"I'm so glad we can start taking the animals straight to the slaughterhouse again."
So said a beef farmer on the news this evening as the government announced a relaxation on the movement of livestock in the wake of the latest Foot and Mouth outbreak.
I can’t sort out what I think about all this. On the one hand there are people whose livelihoods are threatened. People who stand to see businesses that they’ve spent years building up destroyed in an instant. On the other we have a situation where innocent animals are being slaughtered as a precaution against the spread of Foot and Mouth. A disease which, as far as I can understand, is no worse for them than a case of mild flu and which seemingly causes no threat to humans if they eat the meat afterwards.
Journalists seem to get even more melodramatic than usual at times like this and the hypocrisy of the general populous gets even stronger than usual. “Their fate was sealed as soon as the test results came back” said one. As if their fates hadn’t been sealed the day they were born to be bred for human consumption!
Apparently TV viewers were so shocked at seeing pictures of pyres of burning bodies in 2001 that the rules on disposing of dead animals had to be changed. If they could only see what goes on in the abattoirs up and down the UK then maybe the rules on eating dead animals might be changed too. Foot and Mouth brings the whole meat industry closer to people and they don’t like what they see. Maybe some good might come of the latest outbreak – or have the carnivores got short memories and once out of sight it’s out of mind again………..
The morning the story about foot and mouth broke, we went to a local restaurant for lunch. As we were given the menu, a typed sheet was also handed to us from the management, assuring us that no meat products used by the restaurant came from the affected farm. Well done for the restaurant for being so on the ball....but this is a worrying indication of the perceived mind set of the meat eating public. One could almost see the relief on the waitresses face when we told her we were all veggie!
Great post. I just found your blog in a "Veggie Blog" google search and I am impressed.
I am afraid it is out of sight, out of mind, for the vast majority. Some good may come of the outbreak, but probably very little.
They showed some of the "Beef Disposal" on the news a week or so ago. I was pretty disgusted, but happy they showed the video. They used what looked to be logging equipment to scoop up 5 or 6 bodies at a time and empty them into a train car. I'm sure that scared a few people away from eating flesh.
Maybe in 50 years things will be different. But for now, the cows, and everyone else edible, are kinda doomed.
I think most people just see what they want to see. They get hysterical about a whale that has lost its way in the Thames yet don't seem to mind the cruelty inflicted on animals on their behalf on a daily basis. I do think the answer is to encourage the organic movement and for people to eat less meat and fish.
Posted by Ruby | August 11, 2007 10:36 AM