Hurting animals for cultural/religious reasons

[TailstheHedgehog]

Some animals are killed inhumanely for cultural or religious reasons. To be honest, I can't stand it. It doesn't matter what culture you're from, I don't agree with animals being killed without be stunned or otherwise making it humane as possible (I can see the contradiction, I'm not a vegetarian - what I ate tonight had to be killed either way so I could eat it).
But what are your thoughts? There are lots of things I do because of my culture that should be considered disgusting but is not - buying products mass-produced in sweatshops for example. Is it fair to slam another culture because it does not align with animal rights (at least in Australia there is great concern about animal rights - the entire cattle trade to India was stopped last year temporarily because of it, but I'm not sure about much of the rest of the world.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I'm not very familiar with the subject, but how are the animals killed inhumanely?

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Hell, they might do that, in which case, correct me. Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable on the subject.

 

[Keoul]

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

I think how "humane" something is changes over time.
I find the throat slitting thing inhumane because we have better ways of killing them now, a clean bullet/shock to the head kills them instantly, better than slowly bleeding to death anyway :L

 

[Raven's Nest]

Cruelty to animals in my opinion can't be justified by anything. The problem is the definition of cruelty varies from country to country.

Most people consider the most human way to slaughter an animal for food is to stun them first before shooting or making a fatal cut. Some halal and kosher practitioners disagree, although I think the vast majority of halal slaughter is done with stunning first.

Using an elephant for temple ceremonies seems harmless enough but trust me as someone who has worked with captive elephants, it isn't. They are tied up to posts for hours a day being unable to move, eat or drink or seek shade. This has a seriously detrimental effect on their mental health. But because people aren't visibly abusing them, it's not considered cruelty. Even if it was, apparently a religious ceremony trumps even international law on taking endangered species from the world.

Whether or not it is fair to put pressure on other cultures to have better animal welfare standards is a harder question. I'm not too sure if a government will go out of their way to reduce it unless there is a glaring issue. Unfortunately, like with the elephant example, just too many rare animals are exploited for "cultural reasons" to be stopped. It's too big an issue for a government to handle.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

I think how "humane" something is changes over time.
I find the throat slitting thing inhumane because we have better ways of killing them now, a clean bullet/shock to the head kills them instantly, better than slowly bleeding to death anyway :L

Cows actually bleed out a lot quicker than humans do after a throat cut, so they die rather quickly, but yeah, I agree.

Something to do with their blood pressure being higher. It's not the most humane way of killing something, but it's not causing suffering for the sake of suffering.

 

[Hoplon]

I'm not very familiar with the subject, but how are the animals killed inhumanely?

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Hell, they might do that, in which case, correct me. Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable on the subject.

I think the use of the word "humane" is a little stretched when it comes to killing anything, but yes doing only enough to take it's life is not the same as inflicting as much pain as possible before they are killed.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Uh, yes it is. It involves a painfull death struggle of several minutes, whereas the conventional slaughter method for cows is setting a 'mask' over their head so it's impossible to miss, which then shoots a pin into the cows brain, physically destroying it and providing instant death.

Add to that for that you need to rigidly restrain a cow in advance or people will be killed while they hack away with a knife at the throat, hoping to eventually kill it, because that cow's not going to stand still.

Whereas the normal method is more the cow walking over and wondering for a moment "huh, what's that thi... *poof, dead*" and you can suffice with a simple walkway-fence with a dead end, something which the ones other than the bulls also already know from milking and won't be alarmed by at all.

I don't think inhumane means what you think it means.

Inhumane is causing suffering for the sake of causing suffering.

A farmer in a 3rd world country, slitting the throat of one of his livestock, is not inhumane.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

I've honestly stopped caring when millions of us slaughter animals, painlessly or not, for our food anyway.

Animal sacrifice is retarded, though. But so is animal testing, and that's got nothing to do with cultural/religious practices.

 

[DarkRyter]

It doesn't really make a difference.

It's all dust in the wind.

 

[marrrk]

Regardless of the religion or culture, the death of any animal should be made as humane as possible. That point was never really one of contention was it?
Of course the argument could be made that killing in the name of either isn't quite humane in the first place, but that's a different topic for discussion.

As for slamming another culture, I don't think it's fair just because it's different. At least take the effort to understand it before culture-bashing. Might even gain some insight into the more seemingly inhumane bits.

 

[FilipJPhry]

Mi'kmaq aboriginal here. All the traditional families' men are encouraged to hunt something bigger than them when they turn 16. I didn't hunt anything until I was 18. The tradition is to say a prayer or a tribute to Glooscap before hunting. The tribute is usually leaving food deep in the woods the day before hunting or planting a tree. I planted my pinetree and left some eels in a bowl the day before my hunt. I went with my uncle and he was able to help me track a moose with medium-sized antlers. Had to shoot it 3 times with my then-bad aiming. I forgot what rifle I was using, my uncle lent it to me anyways. Had a hell of a kick. After we dragged it onto the truck and drove home, we then did the rest: skinning, gutting it for meat, using/saving organs for other uses, the antlers were saved for decoration and most of the bones were carved. We had to go to an expert for the fur, though. Cost $100 and a 12-pack of beer to get my uncle's friend to clean it and stuff. The bullet holes did make it flawed, but it was mine. We had a dinner out of that moose and it was damn fine. It feels awesome when you eat something you had to hunt and worked for. The fur's still in my mom's treasure chest.

 

[Woodsey]

We don't even protect babies from having bits of them permanently cut off for religious and cultural purposes, it'd seem to me that looking at how poorly it can lead to animals being treated is jumping the gun (although I entirely agree with you).

I'm not very familiar with the subject, but how are the animals killed inhumanely?

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Hell, they might do that, in which case, correct me. Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable on the subject.

What you described is called, "being an arse hole", it doesn't render a still-slow process a humane one.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

We don't even protect babies from having bits of them permanently cut off for religious and cultural purposes, it'd seem to me that looking at how poorly it can lead to animals being treated is jumping the gun (although I entirely agree with you).

I'm not very familiar with the subject, but how are the animals killed inhumanely?

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Hell, they might do that, in which case, correct me. Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable on the subject.

What you described is called, "being an arse hole", it doesn't render a still-slow process a humane one.

Except it isn't slow.

Sure, it's slower than a bullet through the brain, but it's the most humane way of killing an animal, especially for farmers in 3rd world countries.

I'd love for no animals to suffer when we kill them, but not everyone has the tools necessary to make it a painless experience.

 

[Woodsey]

We don't even protect babies from having bits of them permanently cut off for religious and cultural purposes, it'd seem to me that looking at how poorly it can lead to animals being treated is jumping the gun (although I entirely agree with you).

I'm not very familiar with the subject, but how are the animals killed inhumanely?

Slitting a cows throat isn't inhumane, inhumane is chopping off it's legs and eviscerating it while it's still alive.

Hell, they might do that, in which case, correct me. Like I said, I'm not knowledgeable on the subject.

What you described is called, "being an arse hole", it doesn't render a still-slow process a humane one.

Accept it isn't slow.

Sure, it's slower than a bullet through the brain, but it's the most humane way of killing an animal, especially for farmers in 3rd world countries.

I'd love for no animals to suffer when we kill them, but not everyone has the tools necessary to make it a painless experience.

Nor is it instant or painless.

Besides, we're speedily moving away from the point of discussion. If we're talking cultural/religious reasons, then it's not being done for farming, nor are we even talking specifically about 3rd world countries.

If you insist on doing it for those reasons, at least do it properly. Don't have the means? Shouldn't be doing it.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Some animals are killed inhumanely for cultural or religious reasons. To be honest, I can't stand it. It doesn't matter what culture you're from, I don't agree with animals being killed without be stunned or otherwise making it humane as possible (I can see the contradiction, I'm not a vegetarian - what I ate tonight had to be killed either way so I could eat it).
But what are your thoughts? There are lots of things I do because of my culture that should be considered disgusting but is not - buying products mass-produced in sweatshops for example. Is it fair to slam another culture because it does not align with animal rights (at least in Australia there is great concern about animal rights - the entire cattle trade to India was stopped last year temporarily because of it, but I'm not sure about much of the rest of the world.

I don't know about religious reasons, but when I hunt, I do my best to take the animal down quickly, and if I don't, I make sure to track it and put it out of its misery as quickly as possible (as in I do not leave the woods until I find it).