I want Shocking Meat ad back! This new picture is so much more

[Curmudgeoness]

troubling. A chunk of meat was not disturbing, but that poor calf is killing me!!!

[undeterred]

1. I'm on the Mercy For Animals email list and I got this email today...

A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation provides a horrifying look into E6 Cattle Co., which supplies thousands of calves for the dairy industry.

For over two weeks in March of 2011, an MFA investigator documented the operation's deplorable conditions and brutal mistreatment of animals.

MFA's hidden camera reveals:

Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – a killing method condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association

Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles

Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs

Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs

Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves

Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care

The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers

Upon reviewing the undercover footage, Temple Grandin, PhD, animal welfare advisor to USDA, declared: "It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare."

Following the undercover investigation, MFA alerted law enforcement authorities to violations of Texas anti-cruelty law at E6 Cattle, and presented a detailed legal complaint and meticulously compiled evidence of such violations to the Castro County District Attorney and sheriff. The evidence demonstrated an ongoing pattern of torture, unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering on animals, and a failure to provide necessary medical care. The case is currently under investigation.

As MFA continues to expose the unconscionable cruelties of animal agriculture, and to diligently pursue justice by aiding prosecutions of animal abusers, consumers still hold the greatest power of all to end the needless suffering and death of calves – and all farmed animals – by adopting a compassionate, vegan diet.




I became a vegetarian about a year ago. There were a lot of reasons, but finding out that stuff like this goes on pushed me over the edge. I just really lost my taste for meat thinking about it.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. It seems that animal abusers are attrracted to the factory farm

industry. There is way too much of the cruel behavior documented time and time again at these industrial farms. Most of the abusers should probably be in prison, because I doubt that you can be that unfeeling toward animals and be kind to humans.

I am not a vegetarian, I eat meat. I cannot imagine not eating meat. But I also have no stomach for this sort of torture. It doesn't have to be this way. I have only taken one piddly step on this issue, and have not eaten veal for as long as I can remember because of the way they "grow" veal calves. It is a dilemma.

[undeterred]

3. It doesn't have to be that way.

And I hope it is not that way everywhere. It just seems like we have become so disconnected from the processes of how things are made that its really hard to have any idea what is involved. We don't know lots of things about how the things we use get to us. We just take it for granted that its done fairly.

There are a lot of industries that hate regulation.

[siligut]

4. This world is breeding people who lack empathy

At least what you describe has been identified. I am vegetarian too, recently thinking I want to go vegan, we do what we can. Right now I buy dairy, eggs and cosmetics from places identified as cruelty free, but that label has been questioned.

[burrfoot]

5. So, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I clicked on it. I eat meat, even though I know the faults in the system. I like to think that with some regulation we can take the brutality out of the process. Thought maybe I'd learn something to further inform my opinion.

The first five seconds of the video literally made me jump. I am not embarrassed to say that I clicked away from it and don't think I'll ever be able to watch it.

I'm sad, and disgusted, at the absurdly cruel things that humans can do. Eating meat means we kill animals, I get that. I am horribly disturbed to see the joy that some people take in it, though. I can't get that damn image out of my head now.

I wonder, does such a "shocking" video actually bring more people to the maker's cause? For me, at least tonight, it is literally too much to handle and it has made me less likely to click on any other movie like it, which makes me less likely ever to be convinced by their message. Seems counterproductive.

I'm also vaguely irritated by the blatant emotional manipulation. I know, I know...I'm the one who clicked on it.

I'm rambling. Sorry. Even if you watched the last video, give some serious thought to whether you need to watch this one before you click on it.




You're right, this one is MUCH more disturbing than the "shocking meat" video; at least if the rest is as disturbing as the beginning.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. You made me feel like a hypocrite, not watching this one

before posting. So...I watched it. I did exactly what you did in the first five seconds, I literally jumped. I was disgusted. I watched the whole thing, but agree with you that I do not think I will watch another one....ever.

I once worked for a man who owned, among other things, a beef cattle ranch. I will guarantee you that all cows are not treated so badly, and his cattle were well treated. In fact, the first time I was there for an inventory of cows, they were using a cattle prod, and that stopped right then and there. That was the worst of the things I saw there, except the branding and I don't know how to get around that.

The behavior shown in this video is not only cruel, it is unnecessary and I cannot see how the meat from these cows/calves can be healthy to eat. I cannot say that this means I will no longer eat meat, but as I have been doing in recent years, I will watch where my meat is coming from. I do not know why these places are still in business.

I am sick to my stomach right now.