I like eating chicken (rant alert)

TheCatWoman said:

I think if you're going to eat meat then you should be prepared to kill the animal yourself and if you can't face that then don't eat it.

I wonder how many people who engage in blood 'sports' actually eat their murder victims  

How do you get on with eating out Bunny? I find theres still a massive amount of ignorance about what being vegetarian means, let alone being vegan, or plant based, whatever that really means? 

Maybe the way forward for meat eating is to eat less, but better quality meat, treat it as a treat, make use of all of it, if you have a chicken, pick the carcase down and reuse all the meat in various dishes and boil up the bones for stock. 

One fo the things that confuses me about meat eaters is how hard they try and not know that they eat animals, I'm not an ethical vegetarian, so I don't have a problem with people eating meat, I just have a problem with the dishonesty about it, I think if you're going to eat meat then you should be prepared to kill the animal yourself and if you can't face that then don't eat it.

Martin said:

RSPCA Assured and Soil Association Organic labels give assurance as to ethical standards in meat production

That's good. 

I was thinking of ready meals and other meat products. 

I rarely buy meat in any other form (and not for me).

Rather our very acidic stomachs and short intestines are indicators that we are omnivores eating meat as well as plants. The evolution of our oversized, lipid-rich, brains would have been impossible without access to plentiful sources of animal fats. The evolution of stereoscopic vision in primates was more about safe locomotion in trees than hunting, though many small primates like marmosets are omnivores eating many insects, the tarsier is an obligate insectivore.

Animals can be raised in a way that allows them to express their natural instincts and not be stressed. This is fairly obvious. That they often are not is the problem. 

There is also a moral question, we have domesticated many animals, they can no longer survive without us. If we no longer have a use for them they will become extinct.

RSPCA Assured and Soil Association Organic labels give assurance as to ethical standards in meat production. I remember when chicken was a luxury, eaten on the occasional Sunday and it had flavour. Now chicken often tastes of very little and can be insanely cheap. If you pay even a little more than the very lowest price for any meat there will have been some greater attention paid to rearing standards. People want to pay peanuts for meat and either do not care how the animals have been treated or are puzzled by the fact that cheaply produced meat is the result of unethical methods.

We humans are natural predators, our front facing eyes are a testament to that, but at the same time, the meat industry does get sketchy in some areas.

I rarely eat red meat now except perhaps lamb at Christmas or Easter and the odd mince steak dish. M&S still do RSPCA chicken which I get. I don’t eat pork. I wish I had the willpower to become vegetarian. I tried it for a few weeks but got a craving for chicken. I’ve cut down on animal products but it’s not good enough.

I was vegetarian for a long time, but my family aren’t and it’s become difficult for me to make separate meals for myself so I have been eating chicken occasionally, but I don’t eat any red meat. I feel bad when I do and when I am able to I will start making my own food again. I’m not sure if the general public aren’t aware or don’t care about animals that are bred for meat. Thank you for posting this. 

I listened to a podcast about the whole chicken industry and it's history, by Dr Chris Van Tulleken. It's called FED: Planet Chicken. 

A long time ago, Jamie Oliver did a campaign to improve the lives of chickens, and everywhere started stocking higher welfare. That slowly disappeared and now you can't even choose it at some super markets.

We're lucky we have a couple of local dairies that you can buy from direct

M&S in N. Ireland has stopped stocking RSPCA higher welfare milk. N. Ireland producers aren’t interested in raising animal welfare standards.

Martin said:

Everyone not in abject poverty has the choice to pay more for meat from animals that have been humanely bred and raised.

 I don't think that's quite so.

If you want to do so then you will be paying quite a lot more in one of the supermarkets I mentioned albeit they do have offers.

Finding out the welfare standards of the meat suppliers can be complicated. 

Meat imported from abroad should be avoided 

The care standards in other countries can be vile. 

I️ wish that live animals were never imported or exported for eating.

Their journeys can be terrible. 

Animal testing for cosmetics has been illegal in the UK since 1998. Everyone not in abject poverty has the choice to pay more for meat from animals that have been humanely bred and raised.

Or use one of the many free range meat companies that do deliveries of boxes of meats for your freezer.

NAS71232 said:

where the animals, bred for consumption are treated humanely

As someone who's been vegan for over 25 years (and vegetarian before that), this phrase - for me - is oxymoronic / self-contradictory.

NAS71232 said:

I'm fully aware that animals eat each other, so veganism is rather silly when you factor that.

Animals can't buy ethical, vegan alternatives, but we can 

NAS71232 said:

I know this post is naive

I don't think that your upset or alarm are naive at all. This general line of thinking is what people can often go through before reaching a decision to become vegetarian or vegan.

I shared a quote recently in another thread. Together with learning more about egg farming and the dairy industry, it helped in motivating me to switch from being vegetarian to vegan. The "needlessly" aspect, in particular, helped me to question and explore whether eating animal-derived products was necessary at all.

"I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."

From:

English Verse - "Care for the Lowest", by William Cowper

  These days, it's possible to get everything we need without eating them, or what they produce.

Here is another superb organisation:

https://www.four-paws.org.uk/

If a person can afford to, then shopping at Waitrose & M&S is best for produce obtained from animals farmed with compassion & has been always, as far as I am aware.

Many moons ago (nearly 50 I think) I started getting eggs from Waitrose as they were the only place I knew to do free range.

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5161418/shoppingguide.pdf

This is a superb organisation:

https://www.ciwf.org.uk/

TheCatWoman said:

get into more nose to tail eating