beef cattle roaming in pastures look happy

[journey]

In our rural area, small family farms are the rule - we don't have the huge factory farms right here. So people look at the beef cattle roaming grassy fields and think they have a pretty good life. Folks here (eastern US) don't see the factory farms and so don't buy those arguments. What can I say to help them understand?

I mean regardless of the type of life an animal lives, it's still a very shortened life ending with the slaughterhouse trauma (which is again hidden from most people), and most of the meat they're buying in the grocery store probably isn't local so it probably does come from factory farms. But how do I counter the "happy" animals on small family farms illusion?

(We do have factory farm chicken and turkey farms nearby, but there again, the animals are hidden inside the huge buildings, so no one really sees what horrors go on).

This happy family farm illusion really disturbs me - I think it masks what really goes on, on a larger scale. But that's the illusion folks in my area see, want to see, or that is put in front of them, while factory farms are "invisible" to people here. How do we counter that illusion?

[eve]

Just about impossible to counter, unless you're speaking to some intelligent people who really want to know - most people don't. And if small farms are the norm there, then your argument carries very little weight.

I was at a meal recently, and we were speaking about dairy because someone at the table mentioned that his doctor told him to avoid all dairy foods, due to a condition he has. I commented he has an unusually wise doctor, and I mentioned the various injections that the cows receive. One woman at the table said she was raised on a dairy farm, and their cows definitely had no injections. Despite telling her that it is different now, and giving a few facts, she insisted that having drunk milk all her life, there's no way anyone could persuade her otherwise.

I think sometimes we have to give in and simply say, as you mentioned, that factory farms are invisible in their long sheds.

[Korn]

No country have so high percentage of people that doesn't eat meat as India, where cattle roam freely - almost everywhere. Vegetarianism wasn't born out of an oppression against factory farms - because factory farms didn't exists when people first started to avoid meat for ethical, philosophical or spiritual reasons. Personally, I think it's a big mistake to focus so much on factory farming.

Humans don't eat other humans anymore, and humans don't live in factory farms. We don't eat cats or dogs either, even if they don't live in factory farms - and even if they look happy when their roaming. We simply don't need the factory farm aspect to make people understand that if they don't want to eat a poodle, it doesn't make sense to eat a lamb either....

[cobweb]

well most people don't eat cats and dogs, thankfully, though some do apparently.

i suppose i would just say that yes, of course the cattle are happy - they are living as they would choose to (probably) in social groups, roaming and grazing. and how do humans have the right then to decide when they should stop being happy?. when they should stop existing?. is it right to yank them from their idyll, herd them onto lorries and take them to a noisy, frightening, stinking abbatoir and murder them violently?.

[emzy1985]

My argument for this is always the same - the animal still has to die, no matter how "happy" a life it has supposedly had. It's my argument against free range food aswell because I can't be arsed to explain indepth about it. No matter what they say the answer is always the same.

Omni : They have a happy life
Me : But they still have to die

Omni: It is better than factory farming
Me: But they still have to die

Omni: I like beef
Me: but it still had to die

It pisses them off and put plenty of emphasis on the word die or add a few words like painfully, in fear etc etc.

[Korn]

I have a hard time understanding anyone can think that a statement like "[Insert name of living being here] look like they are happy, so what's wrong with killing them?" makes any sense at all.

[cobweb]

yes it is a bit twisted!

[harpy]

The cat/dog analogy can do the job with some omnivores, assuming that they have or have had cats and dogs.

Presumably they think that their cats and dogs have happy lives too, but nonetheless they probably don't think it's morally OK to kill them whenever they feel like it. So why is it OK to do it to cattle?

You could also mention the evidence of maltreatment of animals at slaughter e.g. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/.../slaughter.php

[journey]

thanks everyone. Yeah, I think the 'they still are slaughtered' argument is where it's at, really what it comes down to.