are the PETA videos true or doctored?
 

One of my son's friends posted 'meet your meat' on FB. He watched it and decided he could not eat meat or eggs anymore. I did not watch it because I am very borderline on eating meat already. I tried doing a search to see if PETA had been busted for faking their videos but could not find anything. I did find alot of other interesting info on what a bunch of loonies they are tho!

I don't know if these particular videos are true, but animals are usually raised in horrible conditions, which is why I only buy free-range chicken and grass-fed beef.

Who knows. With true believer type wackos like this, anything is possible.

The thing is that conditions that are appalling for humans are not necessarily all that bad for animals. And there is no doubt that they would exaggerate the extent of whatever bad conditions there might actually be.

They probably are true. Most factory farms are deplorable. I wish PETA would work to get more regulations on factory farms and testing labs, instead of bullying people and corporations into becoming vegan. If they stopped those tactics, they really could reach more people.

I agree. I admit I keep my head in the sand on this issue. Like I said, if I even think for a second about what meat is I get grossed out, so I can't watch this stuff. I guess I don't really understand why they need to abuse the animals. But then, I am guilty of wanting my cheap meat

Maybe, buy your meat from a Kosher deli or from a Halal market. The way they slaughter animals is more humane, or so I have been told. I really try to not think about it too much. It freaks me out if I do.

PeTA has been known to doctor and outright fake videos in the past, so it would not surprise me.

I would not believe them if they said the sky was blue.

Mandra- would you have any sources on that? I would love to let these kids know this is BS

Actually, many people argue that kosher and halal butchery is more inhumane -- not least because the animals are not stunned unconscious before they are slaughtered. They therefore experience more pain and suffering. (For example, see this article.)

I wish I could afford grass-fed and free-range on a regular basis. Though I would never go vegetarian, factory farming really turns my stomach.

Aeryn, I wish I could do grass fed as well. It really tastes so much better, but geez! At Whole Foods, or as I like to call it, Whole Paycheck, it is really expensive.

I just watched the video and I did not see anything in it to make me believe it is fake. It seemed realistic to me. As disgusting as it is, it won't make me stop eating meat though. There was nothing I did not already expect, humans can be spectacularly cruel.

Patrick

Find a coop near you if you don't have local grassfed beef - its a LOT less expensive than Whole Paycheck and TASTY!

Unfortunately, the PETA videos are largely true. I'm sure they pick the worst of the worst, but several movies (Food Inc for example) have shown similar footage. Commercially raised animals suffer horrific conditions, just so the US can maintain the cheapest nation to eat ranking.

Grass fed is more expensive if you buy it in the store. We purchase free range beef from a local farmer, and it works out to about $3.50 per pound. The local grass fed farmer works out to about $4.25 per pound. That includes everything, from burger worthy meat to New York strips. It helps if you have someone to go halvzies (or quarterzies) with, since a whole cow is a LOT of meat!

(For reference, we got 1/4 cow and 1/2 pig last year, and we still have enough to go until the next purchase with a family of six and plenty of entertaining.)

The stuff we got was still fed on grains part of the time, but we could verify personally that the cow was raised humanely. We were also able to talk to the butcher who did the slaughtering and find out their practices. Another perk of buying by the cow is that the slaughter is done one by one instead of assembly line style. The butcher can give much more attention to the individual kill, making it cleaner and more humane.

I agree with Altari. While PETA is a bunch of animal killing wackos (the have been busted killing 'rescued' pets), those videos are most likely not fake.

And now you know why I got my own ducks and quail for eggs and I buy pork from a local farmer who DOES NOT abuse his animals.

Ethics. Either you believe it's perfectly fine to advise other humans to eat a deficient diet, or you believe it's perfectly fine to eat animal flesh yourself. Once you made up your mind on that, how your food-animals are killed makes no difference. Having said that, an animal that is killed quickly and painlessly tastes better.

It's not a question of whether we will kill the animals or not. That has already been decided: We will kill the animals. Rather, it's a question of how we will kill it for it to become the best food for us.