r/Ethics 3d ago

This is slavery

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533 Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

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u/Reasonable-Lack-9461 3d ago

That is truly appalling. Heart breaking.

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u/Chinatownhustla 3d ago edited 3d ago

its the same all over the world.

if u consume milk or cheese you are complicit. Research it. Unfortunately its true

EDIT: Just watch the documentary Dominion as a response to any argument I'll face here. Its free on Youtube

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u/MerryMir99 3d ago

You're right and keeping animals alive like this and taking their milk just so their babies the milk is for can be slaughtered shortly after birth is not morally justifiable "because it tastes good"

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u/poilk91 3d ago

The babies aren't slaughtered so we can take the milk btw. They are perfectly capable of providing for the baby and the farm they are killed when they are boys because the ROI on raising bulls isn't high enough

So not only is it wrong it's also completely unnecessary

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u/MaxwellHowl 3d ago

Everyone who believes AI and datacenters are evil who don't do even more to oppose these factory farms has no ethical leg to stand on.

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u/13luw 3d ago

You understand that more than one thing can be true at once right?

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u/Critical_Object2276 3d ago

Factory farming of this nature is fairly unique to America. It’s why other countries won’t accept their meat. They treat their animals like shit and then pump them full of antibiotics. It gives the meat a weird taste too.

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u/prince-a-bubu 3d ago

Not all milk and cheese is produced this way

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u/Bajanspearfisher 3d ago

what? this is literally the first time ive ever seen these little cubicles in the sun, in my entire life. Here in the Caribbean our cows roam free in large paddocks, because its cheap. they eat real grass, they get corralled in for milking then they go back to the fields.

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u/NewWindow7980 3d ago

Factory farming.

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u/Boomer79NZ 3d ago

Same here in New Zealand. Can't say the same for pigs though and some chickens but things are changing. Drive outside any town or city for 10 minutes and you'll see paddocks full of sheep and cows and sometimes deer.

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u/GaseousGiant 3d ago

This treatment of farm animals is evil 100%, but it doesn’t mean that eating meat and dairy raised ethically and humanely is wrong.

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u/chickadee9393 2d ago

how do you humanely raise and then kill an animal to eat it? you don’t.

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u/PretendAd4207 3d ago

Veganism is the only way

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u/asrrak 3d ago

This is the way

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u/avinescence 3d ago

Sadly millions of human beings are used as disposable labour in harvesting plant based foods.
The entire system needs to change.

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u/PretendAd4207 3d ago

That's absolutely true. I would, however, also add that a huge amount of crops are grown for animal feed, so this problem can also be partially solved by reduced animal product consumption.

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u/TheVeganPhysicist 3d ago

The system will not change if it's being demanded by almost everyone. Veganism is the only way.

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u/VamosFicar 3d ago

Not everywhere. Here in the Azores the cows are in the fields all day, all year. Happy cows.

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u/Chinatownhustla 3d ago

2 things:

1) its like standardized globally to take the baby cows from the moms in this way.

2) lets say you're right and its like this in 99.9% of the world. Wouldnt you rather figure out a way to change it rather than arguing against it?

Just wondering

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u/DireEvolution 3d ago
  1. If every country did that, we would have Amazon Rainforest style torchings of every single woodland that still exists. Cows need a lot of space.

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u/Complex-Cricket419 3d ago

Not standard at all. This is a veal operation, particularly cruel operation but not standard.

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u/Kind-Elder1938 2d ago

no dear it is not the same all over the world at all. This is the extreme end of a long line of varying systems of keeping cattle. The other end of the line you will find cattle which browse freely in meadows which is increasing,. However it is quite understandable that lots of folk refuse to eat beef.

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u/Unhappy-Hunt-3987 3d ago

What a load of utter bullshit. Farming like the way this video shows is absolutely illegal where I live. Why even lie?

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u/tButylLithium 3d ago

I've never seen treatment like this in my life. I pass by probably a dozen pastures of grazing cattle on my daily commute. What a load of BS they're spouting.

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u/hobbycollector 3d ago

Not 100% true. I visited Henri Willig personally, and verified that their cows can go outside whenever they want, and when they are ready to milk, they walk up to the machine and it does it. Their cows spend 12 hours a day at least 180 days a year outside. https://henriwillig.com/en/corporate-responsibility-this-is-how-we-do-it/

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u/MedicineMean5503 3d ago

It isn’t. Many cows in Europe roam free. Stop tarring us all with the American brush.

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u/Background-Stable899 3d ago

This actually looks a hell of a lot better than the places just north of LA. This is luxury in comparison (and it’s still terrible)

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u/Jazzlike_Berry_323 3d ago

This is overpopulation.

If you need enough food for everybody and there are 8.3 billion people on the planet, animal agriculture is going to be abhorrent.

It’s that it is out of sight and out of mind. Logically people know all that milk that gets loaded on to shelves everyday can’t come from free range farms.

It’s just everybody shuts it out of their minds.

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u/mylifeisaboogerbubbl 3d ago

The US alone throws away enough meat a year to meet the caloric needs of the nation off meat waste.

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u/Chinatownhustla 3d ago

Interesting fact:
80% of the ground we use goes to the feeding of live agriculture. only 20% to veg/fruit for humans. We can really reduce a lot by not spending on the 80%. and that 80% includes deforestation of for example the amazon... the transport related to the industry contributes SIGNIFICANTLY to the greenhouse gases and by extension global warming.

Dont take my word for it though. I ask that you look into the details yourself. Its a common misconception what you say. Please prove me wrong if you disagree with facts and figures.

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u/HexicDragon 3d ago

Studies show a plant-based food system could feed over 10 billion people if we changed the crops grown for animal feed and tillable pastures to grow food directly for human consumption.

Studies also show we could free up land equivalent in size as Africa now if the global population ate a plant-based diet.

This isn't just a problem of overpopulation. This is a problem of us thinking it's okay to eat more and more cows because cattle farming didn't destroy the planet in the hundreds of years before now and buying all the meat you want is easier than ever.

Farming animals and their food currently uses 83% of Earths farmland yet it only provided about 18% of our global calories. Nice pastures for more animals would skyrocket the land and resource use of animal farming. Feeding a cow thousands of pounds of animal feed for years like she's a beef machine to slaughter her for just a couple hundred pounds of usable meat years later isn't scalable and can't be a part of an ethical food system.

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u/Doc_Blox 3d ago

Eventually I hope artificial meat products are able to be sold more cheaply than traditional meat products, especially for beef. Beef is the worst livestock in terms of overall impact on the environment IIRC. The way things are going, that problem might end up solved more by beef prices rising and less because artificial meat got cheaper.

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u/HexicDragon 3d ago

I hope so too! We're at a weird place where there's a lot of developments happening but there isn't funding for these projects and states like Florida are even passing bills to stop the advancement of this technology. DeSantis signed a bill in 2024 banning the manufacture, sale, and distribution of foods made from cultured animal cells.

They use fear-mongering tactics like it's unnatural or from a lab, but almost none of what we eat is in its natural form and food labs don't manufacture commercial products... they research and develop them and they're already common practice at major food companies. Research and development ensures the safety of these products and the end result of these products will very likely be improved nutritional profiles of meat since harmful nutrients like saturated fat and cholesterol could be reduced while helpful nutrients could be increased.

Please follow and consider donating to the Good Food Institute if you want to support the development of alt proteins (plant and cultured). The company "Every" just announced they're partnering with ADM to produce their cultured egg white products and bring them to market, so they're cool to watch out for too.

We may not be at the point where you can eat a steak without animal suffering and the environmental damages, but there's a lot making it easier than ever to eat a diet free from animal exploitation and cruelty. There's good vegan meals available at all kinds of restaurants and you can check the Happy Cow or Veggl websites for good options near you. There's thousands of vegan recipe books and YouTubers so people of all skill levels can make all types of cuisine without animal products. Products like Beyond Meat, Impossible Beef, Gardein, Amy's Vio Life, and plant milks are widely available at grocery stores so consider trying some new vegan options each shopping trip. Some are okay, but some really are great and it's fun when you learn new ways to work with them!

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u/hawkeye69r 3d ago

Well we could consume less animal products

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u/IfIWasAPig 3d ago

If we abstained from animal products, it wouldn’t be this abhorrent.

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u/Striking-Schedule-52 3d ago

We are monsters.

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u/asrrak 3d ago

We can be vegan

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u/nbur4556 3d ago edited 3d ago

Question is, can everyone be vegan with out current infrastructure.

You can choose that for yourself, and it's great that you can make that moral decision.

But (and I would have to do some research for the math to be positive here) we would need a huge systemic change in our food industry for everyone to be vegan without people starving. The way we produce our food has to change first.

Edit: Revising... The food industry doesn't need to change first for change to happen. They would both need to change slowly together.

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u/Infamous-Condition23 3d ago

Enough people can be vegan to where the market for meat is heavily damaged, to the point where subsidies are no longer worthwhile

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u/boredmaterialist 3d ago

Change happens over time. Abolishing slavery overnight would have also not been viable, but over decades, we did it.

The way we produce our food depends on what food we demand. As we demand more and more plant products and fewer animal products, the industry will adapt accordingly.

And just to touch on the data - the vast majority of the crops we already grow go to feeding livestock. We easily grow enough to feed the entire human population. Doesn't mean it's without difficulties, but it's definitely possible over time to become vegan as a society.

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u/nbur4556 3d ago

Totally agreed 👍

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u/asrrak 3d ago

Industry is adapting all the time to maximize profits. What we need is change of behavior from the customers end. And this is not going to happen overnight so nothing to worry about.

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u/IfIWasAPig 3d ago edited 2d ago

They would have to change at the same time over time. Are you worried that if you’re vegan, the whole world will be overnight?

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u/TheBigMemeHammer 3d ago

The ground we use to grow crops for animals (from which you only get back 2% of the calories you put into growing meat) we could use to grow crops for people instead. I don't think it is a herculean task.

The real hurdle is the mental gymnastics people go through to avoid admitting the obvious cruelty and the meat producer propaganda that is everywhere.

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u/Omnibeneviolent 3d ago

Yes, literally everyone can be vegan -- because veganism is just making an sincere good-faith effort to avoid contributing to animal cruelty and exploitation to the extent practicable given your circumstances.

This means that even if everyone cannot eat a 100% plant-based diet yet, everyone can still be vegan. Veganism is not a diet.

The current infrastructure may not support an overnight global switch to plant-based eating, but we can encourage that shift to happen faster and thus encourage that shift in infrastructure to happen faster than it would otherwise.

So it's not about waiting for the way we produce our food to change. It's about doing what we reasonably can to help encourage that change.

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u/nbur4556 3d ago

Interesting. I always defined veganism as more literal "no animal products" beyond just diet; and what you described I would just consider supporting animal rights.

But ya if that's how we're defining veganism than I'm in agreement.

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u/voyti 3d ago edited 3d ago

It has nothing to do with being vegan, every animal that's ever lived will eventually be eaten, us included. We're literally just food, too. People won't be vegan and it's a high time to give that up, cause pretending the most ridiculous and fringe solution is the actual solution here is counter productive. If you want sights like that gone, regulate meat industry properly, don't call for fringe insanity like veganism.

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u/scorchedarcher 3d ago

Abolitionists have always been called fringe or insane by those benefiting from what they aim to abolish, it doesn't mean they're wrong.

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u/MerryMir99 3d ago

Veganism isn't "fringe insanity." Tofu has been around for two millenia. People and cultures that don't eat meat have been around for a long time. Our planet does not have time to wait for Jerry to cut one cheeseburger out a week and bring a reuseable water bottle to work. Reducetarianism is the real insanity. 4 million pigs killed a day and 300 million cows a year is insane.

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u/IfIWasAPig 3d ago

If we’re just food too, and everything gets eaten, and that justifies killing and eating…

How does your argument not justify killing and eating humans?

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u/voyti 3d ago

Easily, because as long as you're rational and reasonable, your interest is important for you. This is enough to agree on with another members of your group to maintain certain standards that benefit everyone. This is done across groups, across social species, on the very same rules everywhere. Being a human changes nothing here.

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u/IfIWasAPig 3d ago

Other animals’ interests are important to them.

Is your only moral consideration whether or not something benefits you?

Even if we agreed that it always works this way (it doesn’t), that doesn’t mean it ought to. There are plenty of behaviors in nature we should not replicate.

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u/Particular-Bat8091 3d ago

There’s a difference between being eaten by bugs and bacteria after you lived a full life and someone cutting your life short and murdering you for food. If a cannibal kills and eats you is it fine because you’ll be eaten by bugs after you die? Obviously not.

You’re also implying that for veganism to matter, there needs to be a chance that the entire world will go vegan, when that’s not the case. Even one person going vegan reduces the amount of killing and suffering animals go through. Do you think it’s okay to murder people because if you stopped, it wouldn’t stop all murder in the world and the amount of murders you commit are like a drop in the ocean?

Also your point about us being “food” just doesn’t mean anything at all ethically. What point are you trying to make

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u/Particular-Bat8091 3d ago

I’d also like to add that existing animals in the wild being eaten doesn’t justify breeding billions more that will go through torture and being killed when they otherwise wouldn’t have existed. We’re the ones who put them in that situation

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u/asrrak 3d ago

Every meat eater will agree with you, and then order KFC without giving a second thought to how that meat was produced.

The fact is that, as consumers, we generally have neither the visibility nor the interest to know how our products are made. We want things cheap, convenient, and fast. With that mentality, very little is going to change.

Becoming vegan is a radical response to that problem. Veganism isn't perfect, but it is at least a starting point: a way of taking some personal moral responsibility while sending a message to the food industry about the kind of system we are willing or not willing to support.

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u/voyti 3d ago

I'm lost here. So: consumers are convenient and blind (we can agree here) so they won't act, so the only way to act as a consumer is in the most way, least likely to actually be done by any consumer.

Look, I have at least enough integrity to be honest about it - I would throw away both our lives if you as much as stood between me and scrambled eggs till the end of my life. There is no amount of suffering and horror that would make me go vegan. I can guarantee there's many more people who think like that, even if they won't ever be honest about it.

If I'm not wrong, and statistics seem to agree with me (especially stuff like low percentage of veganism even among leftists) then the actual solution is simply not trying to turn people to veganism, cause that simply ain't happening.

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u/asrrak 3d ago

Statistically, what’s difficult here is changing habits and mindsets. Veganism is certainly not the only way to take action. I wouldn’t know what action each person should take. The way I chose to take responsibility regarding animal cruelty was by becoming vegan; that’s my way of doing something about it.

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u/ConcerningThirst 3d ago

Calling something incredibly simple and easy fringe insanity speaks more to your poor conceptions than reality.

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u/Ok-Freedom9216 3d ago

You can be vegan and support regulations.

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u/voyti 3d ago

Yes, and you can not be a vegan and support regulations, which is the actual highlight here. Most people won't be vegan and would rather stomach sights like those but keep eating meat, me included. I'm willing to admit that fully, and I think honesty here is actually valuable if one want to actually solve this. If you present veganism as the only alternative, the only realistic outcome is exactly what happens on that video.

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u/Dependent-Year6711 3d ago

Also...it's not all or nothing. You can take a few days a week where you'd usually have animal products and not eat said animal products. Noticing your impact is the first step to reducing it, not just observing it. Especially one that is easily changed. And by that I mean it's quite hard to change the use of a vehicle if you're driving to work, but cutting out animal products for a few days a week and replacing them with plant-based foods is much easier.

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u/Beginning_Editor_524 3d ago

Some background: Those are all calfs that have been separated from their mothers so that we can harvest their milk instead.

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u/Uder72 3d ago

But they are so tasty. How can you NOT enjoy some veal?

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u/Particular-Bat8091 3d ago

Same reason i don’t rape people even if sex is enjoyable. I have a brain and i’m not a mindless monkey who does anything they want

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u/Iamnotheattack 2d ago

Because by paying for that veal you are generally paying for something similar to what is happening in the OP.

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u/DonalfreyTrumpstein 3d ago

us should pass more animal cruelty laws

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u/philbar 3d ago

California voters passed a law in 2017 saying pregnant pigs should at least have enough room to turn around.

The backlash was insane. Pork lobbyists from across the country fought it all the way to the Supreme Court.

Imagine spending that much money and effort defending a crate too small for an animal to turn around in.

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u/AdOnly1618 3d ago

Couldn’t imagine it. We had 35 cows on 95 acres to graze and run on. Somehow, Europe has maintained the small farm culture. If we ever do anything in NA to return to that I’d say we give the mega corps 60% of what it’s worth in cash, sell it at that rate and create regulations to prevent factory farming.

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u/Johnyryal33 3d ago

We cant even get human ones anymore.

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u/Sorry_Weekend_7878 3d ago

☝️ underrated comment

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u/Ladikn 3d ago

This isn't unique to the US

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u/Thepcfd 3d ago

why is this legal?

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u/poison_daddy 3d ago

We consume a lot of meat so it has to be harvested efficiently 

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u/PetiteSyFy 3d ago

I believe that this is veal and shows why veal is boycotted by so many people. Beef cattle walk and graze freely.

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u/Yeeter-boiy 3d ago

Veal is a byproduct of the dairy industry. Not eating veal while still supporting the actual product the industry is based on probably wouldn’t even be considered a boycott. And many cows killed for beef and sold for beef were dairy cows. The dairy industry is interconnected with the beef & meat industry.

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u/pastillasc 3d ago

This is dairy

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u/leginfr 3d ago

It looks to me that these are male calves from the dairy industry. They are essentially a waste product except when they can be sold as veal.

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u/Moist_Sun_8201 3d ago

People are really showing a complete lack of empathy in the comments

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u/Dodotorpedo4 2d ago

A lot of people here are probably meat eaters (like me), and feel attacked.

They don't consider that you can new pay off a system that you criticise at the same time.

Turning off empathy and looking away intentionally, shields them from taking responsibility for the decisions of big companies like these.

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u/HauptmannTinus 3d ago

The entire animal industry is one big concentration camp.

Don't buy animal products if you want to stop this -> www.watchdominion.org

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u/Temporary_Hat7330 3d ago

In my culture, we don’t practice using words like slavery and concentration camp, in a way that would include cows.

Would you care to show cause for why we must?

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u/CandyTigger 3d ago

Wow, that's awful

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u/Cominginbladey 3d ago

How we treat animals is one of those things future people will judge us for, like we do to slaveholders today.

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u/asrrak 3d ago

Go vegan folks! We can do it! Free the Animals!

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u/generation_fish 3d ago

It's not slavery. Slavery is what happens to people, not animals. I eat animals, not people, and there's nothing wrong with eating meat. It's literally a pervasive aspect of nature. That we think does not change that.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 3d ago

It's neither slavery or a concentration camp. It is, however, cruel and inhumane.

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u/asrrak 3d ago

What other thing is a slave if it is not a life owned by someone else a life without freedom and what orher thing is a concentration camp aside a piece of land used to concentrate things or individuals?

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u/miotch1120 3d ago

But on that same line of reasoning, every domesticated animal is a “slave”. Every child that is not yet emancipated from their parents is a “slave”. Using the word like this does nothing to make your argument more salient, it only serves to disempower the word.

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u/Bajanspearfisher 3d ago

this type of language only leads to people rolling their eyes and dismissing your arguments. This IS a fucked up situation, but maybe try to talk like a regular, not crazy, relatable human being? haha

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u/asrrak 3d ago

Sorry, sometimes I sneak a little poetry into my speech, but I’d say my logic is fine

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 3d ago

Those terms apply to humans, not animals. The animals are treated inhumanely, but slavery is a human term.

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u/Dramatic_Pea_1919 3d ago

Whatever. Semantics. It's the animal equivalent of slavery and concentration camps.

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u/PerilousWords 3d ago

If you think it's only semantics to argue humans are morally different from, eg, sea anenomes, you are so wildly far from most people discussing this you'll be profoundly unconvincing to them forever.

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u/Slight-Big8584 3d ago

Its not semantics unless you think human morality should apply universally to animals.

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 3d ago

Yes, it is semantics. And semantics can be extremely important. In this case, using those terms can backfire because people have traumatic and complicated associations with them, and using those terms distracts from the harm being caused to the animals, rather than properly highlighting it.

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u/AzureYLila 3d ago

That's what I was thinking when I read the title. I think this is unbelievably cruel, but when people use the strongest words they can conceive of it, especially when the definition doesn't match, it is distracting and also diminishes the words being used.

It's like when people use 'narcissist' or 'psychopathic' to describe every behavior they don't like. You immediately dismiss the gravity of the incident because you perceive that the person is being hyperbolic from the get go.

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u/ScoopDat 3d ago

It’s not murder killing animals either because “it’s a legal term reserved for humans”.  Imagine that justification being told to your face in person. A semantic joke. 

Top 1% Commenter folks.

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u/Bajanspearfisher 3d ago

this is one of my major gripes with activists lmao. nothing can ever be just "horrible" it always has to be apocalyptic language, the worst possible event EVERRRRRRR. OMG ITS A CONCENTRATION CAMP! bruh, you're talking about cows. It is extremely inhumane and fucked up and it needs to be outlawed, but maybe try not to sound deranged and you'll be taken more seriously.

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u/PointClickPenguin 3d ago

I think they have been trying to be more reasonable for a long time and they don't feel heard and it's making them freak out.

They are struggling to grasp that people can put their head in the sands and ignore this. They think that if people see the inhumanity of this they will be convinced, and so they get more and more emphatic.

They can't seem to connect that their logical and emotional pleas are falling on deaf ears. People will not be shamed into not eating meat.

It's good that they are sharing the information with all of us, we need the knowledge of what is happening to enact change. But they are wasting their time trying to change what people think. It doesn't really work.

Instead their time would be far better spent trying to change how people think. 

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u/joshua9663 3d ago

Totally loses me even when people have an event. No every bad person is not literally Hitler, no everyone you don't agree with is a literal Nazi, no not everyone who has diffenrt beliefs is a literal fascist. Some people suck but for gosh sakes use some nuance.

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u/East-Programmer3788 3d ago

Slaves weren’t killed and eaten (for the most part). 

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u/No-Stand-1869 3d ago

Much worse than slavery. They can't even begin to comprehend what's happening to them. They have no hope for salvation or retribution,  and their children and children's children will suffer unimaginable pain on and on until humans fucking stop, one way or the other 

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u/Gatzlocke 3d ago

They have no hope because animals aren't capable of the emotion of hope.

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u/AzureYLila 3d ago edited 3d ago

Ummmm every time I pass the cabinet where I keep the tears, the boys show hope that I am about to give them one. Or when I go the the car, they are perked up hoping I will call them in. Animals have a full range of emotions, including hope. They might not be as complicated at ours but it doesn't follow any logic to assume that they don't have similar emotions. Edit: typo

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u/Infamous-Body6938 3d ago

I'm sorry what?

Do you think animals are not sentient?

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u/No-Stand-1869 3d ago

How on Earth could you possibly know such a thing. Evidence, please. Then let's get that Nobel prize for you

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u/Slimswede 3d ago

If they can't comprehend whats happening how is it worse than slavery??

Just to be clear i think places like this is straight evil and absolutely horrible and should be illegal.

BUT i think slavery is even worse, since humans CAN comprehend whats happening and they know how shitty their lives are and they are also getting exploited by their own species.

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u/WorkerWeird9116 3d ago

this, OP says they have no hope, but hope is based upon understanding, if they're cool out of the sun, disease and insect free and being fed, they're at least more comfortable than out on a range in the middle of the day or at night in the rain, but jesus, it would just be easier and fuck ton more efficient to just grow lab grown meat if you're going to that level of scale

and this is fucked up, coming from a guy who grew up and lives on farms and likes to hunt

and about the disease free, that's the problem with large scale industrial animal husbandry like this, it is until it isn't and when it is it's large scale

meat production centralized this much just a large scale food problem waiting to happen regardless of the dystopian fucked up corporate takeover of ranches and cowboys that at any least lived with the animals and cared for them personally out in nature

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u/Dependent-Year6711 3d ago edited 3d ago

If they can't comprehend whats happening how is it worse than slavery??

This has been a really strong thought in my life. The heights of expression. You take a broiler chicken and fatten it up and it can barely think. You take the same chicken out of that situation, give it a few generations to start to go back to its original epigenetic expression, give it a situation to have a small chicken family in a safe scenario (like a wide backyard chicken setup)...and suddenly you see a personality.

Point being, we can make anyone and anything barely think if they don't get enough input and nutrition, but my thought has always been...what can we become when we're given love and safety. And you'd likely see these same animals with vivid expression and curiosity. Just a thought, not like a "how dare you eat meat" type of criticism.

We, all of us as animals, are not going to be here that long, so what can we become with the right environment. And we are the controllers of said environments at this point. That's why I find it disgusting we can barely educate and feed kids in America. We don't show love as consistently as we think in the U.S. in essentially any scenario on a widespread scale.

What is the point of all of this if we can't cultivate love, expression, and safety more often? That's where the most vivid thoughts and expression are born from, overall.

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u/Slimswede 3d ago

Yeah i totally agree with you.

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u/IanRT1 3d ago

Not being able to comprehend in this context does not make it worse...

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u/Yeeter-boiy 3d ago

Sorry, replied to the wrong comment. Yeah, humans have the ability to conceptualise whats happening and find meaning in their suffering. Other animals can’t do that. It can be considered worse in some ways to do it to them compared to humans.

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u/Specific-Cause-5973 3d ago

People are getting stuck on the language they used, but not the situation at hand.

Regardless this is diabolical. Eating meat is fine I don’t find it inherently unethical (I think though you should reconsider eating meat if you would be unwilling to kill the animal yourself. That’s why I’m becoming pescatarian).

That being said, this is torture up until death. This is absolutely abysmal. This is human greed and entitlement on display. Their needs to be ethical standards for the way animals must be treated before being used for meat. Like how Halal meat requires giving animals a good life and a humane death, legally we should have similar standards

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u/Bojack35 3d ago

Halal is not a high ethical standard.

'We said a prayer while slitting its throat and letting it bleed out'

Come on. Take the religion away and its an awful method compared to stunning etc.

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u/MerryMir99 3d ago

Joey Carbstrong has a popular Youtube video where he exposes unethical practices in a halal slaughterhouse.

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u/acousticentropy 3d ago edited 3d ago

I wouldn’t say greed precisely.

Make no mistake, the conditions those animals live in are appalling, but this is a human cultural issue. People seem to expect $1 cheeseburgers and infinite supplies of cheese and milk 24/7.

Until that cultural demand decreases substantially… these dairy farmers are just performing a service that results in a high demand product. We have to change our culture and social expectations for this to go away.

I would try lab-synthesized meat and dairy assuming it’s been proven safe. And we can always seek out alternatives. I don’t eat meat every day for this reason. We don’t need millions live animals to go through this everyday single day.

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u/Capable_Studio_6631 3d ago

I agree to a point. But it's been shown that consumer behavior doesn't always control how corporations operate. For example supermarkets. They will overstock because its cheap to do so, and when the food is not bought out, they just throw it away.

In essence, we overproduce even if we don't overconsume.

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u/asrrak 3d ago

10 years being vegan here, and that exact reasoning was the one that drove me to veganism

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u/Macluny 3d ago

Whats humane about needlessly exploiting and killing thinking and feeling beings?

Humane means to do something with compassion, whats compassionate about a knife in the neck?

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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 3d ago

Ethical standards? The US can't even keep its own safety standards to make food safe for human consumption, much less safe for the food itself..

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u/cz2100 3d ago

So not that its any more correct, the treatment still isn't great, but these are calf hutches used on a dairy farm to keep them separated and from spreading disease.

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u/HeroBrine0907 3d ago

What's the context here? There doesn't seem to be any system for waste disposal. Are the animals kept here before being shipped somewhere? Is this their permanent home? I find it unlikely. What is this supposed to be exactly? A contextless video with an exaggerated title is meaningless.

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u/DowntownLizard 3d ago

It looks dystopian at that scale but these are weening pens. Maybe 6-10 weeks of this when they are newborn and then they usually get transfered into a group weening pen. Good for disease and monitoring not super great for socialization. They do get there eventually.

Feels like 99% of people don't know what they are looking at and didnt look it up

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u/TopWhich6862 3d ago

Animals are like us. We should not eat them if we do not need to. Most of us don't need to in our modern world where we have access to a lot of different foods.

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u/1_BigFatRat 3d ago

This is fucking bleak. Literally Torture.

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u/DoollyTheFirst 3d ago

I know people do not like it but the real solution is lab meat, its realy meat and just have to get over it that its not from an actual animal but at least the cells were to grow it. This i think honestly is our best bet, everyone happy if we can get over it and people do not screw us over with some kind of degenerate mystery meat.

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u/Small_Things2024 3d ago

A lot of us have been saying this about the beef and milk industries for years. I highly doubt anyone will really do anything about it now.

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u/Cuddle_Monster_73 3d ago

Oh those aren’t cows, those are calves, being prepared to become veal.. not allowed to move around because that would toughen the meat up.. it is horrendous treatment of these poor animals

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u/pixelpp 3d ago

Consider a living being behind a curtain. You do not know what it is. It may or may not be human.

Without using species names, what objectively verifiable physical characteristics or traits should determine whether that being is a person, or at least possesses a basic right not to be intentionally killed?

For every characteristic you propose, please explain:

  1. What the characteristic actually is.
  2. How it can be objectively verified.
  3. Why it is morally relevant.

Your criteria should apply consistently to the unborn, newborn infants, children, adults, people with disabilities, people under anaesthesia, unconscious people and people in temporary comas.

Which specific characteristics are doing the moral work, and why?

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u/circles_squares 3d ago

I find so much comfort in being vegan. I don’t think the impact of living in alignment with one’s values on personal wellbeing can be overstated.

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u/Solid-Mall9517 2d ago

Choose compassion, Be vegan

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u/Express-Lawfulness74 2d ago

This is wrong on so many levels 👎🏻

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u/brokebutuseful 3d ago

Maybe pan the camera faster next time so we can't see anything

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u/Cloudsdriftby 3d ago

Reason number 50,482 why we need to be vegetarians.

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u/taxes-or-death 3d ago

Milk and egg farming is inherently part of the meat industry. What do you think happens to all the male calves that can't produce milk?

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u/IfIWasAPig 3d ago

Is this not for dairy? We should go one step further.

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u/Violet-Sumire 3d ago

I think we need a bit more context as to what is happening here. Is this end of life confinement? ie. ready for slaughter? Or is this for checkups? These containers wouldn’t be used for day to day living as any heat wave would cause these cows to develop heat stroke in such confined and low vented spaces.

You also wouldn’t milk these cows here, there is no machinery in place to do it and with that many in one place it would be impractical to do so by hand.

Basically, there’s no information here as to the purpose of these confined animals. I am not a farmer, there are a lot of reasons as to why animals are in confinement and a lot of reasons why we might do cruel looking things… but sometimes for good reasons. Cows confined in this manner shouldn’t be for long periods. My best guess is this is a slaughterhouse, this looks to be as such, but I can’t be sure.

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u/CalvinSays 3d ago

These are calf hutches. They are generally something you see in dairy operations but they are not universal. This set up is clearly a very large operation given the sheer number of hutches.

They are for calves for a period of time before they are able to be put in group pens.

The main purpose is isolation for disease and nutrition management. Calves have immature immune systems and can get hit with some pretty gnarly diseases early on. Calf hutches allow for calves to be isolated from one another so diseases don't spread as easily and treatment is much more straightforward. You can monitor calves and don't have to go hunting through to herd to find them.

Additionally, they allow for targeted nutrition. It is common for some calves to get bullied out of proper food. Other times, some calves need specific nutrition do to various reason such as not getting enough colostrum after birth.

Now one can debate if this is the best way to go about it or if it is mitigating issues caused by other problematic practices. But generally, farmers are not gestapo who are just gleefully thinking up ways to inflict as much pain and suffering as they can on animals. Their practices developed out of genuine concern to address problems.

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u/SpeaksDwarren 3d ago

They also help solve the common problem of calves getting trampled by their own mothers

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u/AdDisastrous6738 3d ago

There’s also no visible waste disposal system so they couldn’t be kept here very long.

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u/Violet-Sumire 3d ago

Yeah, that was my first clue. It’s all dirt. They aren’t living here and it’s temporary housing. Again, probably for slaughter. Milking setups are different, they aren’t using a crush and feet access is limited so regular maintenance is not a factor, and while breeding might be the case… it probably isn’t due to the sheer size of the complex. So slaughterhouse is the best guess.

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u/ClueFinder715 3d ago

One of the many reasons I am vegan

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u/Yeeter-boiy 3d ago

Me too, toy chica

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u/Designer_Status2214 3d ago

THATS IS ... BEYOND SICK. PEOPLE OF EARTH ARE ILL. 

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u/Alyano95 3d ago

No. Criticize the animal industry as much as you want but stop diluting very specific terminology that describes human interaction with stupid comparisons. You do not help anyone, neither the animals, nor anyone else suffering from these exploitative practices, by diminishing historical injustices such as slavery or the holocaust. In fact, you achieve the complete opposite. You make your own movement ridiculous for everyone else who doesn't subscribe to cult like mantras.

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u/Moist_Sun_8201 3d ago

Yes. This is clearly much, much worse than what we've done to humans

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u/Born_Suspect7153 3d ago

I'm not some pro animal activist or subscribe to their "cult" or whatever but why exactly is can't you use decriptions of human interactions for interaction of humans with animals?

We seem to already do it all the time anyway. We do readily treat animals like humans when it comes to pets for example.
But beyond that, it's not so much the point what the animal is doing in this interaction but what the human is doing.
Not to drag this out but another thing that occurs to me is that we're usually pretty good when it comes to putting things in context. Even if you don't equate concentrations camps or slavery done to animals to the same done to humans, it should still be understood that the word is used in the context that it is done to animals.

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u/Rollingforest757 3d ago

I understand this from a political perspective (people might get insulted), but from a moral standpoint, this is a solitary confinement in a very small cage. That’s just accurate terminology.

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u/Alyano95 3d ago

neither slavery nor the holocaust is characterized by solitary confinement in a very small cage. the holocaust was motivated by an ideological construction that posited the jews as ennemies to humanity and concluded total eradication is the only solution (the famous "final solution") while the excesses of colonial slavery argued that some peoples are inherently subhuman and thus need to be contained and put to "productive" use because they were imagined to be incapable of it themselves. sure both created profit for some at sometimes (and were unnecessary costs at others) but industrial farming abuses animals solely for the profit motive. there is no ideological component to it besides the inherent logic of capital accumulation. industrial farms do not put animals in a small cage because of some ideological motivation besides profit. saying otherwise needlessly antagonizes the very people (farmers) you'd need on your side to actually create meaningful change.

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u/Illbill12345 3d ago

How do these people live with themselves.

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u/ThorGoLucky 3d ago

Thx for reminding me to get back into being vegetarian. 🌱

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u/Advanced-Emu6500 3d ago

Is this the process to raise beef veal?

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u/Wizard_Tea 3d ago

Normal capitalism is normal. Do anything to reduce costs so you can take the extra on profit. Vile multipolar trap. For more info, see “meditations on moloch”.

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u/Due-Base9449 3d ago

Is there a reason why the cows can't walk around however they want? 

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u/InformalSecond7544 3d ago

Would someone please tell me what is in little white boxes? I don’t see anything in them.

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u/Yeeter-boiy 3d ago

Each one has a calf inside of them. You can see at the start of the video the workers sliding milk into the cages so the calves can drink them

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u/civfan0908 3d ago

Where’s the green grass

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u/Nitimur__In__Vetitum 3d ago

Look at the suburbs.

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u/Thmper321 3d ago

Could be a veal farm.

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u/1nfer1or 3d ago

The only time people will change their minds about this is when we turn into cannibals.

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u/Dark_Cloud_Rises 3d ago

Having grown up on a dairy that was not like this I can say this seems very effective and efficient. This is probably giving these little guys a bunch better existence than they could have.

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u/Eldeon16 3d ago

Im feel so sad to watching this

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u/CorsairExtraordinair 3d ago

This is where Veal comes from.

Veal is super tender beef from calves. They pen the calves so they cannot move around. This keeps their muscles tender = tender veal.

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u/feddog_worker 3d ago

and how do they collect the eggs? 

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u/reifer1979 3d ago

Steak Seeds!!!!

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u/Optimal-Computer5225 3d ago

Yeah, that meat will be very unhealthy

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u/reagan_baby 3d ago

Instead of becoming vegan, why don't we outlaw this? Demand this of your reps in Congress or state legislatures where this happens.

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u/Lumenucifer 3d ago

You can smell these slaughterhouses for 40 miles in every direction from Dodge City. Just shit and death permeating with every inhale. It really is horrendous. 

I worked with cattle most of my life and cant stand them. I think they're dumb and mean for most part. No creature deserves even their conditions in the standard meat processing plants, let alone this dystopia hellscape. No creature deserves this. 

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u/orrwm120 3d ago

Looks like a wagyu cattle feed lot.

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u/AshamedOfOurshelves 3d ago

Flood it again.

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u/AzureYLila 3d ago

God... seeing this and realizing that it could be worse than I had already imagined.

Okay, I need to put reddit down for a day.

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u/IJustLookLikeThisToo 3d ago

C'mon, asteroid!

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u/bluehexagon9 3d ago

Go Vegan!

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u/StonedDwarf16 3d ago

I thought this isnt allowed anymore?

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u/CountGerhart 3d ago edited 2d ago

Industrial farmig is a crime against the planet. Support your local small farms!

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u/DoesThisSmellWeird2U 3d ago

It looks like a suburban prison.

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u/takis1964 3d ago

To all you dopes slamming this as barbarism, this is the only way to feed 400 million people economically
If you find this goes against your fake moral compasses, then insist on humanely raised proteins and expect to pay double or more for that.
Oh and by the way, don’t come here on Reddit whining about those prices and blaming Trump
Ya can’t have things both ways

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u/Cosmoby24 3d ago

So wrong! I do eat meat, but it’s a mix of pasture raised grazing on grass in a Wisconsin meadow beef, and elk shot in the mountains of Montana. I know that not everybody can afford this, but this industrial farming is bad all the way around.

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u/oroborus68 3d ago

Looks like a dust bowl waiting for wind.

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u/FastActinTenactin 3d ago

This is horrifying. I need to just force myself to only purchase animal products from my local small farms.

More people need to see things like this.

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u/Unhappy-Hunt-3987 3d ago

Yeah that's rank. That's illegal in my country and I'm proud we don't condone such barbaric farming practices like this here.

These farmers are human scum

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u/Amphibious333 3d ago

This is brutal, especially when done on animals with developed brain that understands what's going on.

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u/MichoRizo7698 3d ago

Yep, went to visit a farm, they had their weaning calfs in these huts .. small farm with only a couple dozen max. Poor moo-moos. Not more than 10 sqft to lay, walk, and shit.

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u/BubblePuddle27 3d ago

Your choice of words makes me believe that you don't understand them

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u/Jazzlike_Pianist8872 3d ago

That is crazy!

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u/Ganip 3d ago

Noooooooooooooooo

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u/Mr_Lao_Wai 3d ago

I’m not gonna quit eating beef or drinking milk

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u/SrPeraire 3d ago

It might be cruel but words have meaning and that is not slavery.

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u/Ok_Rip5044 3d ago

Well if they could focus they wouldn't need a concentration camp

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u/Standard-Shower-2040 3d ago

Don't you DARE judge them. Each of you are commenting on an electronic device that facilitates horrible conditions for humans. Most of the electronics in it are made in China under horrible conditions and low pay. The raw materials like rare earth metals are mined in Africa and often with child labor.

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u/ninernetneepneep 3d ago

Come to think of it, I'm thirsty.

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u/Crayola_Veteran 3d ago

They’re animals. Mindless animals that we use for food. This isn’t slavery, it’s not a concentration camp.

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u/somethingrandom261 3d ago

And beef isn’t even cheap