did anybody watch this week's trading spouses??

[Corinna]

It's called farming. I raised cattle for my 4-H project it was also my school clothes money . No sale no new clothes fact of life.

[Allecto]

Why should it bother the girl any more or less than the boy?
I have also raised livestock that ended up on my family's dinner table, or was given away to needy families. Pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, etc...
Maybe there was some level of sadness the first time or two, but like they've said, I felt better about eating that meat than I did anything that was run through a slaughterhouse.

[Flatcoatluver]

I can't really put it into words what i mean. Maybe because I am a vegetarion and I have had cows before that got butcherd when I was a little girl, so yeah I guess we have all had differnt opinoins. I get what your saying about atleast there in a good place. nvm just never mind this thread

[Suki Wingy]

I'm getting a 4H calf this summer... I raised $700 for lease of it. She's a holstien though so she'll be a dairy cow.

[Allecto]

Most dairy cows don't have great lives either. And really, that is all we're trying to say, Flatcoatluver. Some of us who choose to keep meat as a part of our diets simply feel better that the animals we consume suffered as little as possible. Every animal that I raise for my table is one less animal doomed to the stockyard, slaughterhouse, meat factory, etc. You may still see it as sick and wrong b/c we don't choose to be vegetarians like you, but at least we're a more responsible breed of carnivore.

[LKPike]

i'm not a vegetarian, and still understand/agree with your opinion. Don't see how you can raise something knowing every day your planning on killing it, even if it is for life. I bet Jillian doesn't taste any different than chicken and I've seen tribes in africa that sacrifrice/regularly kill and consume dogs but imagine how furious you'd all be if I popped online and said "well we decided on something different for Thanksgiving...". I'd imagine somebody whos had cows as pets would feel the same way when it comes to somebody saying they raised then purposly killed a cow.

I'll leave it up to a professional butcher whos business is to raise cowS(plural), not just ONE which could easily bond with you even if you don't with it which is how it sounds to me from reading everyones posts.
but thats my 2 cents.

[Flatcoatluver]

i'm not a vegetarian, and still understand/agree with your opinion. Don't see how you can raise something knowing every day your planning on killing it, even if it is for life. I bet Jillian doesn't taste any different than chicken and I've seen tribes in africa that sacrifrice/regularly kill and consume dogs but imagine how furious you'd all be if I popped online and said "well we decided on something different for Thanksgiving...". I'd imagine somebody whos had cows as pets would feel the same way when it comes to somebody saying they raised then purposly killed a cow.

I'll leave it up to a professional butcher whos business is to raise cowS(plural), not just ONE which could easily bond with you even if you don't with it which is how it sounds to me from reading everyones posts.
but thats my 2 cents.

thank you!! that was basically what I was trying to say, I don't know about some people, but I personally would get attached and cry my eyes out when we would butcher them. ok let's pretend I wasn't a vegetarion shall we. I am just saying no matter what I would get attached. I mean I thought you guys would kind of understand. but i guess not

[Allecto]

i'm not a vegetarian, and still understand/agree with your opinion. Don't see how you can raise something knowing every day your planning on killing it, even if it is for life. I bet Jillian doesn't taste any different than chicken and I've seen tribes in africa that sacrifrice/regularly kill and consume dogs but imagine how furious you'd all be if I popped online and said "well we decided on something different for Thanksgiving...". I'd imagine somebody whos had cows as pets would feel the same way when it comes to somebody saying they raised then purposly killed a cow.

I'll leave it up to a professional butcher whos business is to raise cowS(plural), not just ONE which could easily bond with you even if you don't with it which is how it sounds to me from reading everyones posts.
but thats my 2 cents.

I don't know of any butchers who raise the meat they prepare. It comes from the slaughterhouse and factories.

And, to be perfectly honest, I don't get furious when I hear of people eating animals I consider pets. I mean, I eat animals people consider sacred, who am I to force my morals on another? I couldn't ever bring myself to eat a duck short of avoiding starving to death, but that doesn't mean I guilt trip and look down on people who enjoy it. I would consider eating your Jillian less cruel than eating your average slab of veal.
And I always raise my cows at least in pairs. There's still a bit of a bond, but there is a greater understanding of nature, the cycle of life, and gratitide for what you have, and the expense at which you have it. My parents raised me to be a meat-eater, but also to look upon the meat you ate with respect, gratitude, and almost a feeling of reverence for the animal. So much so that it actually depresses me a little to hear people talking about using slaughterhouse meat that lived and died miserably, unhappy, and unhealthy because it is so much more moral and just than raising your own animal. Those animals are only different in the qaulity of care they are given before giving their lives for human consumption. The feelings a human has towards them is not what should make one animals life more important than another, and is not what we should base our respect for the animal on. Looking upon store-bought meat as only a mass-produced resource to be used and wasted at your whim just because you didn't know the animal personally is one of the big reasons my parents wanted their children to raise animals for meat, to avoid that ridiculous, callous, and selfish point of view.