Animals as Food

BEEF CATTLE

Beef cattle spend a short time grazing outdoors but are brought to feed lots after about six months. Here they are fed an unnatural diet of grain, rather than grass, which fattens them up more quickly. To further increase growth, remains from other cows may be added to the feed of these vegetarian animals.

Exposure to the elements is a serious problem. Cattle are often out in summer with no shade and in winter with no shelter. Farmers report huge losses to the elements. In Europe, cattle are thus being brought indoors, the cost of protection from the elements being the unnatural life and same sort of overcrowding experienced by dairy cows and pigs.

Steers are usually castrated, dehorned and branded, all without anesthetics.

The majority of beef cattle are given antibiotics to keep them disease free despite a diet of corn, which is unhealthy for them but encourages the fatty meat that sells best in America, and is unhealthy for humans. They are also given hormones so that they grow faster.

On March 31, 2001, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story by Michael Pollan, entitled "This Steer's Life." Pollan followed the life of a steer from birth till death. The article, which details life on a feedlot, is wonderfully informative. You will find it on line at http://www.nehbc.org/pollan1.html. Pollan favors grass-fed beef, surely a kinder choice than beef from steers raised on feedlots. But he has too much faith in slaughterhouse monitoring. Another must-read is the April 19, 2001, Washington Post front page article "They Die Piece by Piece", which describes animals in a slaughterhouse being cut up "clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller."