Failed backyard farms lead to growing number of homeless animals Is how this goofy article starts out and it only gets better from there.
This is ridiculous. Euthanizing roosters????
What a disgusting waste of a life. Roosters make delicious, nutritious soup.
Here in Vancouver there was discussion of a chicken sanctuary when the backyard chicken bylaw passed. I’d argue we already have one.
It’s called the food bank.
Here we are facing a food crisis, record numbers of people are relying on food banks, many of them children and we’re worrying about finding funding for homeless livestock?
Are we that out of touch with our food?
Apparently we are.
Domesticated livestock exist because they are food animals for people. If we didn’t eat them, they wouldn’t be here. Period.
This notion that life can exist without death is disconnected from reality and frankly, arrogant on our parts. Other living things need to die so that we may live. Thinking ourselves smart and at the top of the food chain doesn’t remove us from the circle of life.
(And if you say – Hey, I’m vegan, nothing that wants to live has to die so I can eat! Well, frankly, I’d say you’re kidding yourself and you’ve probably not spent enough time in the garden. If you did, you’d know plants want to live, too. And a strictly plant-based diet gets tricky without the soil nutrition supplied by animal waste.
Don’t get your panties in a twist, either. I’m not anti-vegan. I’m just saying’. Lets all be realistic.)
We don’t need more livestock shelters.
What we need is education and support for folks who want to raise livestock so that they treat their animals properly and don’t make stupid choices like buying baby chicks when they’ve never had chickens. This support needs to include access to livestock auctions and to humane, safe, small-scale abattoirs.
The article wraps up with this silliness:
“You can’t sustainably raise an animal in captivity.”
??
Good grief.
Is this opposed to all the wild beef, chicken, pork and dairy cattle out there? What?
A small, integrated, deep-organic, pasture-based farm is the most sustainable means of producing food. A well-managed farm system requires little, if any, input from off-farm. There is no waste. There is no need for harmful petrochemicals.
There are animals “in captivity”; eating grass, enjoying the sun and fresh air, until it’s time for them to grace the dinner table and for us to give thanks.
