Cow eating chicken
youtu.be

The video is to prove a point really fast, but, cows actually do only eat proteins. They have three stomachs that they use to feed grass to bacterial colonies, which they then pull into their fourth stomach to eat, with any of the grass that's left un-eaten by the bacteria being shit straight out without being processed any further. They don't eat the grass, the grass is there to feed what they do eat, which is supplemented by eating any large animal small enough to fit in their mouth. I read a study once that almost all cows when dissected had at least 1 animal in their digestive system at a time.

The notion that cows are good peaceful harmless herbivores who eat nothing but grass is nonsense. Here's a video of a cow eating the corpse of a donkey. Of note: there's grass right next to the body. And it isn't just a result of cows being fucked up by human domestication, wild deer (who you cannot blame on humans malnourishing it or contaminating its feed or whatever) do it too.

constructing an elaborate worldview out of a kindergarten level understanding of biology and then getting extremely smug about it annoys me relentlessly. Cows would eat you if they had the chance

  • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    This is the same structure of China Bad, but with cows instead of China. Yeah, sure, cows eat meat when they have the opportunity, they don't run factory farms though...the comparison is framed asymmetrically.

    • volkvulture [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      so it's just the unethical nature of industrial meat production that's the problem? not the physical act of one individual animal eating another? I can understand that framing

      I watched a squirrel eating a newly hatched baby bird one time, I still have the picture... it's unsettling

      • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I'm not vegan, I should be, but I'm not employed and live with other people so we eat what we can.

        There was am issue recently in my town though with a vegan activist that ran a no kill shelter feeding all the animals vegan food and they all started getting really sick.

        I guess my idea of veganism has always been that it should exist as as a resistance to the industrialization of meat consumption when human beings are able to avoid it. Other animals can't necessarily be vegan and that's just how it is. The fact that they aren't institutionalizing their meat consumption makes it less of a problem lol.

        So the primary issue is industrial meat farms, the secondary issue is introduction of invasive species to balanced eco systems (usually for the purpose of human consumption) that lead to an increase in animal deaths that didn't exist before.

        These two issues are on different scales, and I don't think you can tackle the second issue without handling the first (except in cases like involving pets or plants that can be more easily controlled like how Australia does it).

        Please tell me if I'm wrong about this if you know more about veganism than me. I only know a few vegans where I live and pick up bits and pieces.

        • volkvulture [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          sure, I don't want to finger-wag at vegans for their individual choices in the marketplace, they can do this and feel happy & probably make an impact in their own way. I applaud those who are committed & consistent & observant in what they believe, even when I disagree with them

          some people are way more into recycling than others too, but we can't delude ourselves into thinking that individuals shaming one another about recycling & veganism are "superior" or "effective" challenges to the status quo & industrial production methods