I would call being bred and fattened and slaughtered for food when it’s not necessary anymore, at least in Western countries, counts as sadistic abuse.
But that’s why I choose not to take part… but I’m not a militant vegan or anything. I believe that’s a choice each individual has to make for themselves and I’m not going to try to force them
I’m not ethically opposed to eating meat, but fuck industrial animal farming.
I’m not 100% opposed. In fact, there is one type of meat I am currently willing to eat. I live in Indiana and until people can be convinced to return all the wolves and bears and cougars that were killed off by European settlers, the deer population has to be culled every year or it will explode and all of their food will be eaten too quickly, causing both their own population to collapse with a bunch of deer dying of starvation along with the population of other animals who were unable to get that same food due to the deer eating it all also dying of starvation.
So hunters are just necessary here. I am willing to eat hunted venison when offered to me because I’d rather it get eaten than just thrown out. That seems a lot worse to me. (This would apply to wild turkeys too, but I don’t like the taste.)
If their natural predators were re-introduced, I’d probably change my mind.
I would happily eat venison if there was an ethical way to get it into the food supply chain. Getting into hunting myself and doing all that is actually somewhat appealing, but I just don’t have the time or resources to make that happen.
Some states won’t let hunters’ surplus game to be donated or sold. Some will and do. It’s a good balance. Then you find the city slicker trophy hunter deer - whole carcasses, minus the rack. It’s disgusting, even for me (flexitarian), and we grew up raising or hunting our own food. We would never kill an animal that wasn’t an immediate threat that wouldn’t be eaten, except for rats and bugs, but we still didn’t go out of our way to prolong suffering (but we did to quickly end it).
I’m not opposed to ethically farmed meat. Factory farms are hellholes, but I don’t think years of free food, medicine, and security are an inherently bad trade for eventually being food yourself, assuming humane living conditions.
If these animals were ever born in the first place, they’d likely succumb to predation or disease long before they’d be slaughtered.
History will take a very dim view of industrial animal ag and society’s support of it.
I’m located in Europe in a country with high values in terms of animal based food production. Digging a bit deeper into the issue, I learnt a lot about milk production, eggs, meat in general and that made me immediately change my consumer habits. Only supporting small local businesses that produce fairly, respectfully and consciously strictly what needs to be consumed. I am lucky to have access those producers directly, even when the prices are higher and the variety more limited, I am happy to consume in this way animal based products. It’s hard to do when you live on a big city and embedded in the processing food chain. Still I see this as a growing concern in the newer generation. And it gives me hope that the world is somehow changing for good!
