Animals as Food

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Animals as Food
Comments by Ashley - 30 Apr 2011

Frank and Mary,

Thanks for the replies!

I want to reiterate that I didn't doubt the validity of the abuse photos, I just knew that many people would. I agree with your views on factory farming and commercial egg/dairy farms. I know that there is no abuse where I get my eggs, and I am very happy to have a friend that treats her chickens kindly. Like I said, she allows them to mate naturally and raise their young. She also has turkeys, which she treats in the same way. Both species are kept for egg production, and we've found turkey eggs to be very similar to chicken eggs. The baby turkeys are so adorable! I'm so glad she does no harm to them.

I do not support commercial egg/dairy farms at all. My ideas were mainly related to an individual family keeping their own chickens, turkeys, guineas, etc. and a family of cows for milk production. If one has adequate space, one can live symbiotically with these animals. (The guineas are for insect and pest control, and they make great family pets. Children can learn to treat them kindly, watch them in their natural habitat, and not do anything that is scary to the birds.)

If a family does not have adequate room, they can really try to find someone who practices this type of farming. We buy our milk from a private dairy that hand milks its cows in the Blue Ridge mountains. It is expensive, but it is worth it for the health of humans and cows.

Also, it is bottled in glass containers that are reused. The type of family farming I am talking about (minus the slaughter) can be found in older fiction stories like Little House on the Prairie. The family allows the animals to breed normally and live together.

With regards to cows, they allow the calf to pass infancy before milking the mother for human consumption. They then milk the cow gently by hand one to three times a day, depending on the age of the calf and whether or not he or she has been weaned yet. This situation has one or two, possibly up to three, cows who live in a large, natural space with plenty of grass to eat and spring water to drink; grain (like barley) is given only during the harsh months of winter when there is very little grass to be had.

My great-grandparents treated their cows very kindly as mentioned above. They lived over 20 years and had a happy life. I do not see what is wrong with this, but I respect your decision to be vegan. Obviously my ideas extend to goats and yaks, which are also milked for human consumption in other parts of the world.

Sincerely,

Ashley