Yup. I'm not really going to say too much about this subject, mostly because I despise the people filming those sensationalized videos because they're jackholes imho.

Not sure if I believe that whole "stress taints the food, even as they enter the slaughter house" type of thing.

O man, i'm surprised PETA hasn't gone on the warpath after those scientists started discussing the capacity of Lobster's, Roaches, and other bugs to feel pain. Still can't believe those nimrods tried to call fish http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_clW92NzmFvI/TFRRj-st3NI/AAAAAAAAD8o/uGzx3S6mNBE/s1600/SeaKittens.jpgto keep people from eating them.

I think they're point is "Can we kill them without being the biggest a-holes about it?". They're not delusional, they do understand the need to kill them, but much of the moments leading up to a livestock animals death is unnecessary. As others have said, those video's are greatly exaggerated and don't indicate the habits of the majority of people who do own livestock animals, but it couldn't hurt to make the extra effort to make sure they don't suffer as long if there's a faster way. I think people who go with the more painful, albeit the most convenient options, are just being lazy, cheap, and irresponsible, even if it only shortens an animals suffering by a few seconds. It's up to them, but if you make the decision to own livestock animals, I'd consider it a responsibility to treat the animals properly to an extent. You chose to own the animals, you should have to make the proper effort to deal with them.

Then again, I don't know much about this topic, I don't actually know how the majority of livestock owners treat their animals and I'm just going on what everyone else in this thread has said. Maybe that's a sign I shouldn't participate in discussions on a subject I know nothing about.

Just for clarification, PETA does not represent everyone when people do not want to eat meat.

Better to participate, find out things and develop informed opinions than to refrain from getting involved. We never stop learning.

As others have said, I think this would be one of the biggest factors when it comes to a traditional lethal injection. Truth be told, reading through a lot of this thread has made me want to vomit (not peoples' opinions, but just remembering some of those videos and envisioning having to shoot an animal), and I'm not even a vegetarian; I just really really love animals. Though other factors were into play to make me more sensitive during that time, I cried when I saw the chicken getting its leg broken in The Walking Dead; I'm that 'bad,' I guess. I'd definitely be a vegetarian if I could afford it and had the time to prepare vegetarian meals, but I do eat meat pretty sparingly as it is and can't eat anything that's been boiled alive or that I had seen alive previously... if I had to hunt for my food I'd probably be a vegetarian.

Either way, with that being said, I think the best thing that can be done for livestock or any animal used for food is that it be treated as humanely as possible before its death. I seriously become nauseated driving home from school and seeing hundreds of chickens cramped into a truck (while I live in a small city, it's close to agricultural areas and seeing farmers is not unusual) with crap all over themselves. I don't believe animals were never meant to be used for food or other things when we need it, but we need to show some respect for the fact that they have (though it's not very voluntary on their part) and cooping them up and not letting them have any semblance of a life before death is insanely cruel.

It should be pretty obvious that I could never see myself being a livestock farmer or a hunter unless we all went back to hunting/gathering... and even then, I'd prefer gathering, haha.

What's wrong with just taking a knife and slitting the animal's throat? That's how my great-grandparents always butchered all their animals. It's cheap, it's fast, it's a hell of a lot more humane than many current practices and it doesn't require creepy chemicals.

I think that's kind of obvious Gheart, and never did I say that they do. I know that i'm rather thick, stupid, or whatever you want to call it, but there are some things I have the ability to grasp, despite what others believe to the contrary. I just can't help laughing at the absurdity of some of these idiots.

they already have meats like that.

If you don't like poor treatment of animals then don't eat KFC as the conditions of their chickens is down right disgusting. There's rumors that they mutate chickens with extra legs/wings but that hasn't been proven, the chicken conditions have though

Some posts have gone away. Now I shall review the entire thread.

I went to a slaughterhouse for an animal husbandry field trip in year 10. It certainly wasn't as bad as some of the clips on the net, basically the cows are out in a field until they get herded into a small stall where they get stunned with a taser thing and then a pressure gun or something gets fired into their head (with instant death), I know this might not be the norm, but I really didn't find the killing of the cow that traumatising (that might also be because the cow getting cut into the different cuts of meat was more disgusting visually), but it wasn't like they were suffering in a tiny little area in their own excrement and then beaten to death, they were out in a grassy field right up until the last couple of minutes of their life. I wouldn't be able to do it myself though.