The violent side of Sri Lankan Buddhism

[mota bhai 2,675]

*cough* Let me try again: For what reasons do you think it is cheaper? What leads to it being cheaper? You nob

Shorter supply chain, very little advertising/marketing overhead.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Shorter supply chain, very little advertising/marketing overhead.

Hmm, good points.

[mota bhai 2,675]

I'm actually friends with a guy (from college) whos family owns one of those businesses. Those are his points, not mine.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

What do you (or anyone) think about this situation in the UK then? The slaughterhouses would have the same stuff in pace, and just would add halal into it. Wouldn't that be more expensive? I don't know that much about halal but from what I understand a person has to say a prayer and slit the animals throat. Does the UK normally do slaughter with a knife or do they do the bolt to the head thing?

Give me your butchery knowledge, O VJ.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

A few things I see missing from this article such as a body count or mention of specific violence. The video does show some shaking of a fence and some more than uncomfortable confrontation. Think link in the thread starter reads more like a propaganda piece but it points to a longer more detailed article where the original article points to for the accusations of violence: http://sri-lanka.theglobalmail.org/monks-army

When I read that article and what they have done I don't fear Buddhists in my neighborhood - they are anti-extremists.

[catknit 144]

I know about halal slaughtering, etc.

A couple of years ago I worked for a large chicken producer that also ran halal. In this case, the halal granting group came in and audited our systems to make sure it all complied with their own standards [vegetarian feed for the chickens, quick/well-maintained slaughter lines].

When we would run halal [which wasn't all the time] the slaughter area played a cd of a blessing for the birds and that was the ONLY difference. We had chicken leg quarters being frozen-shipped to Egypt. Because dark meat is so unpopular in the US, they had to find other markets to unload the meat....

Edited to add more detailed info:

The slaughter process was as "stress free" as possible for the birds because it lends to more-tender meat. Believe me, the guys who run chicken plants don't make it stress free just to be nice. Anyhow, birds are offloaded onto a belt, hung be their feet and take a ride on the chain to the slaughter area in a darkened room with music playing in the background [yes, really]. They were then knocked out with an electrical current so the next step would be pain free - the birds would pass through an area where their necks were slit by a very sharp and quick blade. From there, they continued traveling on the chain for a pretty long way to allow them to completely bleed out. Next would be another electric shock to help release feathers and rigor mortis hormone, then de-feathering, then evisceration, followed by USDA wholesomeness check, final stop before being completely processed into the stuff you see in the grocery is a 2 hour bath in 34F water to cool the birds down. From there they were cut into pieces or left whole....

Edited June 16, 2014 by catknit

[catknit 144]

Vegs beware - chicken plant pic! Evis area .

[mota bhai 2,675]

When living in India I used to get goat meat from a halal butcher. I remember how they cut it. They prayed. But there was another difference, the way they cut the neck. Hindu butchers used a method they called jhatka, which is one quick cut. Halal butchers slice it slowly. They let it bleed. And the goat screams. The scream sounds very, very human. And painful.

[Peikko 1,575]

What do you (or anyone) think about this situation in the UK then? The slaughterhouses would have the same stuff in pace, and just would add halal into it. Wouldn't that be more expensive? I don't know that much about halal but from what I understand a person has to say a prayer and slit the animals throat. Does the UK normally do slaughter with a knife or do they do the bolt to the head thing?

Give me your butchery knowledge, O VJ.

UK laws on humane slaughter of animal are very strict and all animals have to be stunned prior to execution. There is no good way to slaughter animals en masse though, the stresses must be enormous for the animals and the people who undertake the job are under a lot of pressure to be cost effective. I would personally favor a rethink on the whole factory farming thing in the West, we waste vast amounts of food so a lot of animals die only to end up in land fill. We would do better as people to eat less mass produced meat and more humanely produced meat on smaller farms raised in more traditional ways. It wouldn't do us any harm at all to pay more for good quality and eat it less often and fill in on more vegetable derived protein. Of course, I wouldn't advocate any legistlation to go this way, just more education and creative advertising to steer us toward it. Perhaps a paleo diet that suggests that all meat should be as near 'wild' as possible and legumes must have been a substantial portion of the diet of our ancestors would do the trick

[mota bhai 2,675]

Way to not address the halal issue at all, Truth!

[Peikko 1,575]

Way to not address the halal issue at all, Truth!

Well, partly true. If an animal is produced in more traditional ways and slaughtered using any traditional method in small abatoirs it's probably going to end up in a lot less stress and cruelty than is seen in modern mass slaughter houses that are meant to be humane.

Oh, and it would reduce the requirement for using antibiotics routinely in animal production and that would be a very good thing, if it's not already somewhat too late.