On Thu, Jan 25, 2007 at 08:06:08AM -0600, Janice McDonald wrote: > as a person who grew up on a farm where we raised certain animals > specifically for food--- I see some differences between cows and > horses, dogs and chickens. I have said this before and some people > posted that i was wrong, but hey, we had cows. Cows are not like > horses. Cows are not intelligent and emotional. its like they are > "all the lites are on but nobody's home". They feel pain, yes, and > they shouldnt suffer, but they are not pets. neither are chickens. > Dogs and horses are. They are highly emotional and intelligent.
...as a former 4-h dairy project and poultry project member, i have to say i don't agree with you about all cattle or poultry. it may be a breed thing (we had a jersey cow and a variety of chickens including some exotic ones, like americaunas and silkies) but they definitely had personalities and emotions. and there's nothing as cuddly as a nice warm friendly chicken on a cold day. these were animals kept for dairy and eggs, not meat -- so some of this may be in our human intentions towards them, rather than in their own animal headspaces. temple grandin talked (as you did in the part i elided) about the "special food-bred chickens", and said in particular that they were bred psychotically crazy. now *that* -- breeding an animal to *be* psycho -- strikes me as an incredibly inhumane act, even if we are gonna eat it. --vicka
