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Keyser Suze
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: With Usual Suspects
Posts: 8,617
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vicky.
That is ****ing disgusting. I didnt even know what foie gras meant, and now I just wish I didnt  |
Sorry Vicky  It's just as this is under serious debate, it might be worth knowing more about what we are debating I suppose. Below is the second news article, this time on the origin of Fox Hunting and the treayment of the animals raised for Veal.
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Link to news article
Fox-hunting and the Ban
The Rise of Fox-hunting
Foxes have been hunted, for their furs, for hundreds of years. They were regarded as vermin, and usually caught by being dug out of the ground, by men with terriers. It was only in the late 17th century that the fox began to be seen as an animal worth hunting for sport.
The reason for the rise of fox-hunting was the decline in the number of deer, as a result of the clearing of woodland for farming. Hunters who had previously chased deer now looked to hares and foxes to provide their sport. In the 17th century, hunting dogs were bred for their skill in following a puzzling scent over a great distance. This was vital in tracking a hare, which uses trickery to escape pursuit, often running in rings and doubling back on itself. Despite its reputation for cunning, the fox relies on speed. It could easily outrun any dogs. So early fox hunts would often last from dawn until nightfall, and end with the fox escaping.
Father of fox-hunting
In 1753, an 18-year-old country gentleman called Hugo Meynell (which rhymes with "kennel") began to hunt foxes on his estate, Quorn, in Leicester. Meynell was the first person to breed dogs for speed and stamina as well as scent. The speed of his dogs gave a new excitement to hunting foxes. It was also now possible to begin a hunt later in the morning, making it attractive to young noblemen who kept late nights. It was Meynell, a well-known figure in London society, who made fox-hunting fashionable.
By 1800, fox-hunting was supported by most of the great landed aristocratic families, who kept their own packs of hounds. In country towns, local businessmen, lawyers and shopkeepers also joined together to form hunts, clubbing together to fund "subscription packs". Hunt clubs were set up, which became the centre of social life in the countryside. The idea developed that hunting was a unifying force, bringing the whole rural community together in a shared activity.
Melton Mowbray
The Leicester town of Melton Mowbray sits at the junction of three hunts, the Quorn, Cottesmore and Belvoir. This made it attractive to young male aristocrats, who would spend the whole hunting season in the town. Meltonians, as they became known, were devoted to hard riding, and would hunt six days a week throughout the winter months. In the evenings they relaxed with cockfighting, dogfighting, gambling and drinking. During one drunken night in Melton in 1837, the Marquess of Waterford and his friends poured red paint over the local nightwatchmen and then painted the walls of the town. This is the origin of the phrase "painting the town red".
Fox supply
The growing popularity of hunting led to problems ensuring a supply of foxes. In the early 19th century, foxes were imported from the continent, mainly from France and Holland. Landowners also planted artificial coverts - brushy areas for the foxes to live in. It became socially unacceptable for farmers to trap or shoot foxes - an act known as "vulpicide". There was a country saying: "Better kill a man than a fox".
City people go hunting
The spread of the railways in the 1840s transformed fox-hunting. A Londoner could now catch the 8.05 train to Brockenhurst in the New Forest, with his horse in a box, and get there in time for the day's meet. Between the 1840s and 1870s, the number of people hunting foxes increased tenfold. Women also began to hunt, riding side-saddle in thick skirts. For the first time, the sport attracted large numbers of people with little connection with the countryside where they hunted.
The increasing numbers of hunters caused problems for farmers, who complained of the damage caused by riders to their crops and fences. Tensions worsened in the 1870s, during the agricultural depression, caused by an influx of cheap foreign grain. Farmers began to claim compensation for damage caused by hunts, and there was an increase in vulpicide. In 1888, a Worcestershire farmer shouted at a hunter who was trampling his corn. When the hunter used his whip on the farmer, the latter put advertisements in the local papers: "Wanted, dead foxes, must be out of the Worcestershire Hunt, shot, poisoned, or trapped, price given, £1 dog foxes, 30 shillings vixens."
For the first time, people living in the countryside were questioning the basic ideals of hunting, and its place in rural society.
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Link to news article - (photos on linked page)
Veal : A Cruel Meal
Photo in link - A calf lies dead in the slatted stall in which it stood for all of its life, with
no mother, sunlight or decent food. This is the fate of a calf raised for veal.
The veal calf industry is one of the most reprehensible of all the kinds of intensive animal agriculture. Veal calves are a by-product of the dairy industry; they are "manufactured" by "milk machines" - dairy cows. Female calves are raised to be dairy cows: They are confined and fed synthetic hormones to increase growth and production and antibiotics to keep them alive in their unhealthy, unnatural environments. They are artificially inseminated and, after giving birth, are milked for several years until their production levels drop, then they are slaughtered.
Male calves are taken from their mothers shortly after birth. Some are slaughtered soon after birth for "bob veal." Others are raised in "open pens," a kind of minimum security prison, and even then they are sometimes chained. Most are destined for the veal crate.
Solitary Confinement
The veal crate is a wooden restraining device that is the veal calf's permanent home. It is so small (22" x 54") that the calves cannot turn around or even lie down and stretch and is the ultimate in high-profit, confinement animal agriculture.(1) Designed to prevent movement (exercise), the crate does its job of atrophying the calves' muscles, thus producing tender "gourmet" veal.
"Feeding" Time
The calves are generally fed a milk substitute intentionally lacking in iron and other essential nutrients. This diet keeps the animals anemic and creates the pale pink or white color desired in the finished product. Craving iron, the calves lick urine-saturated slats and any metallic parts of their stalls. Farmers also withhold water from the animals, who, always thirsty, are driven to drink a large quantity of the high-fat liquid feed.
Because of such extremely unhealthy living conditions and restricted diets, calves are susceptible to a long list of diseases, including chronic pneumonia and "scours," or constant diarrhea. Consequently, they must be given massive doses of antibiotics and other drugs just to keep them alive. (The antibiotics are passed on to consumers in the meat.) The calves often suffer from wounds caused by the constant rubbing against the crates.
A Fate Worse Than Death
About 14 weeks after their birth, the calves are slaughtered. The quality of this "food," laden with chemicals, lacking in fiber and other nutrients, diseased and processed, is another matter. The real issue is the calves' experience. During their brief lives, they never see the sun or touch the Earth. They never see or taste the grass. Their anemic bodies crave proper sustenance. Their muscles ache for freedom and exercise. They long for maternal care. They are kept in darkness except to be fed two to three times a day for 20 minutes. The calves have committed no crime, yet have been sentenced to a fate comparable to any Nazi concentration camp.
Photo in Link - veal calves
What You Can Do
To help stop veal calf abuses, don't buy or eat veal, and tell friends, relatives, and neighbors why. Tell restaurant managers about veal cruelties and ask them to remove veal from their menus. Also, don't buy or eat dairy products, because of the dairy industry's role in veal production. Ask your state legislators to sponsor bills that would prohibit the use of veal crates.
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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams.
"Live for today because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come" - Author unknown
Last edited by Suze; 11-04-2011 at 05:19 PM.
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