Cows are cool

[bruce johnson]

Agree with most of what has been posted here. I come from a background that includes two great-grandfathers as cattle feeders, one dairyman, ranchers, farmers, two uncles and a dad who were livestock buyers for packing houses, and my brother and I both worked our way through school in the packing houses. My brother has a PhD in meat science, and works for the big guy.

These PETA people are not out to argue rationally, they are fund raising organizations to advance their agenda. For instance, hide prices are published monthly in ShopTalk. Let's say the average hide (not side) sells for $55 averaged out over the year. That steer it came off weighed 1200# and brought 82 cents a pound averaged. Value of the hide = about five percent. PETA, HSUS, and most other environmental and animal groups don't have to justify their numbers to anyone. If any other business reported or advertised intentionally distorted numbers like these groups do, they would harassed by every government agency available. There is not "truth-in-advertising" here.

The scary thing to me is not that these people vote, it is that they have money, and most have reproduced.

Bruce Johnson

[Johanna]

I was guided through a Georgia slaughterhouse by the boss, and he was especially proud that the only part of the animal that wasn't used was the "Moo". If people didn't eat meat, leather would be cost-prohibitive, because no one would raise cows for just their hides.

Johanna

[The Major]

Reptiles skinned alive? Have they ever seen someone try to skin a rattle snake alive?

Personally, I feel these guys are just uninformed zealots.

I think the cause that everyone should fight for is the fight for the rights of plants and foliage. The animal can run away, the plant is stuck there. So all the vegetarians are even more cruel than those others mentioned. I made this up years ago when I was confornted by one of these PETA folks at a party which resulted in a lengthy debate and me pointing out her nice leather shoes and handbag. (No offense to the vegetarians out there)

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and wanting to fight for a cause. I think some people just don't know what to fight for.

Now don't get me wrong, I think people that abuse animals should be shot, but lets look at the bigger picture here folks.

I have even less respect for PETA now than I did before. :fire:

[ClayB]

[quote

I have even less respect for PETA now than I did before. :fire:

Check out this page and it will probably make it even worse.

http://www.petakillsanimals.com

[The Major]

ACHTULIEBE!!!!!!!!!!

Its a crazy crazy world!

[Johanna]

I arrived at my Tandy store one morning to unlock the door and open the store for business, and the front windows of the store were smeared with blood. Not ketchup, blood from a pig farm, I guess. That's what the officers told me. I was confronted by two activists, both wearing leather shoes. The woman began to scream at me that I was going to hell for killing animals to sell leather and the man attempted to keep me out of the store. After a few tense words, I went into the shoe store next door, and Mark, the owner, dialed the police and then escorted me into my store, ignoring the two lunatics with their pamphlets and accusations. The police arrived and told the two they were trespassing, and not to return to the shopping center. The police had records of other "incidents" with these two, and didn't show their customary patience. I filed charges for vandalism and terroristic threats, called my boss in New York to report the events, and spent the morning washing the windows. The next morning I went in early, and there were two more PETA people waiting for me. I tried to reason with them- in a strip chopping center, with Taco Bell, Subway, Krystals and Arbys, why were they focused on the leather store? Leather is a byproduct of the meat industry. No cow or deer is killed for their hide- people are omnivores, and they need to EAT. One of them explained they were against people wearing fur. "Look around! Do you see a lot of fur in here?" A couple of rabbits, a raccoon, a coyote, a hair on cowhide...no minks of foxes in that Tandy. I quickly concluded these people were no more rational than the blood smearers, and I asked them to leave the shop. My regulars, having seen the commotion from the day before in the paper, started arriving for coffee. Mike and Larry escorted the two to their car (leather seats) and we didn't have to call the police again. They didn't come back. Larry had a bumper sticker on his truck "I support PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals", so you know his thoughts on the matter, but I'm sure that it was Mike who persuaded them to find someone else to bother and not come back He trained K-9s for the Macon Police Dept. and was on the SWAT team. He has a way of speaking softly, but with authority. A few months later a lady came in with a lovely fur coat covered in red paint. She had been walking to her car when they stepped out of the shadows, doused her with the paint and called her an "animal killer". There was no saving the coat, sadly, and the paint-throwers were not caught or identified.

I followed trucks in Georgia that dropped dead chickens on the road, and I knew a chicken farmer who kept an alligator pond for sick or dead chickens. I know the chickens don't live the life of Joan Rivers' dog. But people who use terrorism and harassment to make their point, like Muslim extremists and abortion clinic bombers, have missed the point of their "humanitarian" efforts. Instead of pontificating at someone eating a steak, feed a hungry child. Rather than preaching to suburbanites, start a spay & neuter program in the neighborhood. Talk is cheap. Find solutions.

Johanna

:soapbox: getting down now...

[braider]

Excuse me for being a bit off topic here, but, it does seem like the topic for me to express my glee. My domain name is andersonleather.com. It took me many years to pass up Pam Anderson and Peta in searches for 'Anderson leather' on most every search engine. I believe 'Pam Anderson' is still the most search term ever on the www, but, she probably doesn't take the 'yearly' title anymore. ...Dave

Edited January 26, 2007 by braider

[Billsotx]

I'm with major and not being cruel to plants. I'm not going to mow my grass anymore ... lol

[CitizenKate]

I've heard of a phenomenon known as "food aversion", in which people don't recognize a basic source of their sustenance, like a deer or cow (since slaughterhouses take care of the "dirty work" for us nowadays). If they don't get it from the supermarket, they don't recognise that it's food. People are losing the connection between "beef" and "cattle". The same goes for vegetation that is found in the "wild".

So if they were ever in a situation where they had to hunt or forage for their own food, they would actually be repulsed by the idea of having to eat the very thing that sustains them.

The military seems to know a lot about this, I suppose because they have to re-train soldiers to be able to survive in a world without supermarkets.

PETA seems to have taken this concept to a new level, eh?

Kate

Edited January 27, 2007 by CitizenKate

[dsenette]

I've heard of a phenomenon known as "food aversion", in which people don't recognize a basic source of their sustenance, like a deer or cow (since slaughterhouses take care of the "dirty work" for us nowadays). If they don't get it from the supermarket, they don't recognise that it's food. People are losing the connection between "beef" and "cattle". The same goes for vegetation that is found in the "wild".

So if they were ever in a situation where they had to hunt or forage for their own food, they would actually be repulsed by the idea of having to eat the very thing that sustains them.

that's a wonderfull phenomenon..and it's pretty common place now adays....people forget that before cows where behind nifty little fences on the side of the road..the were running wild...and at some point in our evolutionairy history...we didn't cook them before we ate them...

i had a cousin at one point who LOVED and i mean absolutely LOVED deer sausage...she would eat it at every meal if it was available...so one day her dad and brother decided to take her hunting...they shot a buck..she didn't so it was time to clean the beast... "you...you mean...THIS is where my sausage comes from?...i thought they GREW the dear like cows!!!"...uh yeah christie...they plant little deer seeds in a feild...wait a few months and out sprouts some sausage.... she never ate deer sausage (or any other deer meet) again....unless we didn't tell her that the food had deer in it in which case she would always rave about how good the meat tasted and wondered what kind of cow it came from