Wednesday November 4, 2009, 7:23 am
I am a vegetarian......... but if we need to farm animals can it not be with this kind of respect?

Wednesday November 4, 2009, 8:58 am
I agree with some of this, I personally could never raise anything and kill and eat it or sell it to be killed and eaten,but unless they are taking their animals to a distant field , calmly talking to the animal and then shoot it in the head once, I can not agree that a slaughter house of any kind is more humane than a predator killing an animal. So true about chickens and poultry being easy prey for all predators even dogs. i have had the unfortuane experience several times with this also. it is very hard to love anything and lose it! Thanks Daphna

Wednesday November 4, 2009, 12:49 pm
This is how farming is supposed to go. Not big factory farms that are just pits of cruelty and brutality. Not big factory farms where so much pesticide and herbicide pollutes the soil and water. Not about giving all the animals tons of antibiotics because too many are too crowded in unsanitary conditions. It's supposed to be about sustainability and people caring about the animals and the future. Let's break up the factory farms for good and start rewarding small farmers with tax breaks and cheap loans and all sorts of incentives.

Wednesday November 4, 2009, 2:22 pm
Most of the nearby farms to me are similar in that the farmers care for their animals and attached detached sort of relationship only chickens are battery farmed in the county and they are usually remote locations away from too much human habitation the noise and stench of those places has to be experinced close up to see how bad the living or rather dying conditions are for birds! The larger animals fare a bit better having green pasture and access to sun rain water and acres of space. Sadly many small farmers have gone to the wall and many who are still living in the area simply rent their land to others for pasture, hay or cropping Some have diversified into tourism turning farms into petting zoos and the like and others are operating as machinery hirers renting out tractors and combines etc some do a bit of haulage with a few trucks anything to make a buck having been given bottom dollar for their products by the supermarkets. The countryside might look nice but inside it is rotting away from mostly external greed plus the mountain of rules and regs imposed by the EU well that's the UK folks and I doubt it's much different elsewhere Sadly the animals are the ones that sometimes suffer the consequences of demand for cheap food and the greedy supermarkets virtually holding farmers to ransom. For example the milk that sells for £1.48 in the supermarket the farmer will have received 10 or 11 pence for less than ten percent of the retail price or if you like no more than 50p a cow per milking at the highest yield Cowboss will doubtless be doing his sums on that one but if a cow is worth say £300 she has to give that yield for a year and a half to equal her value,. That folks is the sad reality of farming!

Wednesday November 4, 2009, 2:23 pm
Well we all learn by our mistakes...they may be hard ones but they are ones we wont forget...

Big Gorilly Hugs

Thursday November 5, 2009, 12:34 pm
thanks daphna it makes me shudder to think of anyone killing an animal