I often hear people who know nothing about animal husbandry talking about the best way to raise/kill domestic animals. It's bewildering to me.
It's not any better with plants. People with more money than sense worry about hormones (their own bodies are churning with hormones) pesticides and herbicides. Our planet has seven BILLION people on it now. Pesticides and herbicides are our friends! They reduce water use and labor costs. We could not possibly feed everybody without the use of chemicals.
And the word, "organic". Whatever businessman tagged more expensive foods with that term was really from the W.C. Fields school of business: "There's one born every minute". Everything that humans CAN eat is organic. Organic means, "carbon-based, once alive". The only thing we consume that was not once alive is salt.
We can cringe and apologize, but that is just how we are made. Our teeth, our vitamin needs, our guts, even our eyes show that we are predators. We aren't meant to live on grass or sunlight. We are upright with a mobile shoulder so we can throw spears. Our eyeballs are in the front of our head for the depth perception necessary for predators.
Some things sound worse than they are. Horse slaughter has been banned in the USA by well-meaning horse lovers. But this has resulted in terrible suffering for unwanted horses. Since they can't be humanely slaughtered for their flesh, they are often left to starve in pastures or turned out into parks, often with their brands carved out so their owners can't be identified. Also, buyers come to auctions, buy up large numbers of horses and haul them to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered. The horses aren't given food or water on this long, last trip. Is this the more humane option?
I hear the argument that the horses, "Can be adopted out!" But there aren't enough homes for all the unwanted horses. Think about cows--when was the last time you saw a cow abandoned and starving? You don't, because the fact that their carcass is valuable protects them from some of the worst abuse.
And don't even get me started on bottled water...
