quote:

Originally posted by trish1:
Go on any search engine, tap in slaughter house and see what really happens.

...And what you will be bombarded with is propaganda put there by animal rights campaigners. The abattoir used by Gordon was I think a small family run slaughterhouse and these are very different to large scale plants slaughtering for the supermarkets.

If you want proof of this, key Small Abattoir Federation into any search engine and you should be able to find my father's website on which he placed videos of cattle and lamb slaughter. His abattoir is nothing like those depicted on VIVA, PETA and other websites.

quote:

Originally posted by trish1:
One farmer I spoke to said it was in his own interest to keep his cattle in the best health possible in order to get the best price for them (silly me I thought it might have had something to do with the welfare of the animal itself).

Please remember this was the opinion of just ONE farmer. The farmer is also a businessman and needs to get the best price he can so that his business can continue but out of the hundreds of farmers I've met, not one would put profit before the welfare of his or her animals.

quote:

Originally posted by trish1:

As for the killing itself being quick and painless, until someone gets stunned, strung up by the leg and their throat cut and lived to tell the tale then sorry I don't buy it.

Stunning renders the animal unconscious and therefore it is unable to feel any pain. Throughout the slaughter process there will be a Meat Hygiene Inspector from the Meat Hygiene Service and in larger plants, a fully qualified veterinary surgeon. If undue suffering was caused to these animals during the slaughter process, these officials have the power to take action against the abattoir concerned and slaughterhouses can and have lost their license to operate.

quote:

Originally posted by trish1:
Surely there is some way around this barbaric act of cruelty. Why can't there be a professional marksman to come to the place where the animal has been reared and shoot it outright so it is killed straight away?

Having an animal shot at by a professional marksman is no guarantee that the animal will be killed straightaway and in my opinion, not necessarily humane. I would far rather animals be transported a short distance and killed humanely by qualified and licensed slaughtermen.

quote:

Originally posted by trish1:
As for the farmed animals, again its down to pure greed for money. This should be stopped and we can all do our bit and read on the packet how the animals have been reared. If nobody buys intense farmed food then surely they will have to stop doing it. Won't they?

The reason that animals are "factory farmed" is because supermarket refuse to pay the additional costs involved in less intensive farming methods.

Why?

Because most of the general public don't care where there food comes from or how it is produced - their major consideration is price. If it's cheap they'll buy it.

As you say, all of us can do our bit and instead of checking the labels to see how the animal that has produced the meat was reared, why not change where we buy our meat from?

I TOTALLY agree with bloater,Black pudding would have been great...... surprised Hugh F.W didnt suggest it....... I dont have a problem with someone choosing to be vegetarian, but for goodness sakes you guys who are so disgusted with the programme , what did you expect ? Animals reared , killed (as humanely as possible) eaten, having been beautifully prepared . my husband shoots pigeons for me (sorry ... yes the cute fat grey ones) and I eat them that night having done all the gory bits myself.. if you eat meat , you should know every aspect of how it gets to the table. Forget Tesco et al' get down your local farm shop or butcher !!

there was a warning before the show that said that some scenes may upset people, you knew it was going to happen some time or later,

Sorry I seem to be a bit behind on this forum, but I have been away and only just caught up with the F-word...I deleted the show where the poor pair saw their maker. I wouldnt watch animals being slaughtered, whether humaine or otherwise. They WERE pets and whatever the 'animals are bred for consumption' brigade say, this was wrong! Even the mighty, anti-vegetarian GR was visible moved with the experience. Want to tell him to get a grip?? I am vegetarian and I do have the right to speak out and don't care what any of you think, it was a bad topic and should not have been aired on prime time tv. Dislike Jamie Oliver for the same reason.

But Virago - don't you think showing where meat comes from is more likely to turn people towards your way of thinking (vegetarian) than against it? And is that not a good thing in your view? I think everyone should have to witness the 'death' of their meat at least once - it's al too easy to forget about its origins when all you see is the end result, vacuum packed in supermarkets. I would have thought that, of all people, vegetarians would be campaigning to have more of this type of thing on our televisions, not less.

I understand your point fully and I where I do welcome the reality of where meat comes from being highlighted, I dont actually like witnessing it myself. Did it also not give a fairytale view of the meat industry? People will actually believe that all farm animals are kept in glorious surroundings being lovingly cared for by their owners! A far cry from the harsh reality.

quote:

Originally posted by Virago:
I understand your point fully and I where I do welcome the reality of where meat comes from being highlighted, I dont actually like witnessing it myself. Did it also not give a fairytale view of the meat industry? People will actually believe that all farm animals are kept in glorious surroundings being lovingly cared for by their owners! A far cry from the harsh reality.

It was made clear that Gordon was rearing the pigs in his own back garden and the abattoir chosen was representative of small, independently run slaughterhouses in this country.

What was depicted, accurately in my opinion, were the experiences of many smallholders throughout the country and how animals are slaughtered in smaller abattoirs.

There have been plenty of expose programmes highlighting the bad practices of the meat industry which, although getting more and more infrequent still occur far too often, and I am glad an attempt was made to show the public how the meat they eat should be produced.

Armed with this knowledge, they can make informed decisions as to whether they continue to eat meat, whether they continue to buy cheap meat or whether they continue to eat meat but choose to pay more for better quality from animals that have been reared and slaughtered humanely.

I see your family is in the slaughter industry Bec, might you be a tad biased?

I have made no attempt to hide that my family work in the meat industry and I have stated on this forum that my father and brother are slaughtermen.

Knowing people that work in both large and small slaughterhouses has allowed me to compare large scale meat production to small scale meat production. I have used what these people have told me to make an informed decision, based on fact not supposition, as to which I find preferable.

If my father and brother worked in large scale meat production and worked behind a meat counter in a supermarket, I would still only eat meat that had been reared on a small farm and killed in a small abattoir.

I am in favour of small scale meat production because I believe animal welfare standards are higher, food miles are kept low, the local economy benefits and of course, the meat tastes better.

Again, I understand your views..Can I ask if you could slaughter an animal yourself, since it is in your blood?

quote:

Originally posted by Virago:
Again, I understand your views..Can I ask if you could slaughter an animal yourself, since it is in your blood?

I've never really considered it to be in my blood simply because I followed a different path from my father and brother.

To slaughter an animal in the UK, you must hold a current licence issued by the Meat Hygiene Service certifying that you are competent to do so.

I don't hold such a licence so the answer to your question is No, I could not slaughter an animal.

Those pigs were not pets ,and the children knew that from the start, actually I think young children are much less inclined to be upset longterm over the loss of any pet ,than we are as adults .You can divert childrens attention onto something else.
Not everyone who is a meat eater and has written on this forum has a vested interest in sending animals to slaughter, neither would many ,(if any,) of us be prepared to slaughter our own animals to eat,we don't have to . We have other professions to follow and are extremly grateful that there are people who want to be slaughtermen. Yes I have seen animals slaughtered,by mistake , walking my dog past the sheep pen,and driving past the small outdoor abbatoir when a pig has met his end, no I definatly do not like it , but yes i do enjoy to eat meat.

have to say I agree on your comment re: kids....I haev let my 5 year old daughter watch the pre-watershed repeats of F word series one which she has thoroughly enjoyed and found completely enthraling. She has understood about the turkeys being raised to be killed for Christmas and knows where all the different types of meat come from....she was so engrossed she begged me to let her watch the turkeys being killed on the programme which I had to put my foot down on as even GR wouldn't let his kids see that!

I gotta say my brother told me not to watch it but i watched it anyway and honestly it didn't bother me at all.

Picked up this thread late, but if you were to visit markets in France and a lot of the continent you would see live animals for people to buy for home slaughter. As well as whole corpses. Children there understand where meat comes from and accept it. I fear our children are a little spoilt when they only see it in neat pieces on supermarket trays. We all know if we eat meat an animal died to give us it.. let's at least hope it lived a happy life and a had a stressful, painless death.

i agree with caring mum. children should know where their food comes from. parents should stick to worrying about paedophiles and not letting their kids play in the road

quote:

Originally posted by Demon_25_uk:
Hi

Okay tis may have already been said but who swiches on a programme when they know it will contain violence. Ie killing of 2 pigs. that were very well looked after & knew they would be killed at the end.

All the regular viewers knew about this. Only the non regulars who dont understand it put in complaints, to ruin it for all the others.

What prats.!!!!

All i have to say.

Thank you!!!
There were plenty of warnings about what the show contained!