Last year, I wrote a great deal about the rise of “ventilation shutdown plus” (VSD+), a method being used to mass kill poultry birds on factory farms by sealing off the airflow inside barns and pumping in extreme heat using industrial-scale heaters, so that the animals die of heatstroke over the course of hours. It is one of the worst forms of cruelty being inflicted on animals in the US food system — the equivalent of roasting animals to death — and it’s been used to kill tens of millions of poultry birds during the current avian flu outbreak.

As of this summer, the most recent period for which data is available, more than 49 million birds, or over 80 percent of the depopulated total, were killed in culls that used VSD+ either alone or in combination with other methods, according to an analysis of USDA data by Gwendolen Reyes-Illg, a veterinary adviser to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), an animal advocacy nonprofit. These mass killings, or “depopulations,” in the industry’s jargon, are paid for with public dollars through a USDA program that compensates livestock farmers for their losses.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    So you’ll put your money where your mouth is and stop buying chicken then right? That’s how condemnation works.

    • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I raise my own chickens. I love them very much. Some of them get eaten. I am very grateful to those. You don’t have to be a vegan to be a good person.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          You don’t necessarily have to be vegan to be a good person. I’m sure your chickens wouldn’t miss an egg or two every once in a while. It is pretty fucked up to claim that you love them, but also kill and eat them sometimes. Like, I love my cat, and because of that the idea of putting her dead body in my mouth makes me feel sick.

        • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wow. I’m really fucking floored by y’all’s response. Where do you think your food comes from man? Seriously. I’m not being ugly, like you are, im trying to understand how you feel like you have less impact than I do. I am just able to take the responsibility for my own food

          • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            My food comes primarily from farms. I’m not saying I necessarily have less of an impact on anything than you, all I’m saying is that I don’t kill animals for food and I don’t pay for them to be killed.

            • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You mocked me, man. It only hurts in the super small space that internet strangers can reach but it exists, regardless of how small. So. Bullshit.

              • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                I pointed out some cognitive dissonance. I care a little bit more about random animals’ lives than I do about random internet strangers’ feelings.

                • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  And while we are talking about cognitive dissonance, where the fuck do you think YOUR food comes from?

                  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    I already said farms. Who’s the dumb fuck here?

                    Go kill some more chickens and then claim to love them. Or maybe stop pretending you care about animals

                • Drusas@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  You should consider that the only way you will convince people to care more about random animals’ lives is if you care about strangers’ feelings. You don’t change minds by attacking someone, whether it be a personal attack or a lifestyle one.

                  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    If it makes you feel bad when people tell you that killing animals is wrong, then you should look into not killing animals. How am I supposed to try to convince you to stop eating meat if I have to set my morals aside and say “actually there’s nothing really wrong with eating meat, and you shouldn’t feel bad at all about it?”

                  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    I’m genuinely confused about your comment. Why is it relevant that some farms produce meat? I don’t buy meat that’s produced at farms.

                    Are you suggesting that, because meat also comes from farms, buying meat is the exact same thing as buying vegetables from farms?

        • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yes. I do. I have a separate small flock. I feed my family a proportion of our food over half that I grow, rise, and make myself. It would be impossible with out the protein from the chickens. And before anyone says some dumb shit to me, you do the math of your monoculture grown vegan food and if you still think my overall footprint is greater than yours, you are wrong.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            That must be really hard on you. I’ve killed animals before and that’s why I know I never want to be part of that and I never want to make anyone else do that for me. I know the statistics, people who kill animals are more likely to abuse drugs, self harm, hurt others, and commit suicide. When you kill animals you kill part of yourself. You have to, because our human instincts make us empathize with animals.

            That’s why I’m vegan. I don’t pretend like consumer choices are going to save the environment - nothing either of us do as individuals matters on that front. I’m vegan because someone has to kill those animals and it fucks people up. Maybe you’re fine. I doubt it.

            Seek help.

            • daltotron@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              what would you think of a backyard farm where chickens are only killed once they’re dead? or, are only basically killed when they would otherwise die from old age in the next, say, 2 months, to just put a random number on it? would only be killed when they are diseased, have cancer etc. Cause we already do that with people a good amount of the time, assisted suicide, hospice, whatever.

              also what do you think of if we just ate like old people

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                I’d honestly be okay if someone ate their 17 year old dog that they had to put down because she broke her hip or whatever; they lived a good and long life filled with love and were put down humanely. I think that’s weird as fuck and I sure as hell wouldn’t do it, but I don’t have a problem with it. I guess.

                You have to realize how ridiculous the concept is, though, right?

                • daltotron@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Well yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous, but I wonder like. How much of that is cause we just don’t do it that often? It’s sort of like if you saw someone just fill up a cup with their spit and then drink the whole thing. It’s nasty, but is there anything really wrong with it? I don’t actually know, I don’t know anything about the biology and consumption of a large amount of spit, I imagine it has to be pretty alright since we’re mostly consuming spit all the time, but I don’t really know. Just an example, anyways.

                  Can I have dibs on your dog? Or, put another way, are you gonna finish that?

                  • kase@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    This comment was a rollercoaster ride. I don’t know how to feel. Maybe it’s time for me to go to sleep.

            • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You are an insane person and a coward. You buy your food at a supermarket and are not able to comprehend the impact of your precious soy. As a matter of fact, your not even on my level really. You are probably a child. If you ever need help, call me.

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And yet, you couldn’t resist the temptation to be aggressive and further turn off people to the idea of going meat free, vs trying to kindly convince them.

      • Drusas@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        These sort of vegan evangelists have no idea the damage they do to their cause.

    • AlecSadler@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I get my chicken (and beef) from small, local neighboring farms, directly. I don’t see the problem?

      • triangle5106@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        If your question is genuine, these small farms you speak of are still breeding animals with intent to slaughter them. At the end of the day, the only meaningful difference with a small farm is that you can probably shake the hand of the person who needlessly killed an animal. Can’t get that at those big mean factory farms, that’s for sure.

        • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          intent to slaughter them

          Assuming that’s the intent is an asshole move. What if the primary intent is to extract nutrition from land that is otherwise unproductive?

          • triangle5106@reddthat.com
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            1 year ago

            Is it not the intent? A farmer generally isn’t going to raise an animal for fun. That wouldn’t be profitable, and small farms are already difficult to make a living on.

            I can entertain the idea that I could walk up to a farmer and ask them what their intent is, and they reply, “why it’s to extract nutrition from land that is otherwise unproductive, of course!”. But the end result is the same in either case regardless of stated intent: animals are being killed unnecessarily.

            To be clear, none of this applies to people who rely on animal products to survive (e.g. people in the unproductive land you mentioned). I’m talking about people like myself (and likely many others here) who have access to supermarkets and other products of a globalized food system. Like Uncle Ben said, with great power privilege comes great responsibility.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Land has more value than economic activity, such as natural habitat and biodiversity and recreation (all things farmers destroy lol)

    • 4lan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s hilarious, people have no sense of personal responsibility whatsoever. Just look at COVID.

      They use the argument that one person not eating meat won’t change anything. Ignoring the fact that they are literally deriving joy from suffering. It doesn’t have to be this way. I truly believe meat can be ethical, but when 99.8% of beef is factory farmed I do not have the option to ethically eat meat.

      17 years meat free and every once in awhile I reconsider adding chicken to my diet. Then I see a post like this lol

      • triangle5106@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        I think ethical meat can only truly exist in theory (though with cell culture meat I suspect that that will change).

        Anyway, I just wanted to say 17 years is a long time. Thanks for walking the talk. Not many people do.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Some of us instead reduce consumption and buy expensive meat products which are locally and humanely raised.

      • BigAssFan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Still, eating meat in today’s society is a choice you don’t have to make. Having a pleasant taste in your mouth on one hand versus climate warming, loss of biodiversity and animal cruelty. Even when locally grown. For me, the choice is not hard to make.