to eat them and for them not to exist. Their existence is for our pleasure and will inevitably involve their pain. Besides, animal husbandry is bad for the environment.
-
I am not a moral crusader for the vege lobby: I am not moral enough or veggie enough. I just think that if you want pigs to be happy you should think about not eating them; which is not a threadjack, but a logical progression in the discussion.
Yes, it is, and I expected someone to raise it.
-
we don't get wool or milk from them
| nor even antler-velvet
well there was that one renowned powerful aphrodisiac - the Football !
But things moved on from bladder to versace!
Now most pig leather is used in apparel furniture, saddles and. of course, wallets.yrs
George Hamilton
(Tanned but not dead!) -
Paul, Without death there can be no life.
Death is the only certainty of life. All us - man and pig - must suffer the pain of death eventually.
Are you seriously suggesting that your knowledge of your inevitable demise means you wish you hadn't been born at all?
-
I bet bacon - and ham, and pork chops, with apple sauce, not to mention the crispy crackling - taste just as good as they did all those many, many years ago, when I last ate them. If I'm ever tempted I'm reminded of that vision of George Bernard Shaw, where all of the animals one didn't eat march in spirit, in black tie, in one's funeral procession. Over time it adds up to rather a lot.
Anway, that's just me. Good on Mike King.
-
Slightly off topic but NZ Deer Leather is now in very high demand with the big European luxury fashion houses - apparently we have one of the highest numbers of farmed deer in the world (most other deer leather comes from wild animals so is marked).
-
I'm hoping the same amount of outrage can also be applied to chicken farming. It seems Free Range eggs have quite a high visibility now but I don't see the same thinking being applied to chicken meat.
Free range chicken meat is hard to find, unless you live in Ponsonby.It always struck me as odd that our Beef and Lamb are given a great life in the paddocks, but the same thing isn't applied to Pigs or Chickens.
-
Tom, I think you have had too much crispy bacon. This is not about my mortality, but the well-being of other beings, sentient creatures. If our happiness requires the suffering of others, we should at least think about changing our behaviour.
-
In the absence of pigs for ethical reasons, we'll just have to eat elephant bacon.
-
I agree but you don't see that fierce and obvious intelligence in the eyes of chickens that you do in pigs. I mean, more intelligent that dogs!! And I've seen some mighty smart dogs.
-
I've lived in Canada for a cumulative total of about 5 years. Visited 8/10 Provinces. Driven through rural areas for days at a time.
Number of pigs seen = 0
Of course it's possible they're galavanting about in large, centrally heated barns making pigs of themselves.
But I doubt it.
Am now trying to recall if I have ever seen a cow, either. I can assure you the wheat and barley is free-range though.
-
I am not trying to be smart, I genuinely do feel like a bacon sammie for my lunch now.
:( -
More intelligent "than' dogs.
-
@ David R
It always struck me as odd that our Beef and Lamb are given a great life in the paddocks
Well, except for the tens of thousands of lambs that die terrible deaths from prolonged exposure in the godforsaken, treeless paddocks of the South Island every time it snows in August and September. Which it does pretty much every year.
-
As the source of the earlier comment about suicidal cows (that's where steak comes from, right?), I do stand by what I said to Simon. Keeping the price down is not sufficient reason to "farm" pigs. It is, however, the unfortunate reality of an open border that an increase in the price of domestic product will simply open a gap for cheaper, imported meat. And we can't do anything about that without turning our back on the open borders mantra that we have to preach if we're to have any chance of improving not only our own farmers' lot but also the lot of farmers in the third world.
I guess we could try some sort of phytosanitary measure, but that'd be a hard sell in the inevitable WTO complaint given that we don't currently have anything of that sort. -
Free range chicken meat is hard to find, unless you live in Ponsonby.
Quite. And it hurts having to pay $20 for a size 14 free-range corn-fed at the local supermarket. My partner and I pick one up every couple of months, but mostly chicken is off the menu.
Now, if we can also work on the sustainability of our fisheries (Red Cod, why are you so cheap, overfished and delicious?) and effluent run-off on dairy/cattle farms, we might be getting somewhere.
Clean and green, we most definitely are not. (Tasty though)
-
Paul, I think I would only succumb to your argument if I felt that the pigs knew, during their lives, that they were destined to be eaten.
Death happens to all that is alive - I just want the piggies deaths not to have been in vain, and their lives to have been comparatively comfortable and pleasant. -
Pigs are more intelligent than dogs
NEIL: Well, I don't mind being a pig, cause, for your information, pigs are really intelligent, actually.
RICK: Oh?
NEIL: Yeah, like dolphins.
RICK: Oh, so they are, are they? Well, tell me, Neil. Who invented the internal combustion engine? Was it Porky the Pig? No, it was Lincoln Rawls, wasn't it?! And the Theory of Relativity. Was Pythagoras a pig? No, he was a Greek, wasn't he? So tell me, Neil. You're the expert. [grabs the cups] What's the major piggie contribution to civilization?
NEIL: Ummm.... [pause, thinking]
RICK: It's bacon, isn't it? Bacon and rooling around in the mud. Look out, Michaelangelo, here comes the new piggie Renaissance!and apropos of nothing in particular:
What do you think you're doing, Pig?
Do you really give a fig, Pig?
And what's your favourite type of gig, Pig?
Barry Manilow?
Or the Black and White Minstrel Show?
Post your response…
This topic is closed.