What does this mean in practice? Clearly cows and sheep are sentient and we eat plenty of those.
Eating something alive is wrong for it’s own reasons. The majority of religions consider it a sin too!
Eating something alive is wrong for it’s own reasons. The majority of religions consider it a sin too!
Well, cows can't decide 'this transport is going to be uncomfortable or possibly dangerous, but I really want to go to the other place, so I'll deal with it'. Would you rather have uncomfortable, possibly dangerous transport or no transport? Yes, you'd rather have comfortable, unlikely to be dangerous transport, but that doesn't seem to be something the transportation network is able to offer.
The employment industry in our prevailing economic structure demands punctuality, often through crowded, uncomfortable and frankly, degrading means of transportation. This perceived "choice" is not a luxury but an enforced necessity, much like the bovine passenger being shipped off to slaughter, with the only distinction being, we humans "chose" this.
One could argue that the transportation network isn't able to offer comfortable and safe transit, yet it is more a matter of priorities than abilities. The ability to provide such transport exists, but the political and economic will, sadly is not in abundance.
Is it not curious that a society which can show empathy for the transportation of its livestock struggles to extend the same basic courtesy to its own kind? After all, are we not more than just cattle to the abattoir of capitalism?
The steel box for humans is allowed to be hotter and more crowded than the steel box for cows.
Slaughter doesn't have to be involved. The same rules apply if you're transporting a cow from one field to another field.
> Eating something alive is wrong for it’s own reasons.
Whilst I agree in principle, there's a fuzzy line in what we consider to be alive. Bacteria certainly seem to be fair game with yoghurts being specifically sold as "live".
I don't know if animal welfare laws currently cover eating animals whilst they're still alive, though it sounds feasible.
> The review also evaluated the potential welfare implications of current commercial practices involving these animals. It recommends against declawing, nicking, eyestalk ablation, the sale of live decapod crustaceans to untrained, non-expert handlers, and extreme slaughter methods such as live boiling without stunning. It also includes suggestions for best practices for transport, stunning and slaughter.
But this reads more like additional recommendations than required by law under the new classification.
This seems pretty extreme and like it would increase the cost dramatically.
The only exceptions are parasitic wasps and blood suckers like mosquitos.
So for dogs and wolves, starting to eat as soon as possible takes precedence over making sure the prey is really dead.
Also, canines are not as strong as felines like the Tiger and the Leopard, so, it is not as easy for them to kill big prey by crushing the windpipe with their jaws like the cats do.
On the other side, they may be weaker than the cats but have far more endurance, so, a maimed prey escaping is not much of a big deal, as they are able to pursue the escaping prey for as long as they need without having to stop to rest.
Lions are somewhat of a muddy middle ground. Usually, their prey is dead when they start eating, but when the prey is really big, like elephants, they start eating it alive as it is not as easy to kill such big prey.
Crocodiles on the other hand will either swallow their prey at once or eat big chunks. It is not really a choice for them.
Of course, we must remember that animals don't really have this concept of their prey suffering. They need to eat, and that's all that matters to them.
And it may take quite a while for them to kill it. There are frankly horrifying national geographic videos of this happening, but that's just a lesson that Nature in general is quite cruel. As often as people lament about human nature, we've come quite a long way.
There'll probably also be some weirdos campaigning the idea of not harming humans unnecessarily, but that's probably too extreme.
Still seems barbarous to me but ...
Hey, I guess if I was going to be boiled alive, I'd rather be knocked unconscious first too.