From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: misc.fitness.weights,sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: Building muscle as a vegetarian
Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 16:03:45 -0700

Bob Mann wrote in message ...

>I am not willing to give up the pleasures and/or requirements in my
>life in order to save a few animals.
>I wish there was another way or a better way but we don't have it yet.
>Maybe the slaughterhouses should be fitted out with guillotines.



You can simply eat kosher beef. Jewish orthodox slaughterhouses do kill
the animals one at a time, with a rather painless cut to the carotids,
and the whole thing is a lot less frantic. The animals suffer less. I've
seen footage of this, and it's not too bad.  The animals just stand
there, because they're not smart enough to know they're bleeding to
death, or what all that blood means. Calves getting castrated, which I've
also seen, certainly suffer more. Now, I'm not Jewish, but you take good
ideas where you find them.  I would also suggest free range chicken and
eggs. It costs a bit more, but difference to the animals is quite large.

Single animal slaughter on farms is generally done humanely. Mostly
because it's done one animal at a time, and farmers don't like to
see animals in pain any more than anybody else.

Commercial slaughterhouses and meatpackers could still use quite a lot of
improvement, however. Cattle are herd animals, and when they smell fear
from the animals up front, hear them bellow, AND smell their fear, they
go nuts. Add this to the fact that the pneumatic piston gun which does
the head concussion doesn't always render them comatose.  Usually, but
not always.

SBH