Vegan extremists

Author
Discussion

Derek Smith

45,655 posts

248 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
I used to gut turkeys and chickens when I worked in a butchers. Many people wanted to see the thing gutted to ensure they got the giblets from the bird of their choice.

One tough old turkey once knocked me out on the 23rd Dec and I was kept in overnight. Dangerous animals, even when, as with the one that attacked me, they are dead. I don't know how old it was, but I was 18 and it beat the hell out of me.

Working in a butchers put me off sausages for years. Not only did I see what went into them, one of my jobs was to make them, with the skin from the intestines of animals. Nothing went to waste. If it wasn't bone, or rather a big bone, in it went: eyes, dangly bits and stuff from the cuts no one wanted, all had a place in sausages. We had a window display and on occasion the base of a joint would turn dark and hard. It would be sliced off, put in the 'waste meat' bin and I'd take it out back for the sausages. Waste meat wasn't a comfortable concept for my boss.

Pork; now there's a funny meat. We used to get pig carcases in and segment them ourselves. We would, on occasion, find strange little cyst-like things in the meat. My boss would cut them out, generously leaving a fair bit of room around them, and take them personally to the waste waste bin. Logically, these things were not particularly unattractive, but I didn't ever touch one, just in case. I am still reluctant to eat any pork that has been minced. I like to see the joint as is.

There's something macho about butchering an animal. There you are chopper in hand, maybe a damn great saw or a knife, with a blade as long as the chopping block. I felt invulnerable. Years later I was in a firearms unit and when I had the sawn-off Remington pump in hand, I felt like asking what cut they wanted. It was the same feeling.

I don't eat so much land animal meat nowadays. I might go three days without beef, chicken or pork gracing my plate. That means that when it does, it is delicious. A rare steak is nirvana.



FN2TypeR

7,091 posts

93 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
There you are chopper in hand
In a food preparation area? Disgraceful.

AppleJuice

2,154 posts

85 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
FN2TypeR said:
Derek Smith said:
There you are chopper in hand
In a food preparation area? Disgraceful.
hehe
Better than human 'sausages' though. Bit brown hurl

voyds9

8,488 posts

283 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
ReaperCushions said:
Not sticking up for the veganistas at all, but it is a touch on the odd / morbid side to come along and pick your turkey, give it a name, care for it (Turning it into a family pet?). Then whipping its head off and stuffing it ready for the big day in December?
Ban all allotments now!

Vegetables raised from seeds slaughtered at the table of gluttony

Reciprocating mass

6,030 posts

241 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Give peas a chance frown

wilwak

759 posts

170 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Nanook said:
Is there?

If you believe killing animals is wrong, and that we have the same rights as animals, isn't threatening to kill humans just a tad hypocritical?
I don’t see any evidence of death threats??

It seems to me that writing ‘murder’ on the windows is referring to what’s being done to the turkeys. It’s not a threat!

Gilbertron

163 posts

199 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
wilwak said:
I don’t see any evidence of death threats??

It seems to me that writing ‘murder’ on the windows is referring to what’s being done to the turkeys. It’s not a threat!
The phone calls were quite explicitly death threats though...

"How would you like it if I cut you up and put you on the counter?"

"You should be the ones being killed because your life is worth less than that of the innocent animals which you are murdering".


Mr Tracy

686 posts

95 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
I used to gut turkeys and chickens when I worked in a butchers. Many people wanted to see the thing gutted to ensure they got the giblets from the bird of their choice.

One tough old turkey once knocked me out on the 23rd Dec and I was kept in overnight. Dangerous animals, even when, as with the one that attacked me, they are dead. I don't know how old it was, but I was 18 and it beat the hell out of me.

Working in a butchers put me off sausages for years. Not only did I see what went into them, one of my jobs was to make them, with the skin from the intestines of animals. Nothing went to waste. If it wasn't bone, or rather a big bone, in it went: eyes, dangly bits and stuff from the cuts no one wanted, all had a place in sausages. We had a window display and on occasion the base of a joint would turn dark and hard. It would be sliced off, put in the 'waste meat' bin and I'd take it out back for the sausages. Waste meat wasn't a comfortable concept for my boss.

Pork; now there's a funny meat. We used to get pig carcases in and segment them ourselves. We would, on occasion, find strange little cyst-like things in the meat. My boss would cut them out, generously leaving a fair bit of room around them, and take them personally to the waste waste bin. Logically, these things were not particularly unattractive, but I didn't ever touch one, just in case. I am still reluctant to eat any pork that has been minced. I like to see the joint as is.

There's something macho about butchering an animal. There you are chopper in hand, maybe a damn great saw or a knife, with a blade as long as the chopping block. I felt invulnerable. Years later I was in a firearms unit and when I had the sawn-off Remington pump in hand, I felt like asking what cut they wanted. It was the same feeling.

I don't eat so much land animal meat nowadays. I might go three days without beef, chicken or pork gracing my plate. That means that when it does, it is delicious. A rare steak is nirvana.
I went on a school excursion to an abattoir, I can still remember the sheep trying to jump over each other to get away from the man slitting their throats, poor things. Anyway, there was a big steel container where they chucked all the dregs- leftover tissue, veins, guts bits of muscle etc. that all went to the mincing machine and was made into sausages.

If you spot 10 sausages for a pound at the supermarket, there's a reason why eek

Jim the Sunderer

3,239 posts

182 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
Years later I was in a firearms unit and when I had the sawn-off Remington pump in hand, I felt like asking what cut they wanted. It was the same feeling.

Wacky Racer

38,157 posts

247 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Reciprocating mass said:
Give peas a chance frown
Cold Turkey more like.

anonymous-user

54 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
ReaperCushions said:
Evanivitch said:
ReaperCushions said:
Not sticking up for the veganistas at all, but it is a touch on the odd / morbid side to come along and pick your turkey, give it a name, care for it (Turning it into a family pet?). Then whipping its head off and stuffing it ready for the big day in December?
Do you consider farmers odd/morbid?
No, not at all, its their job and the animals are their livelihood.

What I think is odd is inviting people to 'take care' of the turkeys, give them names and effectively turn them into pets, prior to slaughter and eating them.

I have no issue with eating them (I do myself!) and I have no issue with farmers giving them a good life and then slaughtering them for me to eat. Its the emotional relationship building with the end consumer that I honestly find strange for those end customers to want to experience.

It does seem an odd concept. I appreciate giving the turkeys as good a life as possible before they get slaughtered but to rear one yourself, with that sentiment in mind, why wouldn't you just then decide to just keep it for the rest of its natural life and forego the Crimbo turkey dinner?

ambuletz

10,734 posts

181 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
ReaperCushions said:
Not sticking up for the veganistas at all, but it is a touch on the odd / morbid side to come along and pick your turkey, give it a name, care for it (Turning it into a family pet?). Then whipping its head off and stuffing it ready for the big day in December?
not at all. if you want to eat it you have to look after it. You have to look after a carrot much the same way. the naming thing is kind of pointless though. I think its a great idea as the whole process provides people with a greater appriciation of the entire process (even if they aren't killing it or butchering it themselves).


the idea being that you have invested time/care/money into raising this animal to eat it.. bloody well celebrate the bounty it's given you and eat the whole thing.

Francis85

176 posts

68 months

Tuesday 6th November 2018
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
Working in a butchers put me off sausages for years. Not only did I see what went into them, one of my jobs was to make them, with the skin from the intestines of animals. Nothing went to waste. If it wasn't bone, or rather a big bone, in it went: eyes, dangly bits and stuff from the cuts no one wanted, all had a place in sausages. We had a window display and on occasion the base of a joint would turn dark and hard. It would be sliced off, put in the 'waste meat' bin and I'd take it out back for the sausages. Waste meat wasn't a comfortable concept for my boss.
Sausages and local butchers are not a good mix. Stick to the big names at the supermarket.

Evanivitch

20,075 posts

122 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I think this smacks of the whole ignorance of where meat comes from.

The idea that you're weird because you take some involvement before raising an animal ahead of butchery is absurd. Good food, from ethical sources is cared for. Someone has to birth it, feed it, shelter it and protect it from infection and the weather. You may not give it a name but it's still something you are emotionally invested into.

Alternatively, you can just believe that all your meat was raised in the polystyrene dish in the supermarket.

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
I'm vegan and even I think this sort of 'activism' is ridiculous. Alienating people and then expecting them to come round to your way of thinking isn't going to get you anywhere other than looking like a bit of a prat

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Is that what you believe, that your meat was raised in polystyrene dishes?

Burwood

18,709 posts

246 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Geffg said:
daddy cool said:
If god didn't want people to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of food.
I agree, why make them so tasty if not meant to eat them!
It’s the same logic with Dolphins. If they are so smart, why do they get caught in fishing nets

Resolutionary

1,259 posts

171 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
I used to gut turkeys and chickens when I worked in a butchers. Many people wanted to see the thing gutted to ensure they got the giblets from the bird of their choice.

One tough old turkey once knocked me out on the 23rd Dec and I was kept in overnight. Dangerous animals, even when, as with the one that attacked me, they are dead. I don't know how old it was, but I was 18 and it beat the hell out of me.

Working in a butchers put me off sausages for years. Not only did I see what went into them, one of my jobs was to make them, with the skin from the intestines of animals. Nothing went to waste. If it wasn't bone, or rather a big bone, in it went: eyes, dangly bits and stuff from the cuts no one wanted, all had a place in sausages. We had a window display and on occasion the base of a joint would turn dark and hard. It would be sliced off, put in the 'waste meat' bin and I'd take it out back for the sausages. Waste meat wasn't a comfortable concept for my boss.

Pork; now there's a funny meat. We used to get pig carcases in and segment them ourselves. We would, on occasion, find strange little cyst-like things in the meat. My boss would cut them out, generously leaving a fair bit of room around them, and take them personally to the waste waste bin. Logically, these things were not particularly unattractive, but I didn't ever touch one, just in case. I am still reluctant to eat any pork that has been minced. I like to see the joint as is.

There's something macho about butchering an animal. There you are chopper in hand, maybe a damn great saw or a knife, with a blade as long as the chopping block. I felt invulnerable. Years later I was in a firearms unit and when I had the sawn-off Remington pump in hand, I felt like asking what cut they wanted. It was the same feeling.

I don't eat so much land animal meat nowadays. I might go three days without beef, chicken or pork gracing my plate. That means that when it does, it is delicious. A rare steak is nirvana.
Great insight. One of my friends has a family run local butcher shops near my way. He insists that the meat they procure is sourced from the best places and with welfare in mind but has no way of quantifying that, and to be honest when you think of the fact that meat is a commodity and not necessarily an animal (as far as reductionist capitalism goes) it is easy to see fissures appear where they perhaps might not have previously been so blatant.

For what it's worth, I went vegetarian on January 1st of this year after 30 odd years of enjoying pork, beef, game meat, heck pretty much anything I fancied. My primary concern is what exactly goes into our meat, the conditions in which animals are raised to be meat products, and thus what corners are cut in the interest of profits.

motco

15,951 posts

246 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Francis85 said:
Derek Smith said:
Working in a butchers put me off sausages for years. Not only did I see what went into them, one of my jobs was to make them, with the skin from the intestines of animals. Nothing went to waste. If it wasn't bone, or rather a big bone, in it went: eyes, dangly bits and stuff from the cuts no one wanted, all had a place in sausages. We had a window display and on occasion the base of a joint would turn dark and hard. It would be sliced off, put in the 'waste meat' bin and I'd take it out back for the sausages. Waste meat wasn't a comfortable concept for my boss.
Sausages and local butchers are not a good mix. Stick to the big names at the supermarket.
An Austrian friend of mine once said sausages are a product of three trades: Butcher (marketing), Baker (filler), and Cabinet maker (cheaper filler). He was a real wit...

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 7th November 2018
quotequote all
Francis85 said:
Sausages and local butchers are not a good mix. Stick to the big names at the supermarket.


The 2 local butchers I use could probably name the animals they used for their sausages, as well as being happy to make mince of any type in front of you if you want. The also have ageing cabinets on view as well as details of the herds/flocks they use, one of them keeping their own farm as well.

Big names at the supermarket seemed to ensure you got horse meat as a secret bonus, rather than quality.