Video Reveals Violations of Laws, Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse
Video footage being released today shows workers at a California slaughterhouse delivering repeated electric shocks to cows too sick or weak to stand on their own; drivers using forklifts to roll the “downer” cows on the ground in efforts to get them to stand up for inspection; and even a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals’ noses — all violations of state and federal laws designed to prevent animal cruelty and to keep unhealthy animals, such as those with mad cow disease, out of the food supply.
Moreover, the companies where these practices allegedly occurred are major suppliers of meat for the nation’s school lunch programs, including in Maryland, according to a company official and federal documents.
The footage was taken by an undercover investigator for an animal welfare group, who wore a customized video camera under his clothes while working at the facility last year. [ View the video on the Humane Society Web site ] It is evidence that anti-cruelty and food safety rules are inadequate, and that Agriculture Department inspection and enforcement need to be enhanced, said officials with the Humane Society of the United States, which coordinated the project.
“These were not rogue employees secretly doing these things,” the investigator said in a telephone interview on the condition of anonymity because he hopes to infiltrate other slaughterhouses. “This is the pen manager and his assistant doing this right in the open.”
The investigator and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said the footage was taken at Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, Calif. Hallmark sells meat for processing to Westland Meat Co. in Chino, according to Westland President Steve Mendell, who is also Hallmark’s operations manager.
Over the past five years, Westland has sold about 100 million pounds of frozen beef, valued at $146 million, to the Agriculture Department’s commodities program, which supplies food for school lunches and programs for the needy, according to federal documents.
In the 2004-05 school year, the Agriculture Department honored Westland with its Supplier of the Year award for the National School Lunch Program.
In an interview, Mendell expressed disbelief that employees used stun guns to get sick or injured animals on their feet for inspection.
“That’s impossible,” he said, adding that “electrical prods are not allowed on the property.”
Asked whether his employees use fork lifts to get moribund animals off the ground, he said: “I can’t imagine that.”
Asked whether water was sprayed up animals’ noses to get them to stand up, he said: “That’s absolutely not true.”
“We have a massive humane treatment program here that we follow to the n{+t}{+h} degree, so this doesn’t even sound possible,” Mendell said. “I don’t stand out there all day, but to me it would be next to impossible.”
California law and USDA regulations do not allow disabled animals to be dragged by chains, lifted with forklifts, or, with few exceptions, to enter the food supply, all of which happened at Hallmark during the investigator’s time there last fall, he said.
Video images show those activities, as well as a trailer with Hallmark’s name on it.
One reason that regulations call for keeping downers — cows that cannot stand up — out of the food supply is that they may harbor bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. It is caused by a virus-like infectious particle that can cause a fatal brain disease in people.
Another is because such animals have, in many cases, been wallowing in feces, posing added risks of E. coli and salmonella contamination.
The Humane Society and other groups have for years urged Congress to pass legislation that would tighten oversight at slaughterhouses.
Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s Office of Field Operations, whose 7,600 inspectors monitor the nation’s 6,200 slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants for the Agriculture Department, said he had not seen the video. He added that he would have preferred that the Humane Society contacted the agency directly.
But he said use of a Hot Shot — a brand-name electric device used to get dawdling cows to move along — is “not allowed” as a means of getting a downer on its feet.
In the video, handlers repeatedly apply powerful shocks to the heads, necks, spines and rectums of immobile cows.
“That’s certainly not a way to have them stand up or a correct way to move them,” Petersen said.
Raising a cow on the prongs of a forklift is also not allowed, he said.
“We’ve made it clear that mechanical means to try to elevate an animal is not considered humane,” Petersen said.
If he had evidence that the practices in the video were going on at a slaughterhouse, “I would immediately suspend them as an establishment,” he said. “You’re done. You’re suspended. Everything stops. That’s what we call an egregiously inhumane handling violation.”
Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and an expert in slaughter practices, called the Humane Society footage “one of the worst animal-abuse videos I have ever viewed.”
The investigator said a USDA inspector appeared twice a day, at 6:30 a.m. and about 12:30 p.m., to look at each cow to be slaughtered that day. The practices occurred before the inspector’s appearance, he said, with the goal of getting the animals on their feet for the short time the inspector was there.
“Every day, I would see downed cattle too sick or injured to stand or walk arriving at the slaughterhouse,” he said. “Workers would do anything to get the cows to stand on their feet.”
USDA regulations say that if an animal goes down after it is inspected but before it is slaughtered, then it must be reinspected. But that rarely, if ever, happened, according to the Humane Society.
“They wanted to do whatever they could to get them into the kill box, including jabbing them in the eye, slamming into them with a forklift and simulating drowning or waterboarding the animals,” Pacelle said — all practices that can be seen in the video.
Mad cow disease is extremely rare in the United States, but of the 15 cases documented in North America — most of them in Canada — the vast majority have been traced to downer cattle. When the United States had its first case a few years ago, 44 nations closed their borders to U.S. beef, Pacelle said, costing the nation billions of dollars.
To sneak downers past inspectors, Pacelle said, is “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
© 2008 The Washington Post
Wow
what a surprise.
The joys of a meat eating society.
“We will always have wars as long as we have slaughterhouses.”
Tolstoy
I’ve spoken often about this on CD. But there is nothing new in this article. Slaughterhouse procedures have not changed significantly in the past 100 years. Why do you think there are no windows in a slaughterhouse?
This article is actually very nice to the slaughtering industry.
Another is because such animals have, in many cases, been wallowing in feces.. Many cases? ALL feedlot animals have been wallowing in sh*i and pi*s, and are saturated with neurotoxins because the animals are terrified.
But all this is opaque to brain-dead meat eaters, who see only a lump of flesh on a little white plastic tray at the supermarket.
If you can walk through a slaughterhouse without vomiting and being profoundly moved and spiritually sickened, you need psychiatric help.
I contend that advocates of violence against animals (i.e., meat-eaters) pre-disposes such people for advocating violence against people. Yes, meat-eaters will swear blue that they are peaceniks, but that is just lip service.
Eliminate the slaughter of animals for consumption (and product-tesing etc), you go a loooong way to eliminating the need for war and violence against people.
Would someone elaborate on how eliminating the slaughter of animals would eliminate war.
Thanks…
Please read (or reread) Upton Sinclair’s THE JUNGLE (written a century ago) and then tell me that the US doesn’t need more regulation of the meat producing industry.
Well Sonny, I said it would go a long way towards eliminating the need for war. I did not say it would eliminate war. Please read carefully. See my comments elsewhere about many CDers not seeing the big picture.
OK, lets start.
1) Hunting societies are almost always in conflict with their neighbors over land rights. Gathering societies are usually less in conflict with their neighbors. Thats because animals are mobile, plants are not. This represents all 2 million years of human history.
2) Livestock farming (certainly in the US) has always been more aggressive towards agrarian farming in asserting land wars, often violently.
3) With fresh water becoming a scarce commodity, much of it needed for raising animals for consumption, future wars will be fought over water. Ditto food.
I gotta get to work.
I don’t see where anyone said: “eliminating the slaughter of animals would eliminate war”. But, it makes sense to me that the process we use to devalue sentient life forms to the point where it becomes socially acceptable to eat them for pleasure is very, very similar to the process we use to devalue human life in war to the point where it becomes socially acceptable to destroy innocent strangers.
just saw the video on their website, truely shocking! the CORPO that supplies KIDS SCHOOL LUNCHES with this meat also supplies somewhere in the state i live in, you should check it out, chances are they supply near you too. time to call the USDA out on this and say where are the inspectors??! why didnt they catch this much sooner, and more importantly why did it take someone infiltrating the company, that the USDAs job, hello! Just one more example of how the entire GOV has bowed down before the interests of CORPOFASCISTS at the very real detriment to public health.
I’ve watched a lot of slaughterhouse videos (which was what led me to become a vegan), but I just couldn’t bring myself to watch this one (after one slaughterhouse expert described it as the most horrific case of slaughterhouse abuse he’s ever seen). Those poor things. Man’s inhumanity knows no bounds.
Friends, Here is somme knowledge that may be useful to understand how it is that to really move forward in Consciousness, (Evolve), -in your
(our) bodies we must close the experience of eating animal Life that has
been birthed to be slaughtered. () Upon killing any animal the experience
of being killed/ discord / fear is tangibly imprinted on their cells through
out their nervous system. And that vibration of murder is unavoidably
picked up by the one who eats (agrees) the substance. Added to that is
the indwelling knowing of all animal Life that the true plan for their
evolution is for Humanity to assist them to advance. This is what any
*thing* with a face expects of us. The raising of animal Life to be
slaughtered is known universally to be insanity. We/I say insane be
cause whole continents / groups of Humans have bought into - By Being Duped Into Agreeing That *this is what we do*
Plant Life on the other hand enjoys, (verified by certified dousers)
the giving of there leaves, nuts and fruits, etc. to animal/ Human Life.
I know that this info I*ve shared leaves much unsaid, the most condensed Wisdom on the subject of what the atoms & cellular structure of animals…, … are in the great books: 1, Unveiled Mysteries
2, The Magic Presence, 3, The I Am Discourses (Saint Germain Press)
— everything within the activity of meat eating is destructive right
down to the compost pile–
It’s been five years or more since I gave up eating the greasy red stuff. There were six reasons:
(1) It is expensive
(2) It elevates your cholesterol
(3) It makes your garbage icky
(4) Cows trash the environment
(5) It is inhumane
(6) It transmits spongiform encephalopathy, eventually causing you to forget your phone number, drool uncontrollably and die.
I can report that after about three years you stop craving it much. Today, rolling my shopping cart past the meat section of the supermarket where my fellow hominids pick through gobbets of shrink wrapped flesh is a creepy experience for me. My weight and cholesterol are normal, my energy is fine and I have more money to spend on coffee table art books. Hopefully beef will someday go the way of cigarettes and other forgotten habits.
We all know how to say it in far fewer words: you are what you eat. We’re eating fear, cruelty, waste, secrecy, lies, and disease. There are problems with all of our food production, including grains and other plants, the slaughterhouses are simply the purest expression of our character. If any Christians are reading…”what you do unto the least of these…”
The corporate American meat industry is like any other corporate entity. They are more concerned about the bottom dollar than the consequences of current practices. This incident is not new, it has happened in the past and it is happening now. We only hear about the small number of cases that someone investigates or gets on tape.
When the United States had its first case a few years ago, 44 nations closed their borders to U.S. beef, Pacelle said, costing the nation billions of dollars.
What cost this nation’s beef industry billions of dollars is that we/they refused to inspect a greater number of cattle for “mad cow”. In the USA the number of cattle inspected (tested) for “mad cow” are far below the internationally accepted levels. A rancher was actually sued by the FDA because he wanted to have greater numbers (samples) of his beef inspected to prove that his beef was void of any “mad cow” or related bovine diseases. The inspections and lab testing was coming out of his pocket to prove that his beef met or exceeded internationally excepted levels so he could compete in the open market. What was the FDA trying to do? Protect the beef industry and prevent exposing a problem they already are aware of.
- Parkinson’s patients do better with low protein diets. Hmmm! Is Parkinson’s a symptom of things to come?
- Bovine spongiform encephalopathy - MAD COW - is caused by a protein. This protein survives after the bovine carcass is incinerated. Beef cooked “well done” will only kill the e-coli.
- CDC is currently investigating cases where people that process pig heads are suffering from neurological illnesses. Pigs heads and other parts were added to beef feed to increase the level of protein in the feed (and visa versa). This practice has since been stopped, but where have the pig parts gone? Chicken feed… (the circle of life).
What’s for dinner? MMMMM-Meat, it’s good food…
“If he had evidence that the practices in the video were going on at a slaughterhouse, “I would immediately suspend them as an establishment,” he said. “You’re done. You’re suspended. Everything stops. That’s what we call an egregiously inhumane handling violation”. Good. The evidence is right there in the video. That must mean that Hallmark is shut down, or that Kenneth Petersen, assistant administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s Office of Field Operations is a goddamned liar (I suspect that I know which is closer to the truth).
On top of that, you get to eat cow meat with antibiotics and who knows what else is inside. Cloned meat is on the way too. That’s what I call progress. Don’t eat meat, it’s dead.
Like a loaded freight train coming down a mountain the simple stance of
Reverence for all Life will continue to take Dominion in daily life and all that
wish to oppose that Love will fade / dim and/or wither away. This subject is a
big one and like the Pharm /drug illusion it will scream, claw, and kill to stay
animated. But just like turning on a Light in a darkened room…, …
p.s. I sure am grateful to Life for this cohesive group of lovers!!!!
The video is here:
http://video.hsus.org/
There should be a law which compels the meaties to select, and then slaughter their chosen steer.
What about rampant abuse and slaughter of humans by our imperial military forces?
I guess cows are more important, sorry!
“Would someone elaborate on how eliminating the slaughter of animals would eliminate war.
Thanks…”
The answer is at http://allinharmony.com. Read ‘Understanding Violence’ and for an historical perspective on how human herbivores became meat-eaters, read ‘The Temple’.
Cows belong in their natural habitat, and so do humans. And we simply have no business interfering with any animals right to habitat or nature determined experiences… and respecting that would also allow all of us to live fuller and healthier lives.
Set the animals free if you want life on this planet to continue!
Also shows just how much we really, as a society, value our children. If I’m not incorrect, schools get notoriously inferior food products. Those who abuse animals ( individuals and societies) are much more likely to abuse their families and others in their societies. No compassion for animals, no compassion for children, no compassion for your neighbors, no compassions for citizens of other nations, no compassion for the planet. The bottom line is the only thing valued. Why does change take so darn long???? How can we still be wallowing in greed and violence? Oh, and Temple Grandin is a woman.
“There should be a law which compels the meaties to select, and then slaughter their chosen steer.”
There isn’t a law, but some of us meat eaters don’t support the industrial slaughterhouses either. I select and slaughter the animals that I eat, and they don’t notice anything until they’re dead. It’s called hunting, and yes, it’s humane. At least, it’s more humane than leaving wild animals in diminished habitats to starve to death, get hit by cars, or die of disease.
I see a lot of moralizing about meat that’s conflated with one particular practice of raising domesticated animals in a cruel way for inhumane slaughter. Meat eating per se is not the problem here. The industrial meat system is.
Then again, I’m probably just a warmonger who has ingested too much wild fear and not enough domesticated non-native plants.
Sonny, and anybody else who can’t understand how treating animals humanely (and meat consumption on a scale as in the US will always be inhumane) will stop wars:
You can’t eat animal products if you know where they come from, and still be a thoughtful, sensitive person.
You can’t be convinced that your brother is not human and still be a thoughtful, sensitive person.
Slaughter houses do not cause war, but the society that has the one will have the other.
I think this is a moot point whether eating animals will reduce human violence, but I believe it will. More important than this kind of conjecture, however, is that we deal with the immediate issue at hand, which is the horrendous treatment of animals in slaughterhouses. It’s always been horrible, but with work speedups, it’s even worse. And as the HSUS video shows, abuse of “downed” animals is especially horrible. Animals too injured or ill to walk are literally tortured into moving themselves to the slaughterhouse.
I don’t believe there is such thing as “compassionate” carnivorism” when billions of animals are slaughtered annually at industrial levels, but whatever one’s position on eating animals is, everyone should be outraged at this particular form of animal torture.
anyone see PETA video: state of the union UNdress ? go to their web site and take a look. meanwhile, this cruelty to animals in slaughter houses has been going on for eons…….why don’t they show these videos on t.v. where all the brainwashed sheeple can see what they are eating?
Poor creatures. What kind of people could stand working in a slaughterhouse, by the way? The same kind of people that love war and support people like Bush and Cheney, I guess.
Come on, we all know how inhumane slaughterhouses have and always will be. This is nothing new. It does not matter how my meat dies and the life it lived to get to my plate, just give me my plate and stop showing me these sickening videos.
A great video is Earthlings, hosted by Jaquiem Phoenix. www.isawearthlings.com
www.oneplanetonelife.com
I do not mean this with any disrespect, but I know alot of people who believe God is omniscient and omnipotent (everywhere and all-knowing). Can somebody explain to me that if you believe this, how can you knowingly participate in and support this practice?
Is God omniscient and omnipotent, and, if so, do you eat meat that you do not slaughter yourself? Please explain…
Here’s one:
If God did not want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
Yes folks, meet your meat.
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival for lifeon earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
Albert Einstein
The kind of people who work in such places are increasingly illegal immigrants, desperate for work. Poultry-processing plants are even worse. The majority of chicken sold in grocery stores is contaminated with salmonella.
I had the sad privilege to film in a slaugtherhouse in Swanser, MA. That was in 1998. I gave the footage to PETA who uses it in Meet your Meat. It took me days to recover. Days. The stupidity, the cruelty is overwhelming. I encourage everybody to go on the PETA’s site and watch ALL their videos. We need more angry people
Philippe
“Here’s one:
If God did not want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?”
And here’s another one:
Humans are also made of meat and humans have also been sacrificed and eaten.
Just because humans are made of meat, does not mean we should rear them in feedlots and then massacre them by the billions to feed then to insular corporate execs and their lackeys and the deaf (I didn’t hear anything), dumb (I didn’t tell them to do it) and blind (I didn’t see it) monkey families of these groups.
Humans are herbivores. Most (if not all herbivores;) are made of meat.
“When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores.”
William C. Roberts, M.D., editor, American Journal of Cardiology
“I do not mean this with any disrespect, but I know alot of people who believe God is omniscient and omnipotent (everywhere and all-knowing). Can somebody explain to me that if you believe this, how can you knowingly participate in and support this practice?”
I believe this and that is why I work to end these practices.
Also, I thought such notions were foolish as I was raised an atheist until two cows stated otherwise. Since that time, many animals (and trees) have shared their wisdom with me. ‘God’ is a common state, existing in everything. Once you see it, you will never forget it or forget to consult the life around you before deciding a course of action.
God is real. I met him today in a ewe, an owl, two black birds and several goats. Once you see it, you will drop the pretenses and get real. This is life, not a Hollywood script about King Kong.
Did anyone notice the oddity that most “mad cow” cases have come from Canada?
U.S. and Canadian cattle are considered one herd. They move back and forth across the border freely. So do their diseases.
So why is it that only Canada is discovering “mad cow”? Could it be that only Canada is looking?
BTW, has anyone seen a video of a pack of wild dogs eating a wild cow alive?
“Nature red in tooth and claw.”
“I select and slaughter the animals that I eat, and they don’t notice anything until they’re dead. It’s called hunting, and yes, it’s humane.”
Hunting is not only not humane, it is also not human, not if you consider that humans are simply NOT designed to eat meat.
Watch this short comic video. http://youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q
Also, don’t kid yourself, animals are very aware of the conscious states of other creatures. Remember, wild animals have greater perspicacity and natural sensitivity than unnaturally acculturated humans.
And, deer and other creatures do have community, family, etc. If lions were hunting in your neighborhood and determined that there was excess population and decided to eat a few of your relatives, do you think that would have a positive impact on your life experience?
How do you suppose nature balanced things before you bought a gun? Oh, yeah, I forgot, before mankind there was chaos… that is why we developed nuclear arsenals, anti-personnel weapons and guns, guns, guns.
Wake up HUMAN HERBIVORE! You bought the WRONG story. The right (natural) story does not have you the star in some gory tragedy!
_____________
The Natural Human Diet
According to biologists and anthropologists who study our anatomy and our evolutionary history, humans are herbivores who are not well suited to eating meat.
Unlike natural carnivores, we are physically and psychologically unable to rip animals limb from limb and eat and digest their raw flesh. Even cooked meat is likely to cause human beings, but not natural carnivores, to suffer from food poisoning, heart disease, and other ailments.
People who pride themselves on being part of the human hunter tradition should take a second look at the story of human evolution. Prehistoric evidence indicates that humans developed hunting skills relatively recently and that most of our short, meat-eating past was spent scavenging and eating almost anything in order to survive; even then, meat was a tiny part of our caloric intake.
Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill animals and devour their raw carcasses. Ask yourself: When you see dead animals on the side of the road, are you tempted to stop for a snack? Does the sight of a dead bird make you salivate? Do you daydream about killing cows with your bare hands and eating them raw? If you answered “no” to all of these questions, congratulations, you’re a normal human herbivore, like it or not. Humans were simply not designed to eat meat.
The ‘The Natural Human Diet’ was copied from http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet.asp
So much ignorance, so little time.
So many value-based assumptions and premises here stated as generally accepted facts.
One doctor says humans are herbivores, and I’m to believe him over my own experience of eating, digesting, and gaining nutritional value from meat? Or over the millions of years of evolutionary history of omnivorous humans and our predecessors?
And then there’s crap like this “You can’t eat animal products if you know where they come from, and still be a thoughtful, sensitive person.” This is completely unfounded, demonstrably false, and just plain silly. How self-righteous must one be to condemn countless people one has never met, including whole cultures that lived sustainably in their ecosystems for thousands of years?
It’s strange to be surrounded by people who have decided so much based on such broad, sweeping dogma and abstraction. It’s as though we can create morality separate from the ecosystems that support our very existence, ranking one life above another in our mental hierarchy based on nothing but our preferences, as opposed to the needs of our landbase. And this is how some among us claim the moral high ground?
Never underestimate the power of people who have missed the point.
“Hunting is not only not humane, it is also not human, not if you consider that humans are simply NOT designed to eat meat.”
Jesus tap-dancing Christ. How exactly do you explain my canine teeth then? Or my craving - yes, craving - to eat meat after four years as a vegetarian? Or my ability to digest meat?
Asking fallacious questions about roadkill and dreams says nothing but that I’m not a scavenger (nor are most omnivores or carnivores) and that I dream in enculturated stories.
Repeating your assertions does not make them true, nor will you convince me with the same old lines over and over. Calling me an herbivore no more makes me one than calling a dog a tree makes it so. Accusing me of worshiping at the altar of technology and human narcissism does not make your assertions any more true.
I eat meat where I live because it’s a big part of the natural abundance and human-accessible food web here. That is more responsible than relying on imported vegetable food to adhere to someone else’s morality.
I find your assertions that only animals are sentient to be disagreeable, and your discriminatory biophilia to be presumptuous. All life, whether plant or animal, deserves the same respect and deference, and it seems absurd to create a protected class based on such bias. Protected classes should include those appropriate for the ecosystem in which one lives, not a particular taxonomic kingdom.
Then again, what do I know… I’m too stupid to know that I’m an herbivore…
“Never underestimate the power of people who have missed the point.”
We don’t, not those of us who have been working on this problem for decades.
First, MOST people ate little or NO meat until the last century. In a Scientific American article written at the turn of last century, it is stated that cancers seem to present primarily in meat eating societies and not in vegetarian societies. In other words, ALL people did not eat meat.
“It’s as though we can create morality separate from the ecosystems that support our very existence, ranking one life above another in our mental hierarchy based on nothing but our preferences, as opposed to the needs of our landbase. And this is how some among us claim the moral high ground?”
We are fortunate in that ecology and morality are the same. You have understood things in quite an inverted fashion. But, that is the beauty of cultural indoctrination;(
And, the fact that humans are herbivores is not substantiated by only one doctor.
And the facts are also so simply presented that any lay person who can read can discover this truth for himself. Furthermore, the medical facts of the matter overwhelmingly verify the human herbivore biological classification and the research undertaken in support of it includes thousands of doctors, nurses and nutritionists. If necessary, we’ll quote from some of them as well.
From “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating”, by Milton R.
Mills, MD
Facial Muscles
CARNIVORE: Reduced to allow wide mouth gape
HERBIVORE: Well-developed
OMNIVORE: Reduced
HUMAN: Well-developed
Jaw Type
CARNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HERBIVORE: Expanded angle
OMNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HUMAN: Expanded angle
Jaw Joint Location
CARNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HERBIVORE: Above the plane of the molars
OMNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HUMAN: Above the plane of the molars
Jaw Motion
CARNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side motion
HERBIVORE: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
OMNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side
HUMAN: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
Major Jaw Muscles
CARNIVORE: Temporalis
HERBIVORE: Masseter and pterygoids
OMNIVORE: Temporalis
HUMAN: Masseter and pterygoids
Mouth Opening vs. Head Size
CARNIVORE: Large
HERBIVORE: Small
OMNIVORE: Large
HUMAN: Small
Teeth: Incisors
CARNIVORE: Short and pointed
HERBIVORE: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
OMNIVORE: Short and pointed
HUMAN: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
Teeth: Canines
CARNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HERBIVORE: Dull and short or long (for defense), or none
OMNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HUMAN: Short and blunted
Teeth: Molars
CARNIVORE: Sharp, jagged and blade shaped
HERBIVORE: Flattened with cusps vs complex surface
OMNIVORE: Sharp blades and/or flattened
HUMAN: Flattened with nodular cusps
Chewing
CARNIVORE: None; swallows food whole
HERBIVORE: Extensive chewing necessary
OMNIVORE: Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing
HUMAN: Extensive chewing necessary
Saliva
CARNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HERBIVORE: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
OMNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HUMAN: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
Stomach Type
CARNIVORE: Simple
HERBIVORE: Simple or multiple chambers
OMNIVORE: Simple
HUMAN: Simple
Stomach Acidity
CARNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HERBIVORE: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
OMNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HUMAN: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
Stomach Capacity
CARNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract
HERBIVORE: Less than 30% of total volume of digestive tract
OMNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract
HUMAN: 21% to 27% of total volume of digestive tract
Length of Small Intestine
CARNIVORE: 3 to 6 times body length
HERBIVORE: 10 to more than 12 times body length
OMNIVORE: 4 to 6 times body length
HUMAN: 10 to 11 times body length
Colon
CARNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth
HERBIVORE: Long, complex; may be sacculated
OMNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth
HUMAN: Long, sacculated
Liver
CARNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A
HERBIVORE: Cannot detoxify vitamin A
OMNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A
HUMAN: Cannot detoxify vitamin A
Kidney
CARNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine
HERBIVORE: Moderately concentrated urine
OMNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine
HUMAN: Moderately concentrated urine
Nails
CARNIVORE: Sharp claws
HERBIVORE: Flattened nails or blunt hooves
OMNIVORE: Sharp claws
HUMAN: Flattened nails
And, just because you can not believe this, just think how difficult it is to convince a Christian evangelist that Jesus’ birth is simply an allegory to explain the movement of the sun.
Seek the truth, it will not only set you free but all other creatures as well… and yes, that is the moral high ground and a damn solid ecological one too.
“First, MOST people ate little or NO meat until the last century.”
This is demonstrably false. Again. Anthropologists have used middens as proxy sources for relative abundance of types of fauna over time, including to track the transition from riverine to marine fish as a staple for coastal peoples. That’s not just here or there. That’s all over the world. Hunting appears among the earliest art in pre-civilized societies. Our nearest evolutionary relatives are omnivores as well. Your piece by piece anatomy lesson would do well to notice the similarities between omnivorous primates, not how different from wolves or raccoons, and it confuses correlation with causation.
You’re trying to convince me of something I’ve experienced to be not true. It’s not the same as trying to confront indoctrination.
“I find your assertions that only animals are sentient to be disagreeable, and your discriminatory biophilia to be presumptuous. All life, whether plant or animal, deserves the same respect and deference, and it seems absurd to create a protected class based on such bias. Protected classes should include those appropriate for the ecosystem in which one lives, not a particular taxonomic kingdom.”
I never stated that only animals were sentient. But I did state: ‘God’ is a common state, existing in everything. Once you see it, you will never forget it or forget to consult the life around you before deciding a course of action.
‘God’ in this case refers to consciousness/awareness. What we do in response to this presence is a matter of individual potential, desire, needs and environmental constraints, possibilities and promptings.
Indeed it is all deserving of respect, even gratitude. For this reason, it is essential that humans correctly identify their ecological niche and niche behaviors lest they ignorantly destroy that which they should respect, even depend upon…
fresh water
rich natural soil
fecund rainforests
healthy oceans
abundant wildlife
We all depend to the whole. And that lesson has been learned by humans in former times. Civilizations have collapsed due to environmental decline… and we are about to experience possibly the last one as our global meat-eating corporate society devastates the last biospheres of earth.
Humans have an ecological design. It is very late in the day for this realization to hit home and time is not on our side. 140 species are vanquished forever each day. And that is due to meat eating. And that is also a matter of fact.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
How long should we continue this ignorance?
“Our nearest evolutionary relatives are omnivores as well”
No, our nearest evolutionary relatives are herbivores. These are the Great Apes.
Your understanding of anthropology is massaged by corporatism and not fact or logic based.
Meat-eating was introduced into human society thousands of years ago. It was NOT a common practice but it was widespread. And the reason for this is that (just as now), temple societies (hierarchical societies) were not isolated but rather loosely cooperative and communicative (means they shared technological developments including social engineering developments).
Uncivilized humans DID NOT spontaneously decide to eat rabbits (or buffalo) instead of mangos, avocados, coconuts, passion fruits, peaches, almonds, etc. That is just plain illogical rubbish.
The sociological and anthropological facts are not found in the myth of the ‘hunter’ tradition.
Go to http://allinharmony.com. Read ‘The Temple’. And, the reason that ‘primitive’ hunter societies still existed up until recent times is due to the disintegration of early temple cultures and the fragmentation that it caused. In the same way that would-be slaves who escaped set up make-shift communities in the ‘new’ land of South America.
‘Primitive’ hunter societies are NOT continuous from pre-civilization but rather offshoots of debacled advanced (hierarchical) civilizations.
Still, most humans ate vegetarian or primarily vegetarian diets until the last century.
“Humans have an ecological design. It is very late in the day for this realization to hit home and time is not on our side. 140 species are vanquished forever each day. And that is due to meat eating. And that is also a matter of fact.”
This is hysterical. 140 species (more, from what I’ve read) face extinction daily because their habitats are altered and destroyed, not because some humans eat meat. This is a non-sequitur at best.
Not all humans depend on rainforests or oceans. Some depend on grasslands, savannas, arctic tundra, or deserts.
“‘God’ in this case refers to consciousness/awareness. What we do in response to this presence is a matter of individual potential, desire, needs and environmental constraints, possibilities and promptings.” I’m with you there. Are you stating that to support your veganism, and if so, please explain how only animals are conscious or aware. Also explain how you know that to be true in all cases. I disagree based on experience, but I’m curious what you know that disproves my experience.
“Indeed it is all deserving of respect, even gratitude. For this reason, it is essential that humans correctly identify their ecological niche and niche behaviors lest they ignorantly destroy that which they should respect, even depend upon…” You’re right on the money there from my perspective. Now what are we going to do about industrial civilization and its inappropriate behaviors and ignorant destruction (including those 140 species per day)?
Wait wait, let me guess… If we all become pacifist vegans then all of the other parts of civilization will stop having negative impacts because of our good karma, right? Acid rain, deforestation, nuclear power, repression, soil depletion, mountain top removal mining, war, and a whole host of other bad things will stop then, right?
I don’t see the connections that you claim to, but I see plenty of other ones that make much more sense to me.
Your attempts to disprove my experience with illogic appear as the pinnacle of arrogance. More of the same European mindset of “Why won’t these ignorant people accept what I know to be infallible truth? Don’t they understand that I’m trying to help them? Why are they so ungrateful?” As if any situation must adhere to your rigid, axiomatic thinking…
“Your understanding of anthropology is massaged by corporatism and not fact or logic based.”
“‘Primitive’ hunter societies are NOT continuous from pre-civilization but rather offshoots of debacled advanced (hierarchical) civilizations.”
“Uncivilized humans DID NOT spontaneously decide to eat rabbits (or buffalo) instead of mangos, avocados, coconuts, passion fruits, peaches, almonds, etc. That is just plain illogical rubbish.”
I don’t know what to say other than that your arguments are unfounded and nonsensical. You don’t know anything about my studies of anthropology, and I’d venture a guess that you’ve never actually encountered non-civilized humans. You are willing to ignore mountains of historical, anthropological, anecdotal, and experiential evidence that disagree with your assertions and your assumptions.
I went to your website, and there was nothing there that made a strong case for your anti-historical view. Get over your fanaticism, please.
Name calling aside, and your “experiences” still undefined and undetermined as to how they erase everything we have discovered about anatomy and what it can tell us about human ecology…
I am yet to hear you address the core of the matter, that humans are natural herbivores and only CULTURALLY programmed to behave as omnivores.
And, since meat-eating is culturally indoctrinated and NOT naturally supported, it alone accounts for rampant heart disease, numerous cancers and many other debilitating conditions.
It is also THE number one reason for species and habitat loss. Please read NYTimes article linked above in which the connection is fully explained.
Oh yes, karma. Will Tuttle in his book “World Peace Diet” makes a very good point. I think it sums up the Karma thing pretty well, “Finally, we will get where we are going.”
You see, this is an ecosphere and what we do, we do inside that sphere… so the effects are general. If you stop ranting and start realizing and taking responsible and effective action, you will bestow upon us all… your good karma:)
“Get over your fanaticism, please”
500 years ago, these exact words were spoken to Copernicus. Guess what? He did not listen:) (In other words, are you sure you have correctly identified the fanatic in this regard?)
The human anatomy/ecology analysis has been done by many and the facts overwhelmingly speak for themselves. (So let’s move beyond the witch hunt style profiling and name calling.)
Humans are herbivores.
http://www.stopcancer.co.uk/Humans_are_herbivores.htm
“I am yet to hear you address the core of the matter, that humans are natural herbivores and only CULTURALLY programmed to behave as omnivores.”
Again, this is your assertion, and yet it flies in the face of mountains of scientific evidence, as well as the fact that humans of vastly numerous cultures have been omnivores going back tens of thousands of years. The burden of proof lies with you.
My comment about karma was facetious. I no more believe in that civilized myth than I believe in capitalism as an effective way to serve human interests.
Your point about humans being herbivore yet culturally programmed is ludicrous. Humans evolved as a social (which is to say cultural) organism.
Try this experience… I eat and digest meat. My body derives nutrients from it. And it doesn’t “erase” everything that “we” have discovered about anatomy. It simply follows that I can and do successfully eat and derive nourishment from meat, therefore I am not an herbivore.
P.S. Speaking of name-calling, stop calling me an herbivore. It’s simply not true, and I demonstrated this at lunch.
P.P.S. I read that article, and it said nothing about meat eating being responsible… According to that article, the culprit is the industrial meat system. Stop it with the non-sequiturs, you’re wasting the Internet.
“You are willing to ignore mountains of historical, anthropological, anecdotal, and experiential evidence that disagree with your assertions and your assumptions.”
Au contraire, I studied them. I also studied the official versions of 9/11 and the unofficial ones. I came down on the side of the facts. That’s all.
Just because I point out that mainstream theories are illogical, does not mean I have not studied them.
“(In other words, are you sure you have correctly identified the fanatic in this regard?)”
Yes, quite.
“The human anatomy/ecology analysis has been done by many and the facts overwhelmingly speak for themselves.”
You posted a link to the same inconclusive list by the same doctor that failed to establish causation…
Your indoctrination is impressive, yet ultimately unconvincing.
This kind of torture need to be advertised more along with how easy vegitarianism is.
Im 16 years old and have been for the last 4 years (not long i know and am ashamed of it)and it is not difficult at all to stop eating meat, and making friends and family eat less of it by taking brusome pictures of what they are eating to the dinner table.
There is no such thing as a humane slaughterhouse but this is by far one of the worst in the western world.
Farm animals have almost no laws to allow them to live and die without suffering and chickens have no laws at all to defend them.
“Try this experience… I eat and digest meat. My body derives nutrients from it.”
Your belief that you are deriving nutrients rather than harm is culturally scripted. And, the references for this are numerous but if you wish to investigate more fully, a good place to begin is http://pcrm.org.
And there is this excerpt copied from: http://notmilk.com/deb/092098.html
Important UPDATE 1/2001:
A study published in the January, 2001 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined the diets of 1,035 women, particularly focusing on the protein intake from animal and vegetable products. Deborah Sellmeyer, M.D., found:
ANIMAL PROTEIN INCREASES BONE LOSS
In her study, women with a high animal-to-vegetable protein ratio experienced an increased rate of femoral neck bone loss. A high animal-to-vegetable protein ratio was also associated with an increased risk of hip fracture.
WHY DOES ANIMAL PROTEIN CAUSE BONE LOSS?
I spoke with Dr. Sellmeyer, and here is her explaination:
“Sulphur-containing amino acids in protein-containing foods are metabolized to sulfuric acid. Animal foods provide predominantly acid precursors. Acidosis stimulates osteoclastic activity and inhibits osteoblast activity.”
MEAT EATERS HAVE MORE HIP FRACTURES
Sellmeyer’s remarkable publication reveals:
“Women with high animal-to-vegetable protein rations were heavier and had higher intake of total protein. These women had a significantly increased rate of bone loss than those who ate just vegetable protein. Women consuming higher rates of animal protein had higher rates of bone loss and hip fracture by a factor of four times.”
Milk has been called “liquid meat.” The average American eats five ounces of animal protein each day in the form of red meat and chicken. At the same time, the average American consumes nearly six times that amount (29.2 ounces) per day of milk and dairy products.
How ironic it is that the dairy industry continues to promote the cause of bone disease as the cure.
Deborah Sellmeyer’s brilliant work is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
please go to http://notmilk.com/deb/092098.html to read full article.
There are so many sources on the web that clearly reveal the dire health consequences of eating meat. There are also many palces to discover that plant proteins DO NOT have the same problems that animal ones have for humans.
“Humans evolved as a social (which is to say cultural) organism.”
Culture is not unique to humans so of course we are evolved to be cultural. But, natural culture and artificial culture are not the same. And, my hypothesis makes this very clear.
When creatures behave contrary to their anatomical requirements, some powerful contravening influence is present. We see the truth of this in the child wars in Africa. Children don’t just decide to pick up machetes and hack into each other.
A culture of violence is introduced that creates desensitized, confused, frightened and finally programmable soldiers who are capable of committing the most heinous atrocities. And that is the root of meat-eating in human society, and the reason for its continuance in ancient temple cultures.
The ancient root of war and meat-eating are totally linked.
Downer cows aren’t allowed in the school food but horse and kangaroo are allowed. Our school food is worse than pet food by usda standards. Grade D and E foods. I hate our system. My lady friend tested meat for a while at one of the biggest meat testing labs in the country. Their biggest complaint was that they were so small for such a big job that nothing could get tested adequately, meat, soil, water systems, ect. Not enough time and/or sample selection or duration to really test them well. Dire lack of regulations for the meat industry was another. How can you test one in a hundred cows to get a sample? Did you see the chicken video by the insider at, I think, Kentucky fried chicken, maybe the frozen food company Tyson meats, I dunno. The one where the chicken processors are playing basketball with live chickens getting then from down the line, live, through the shoot, dead. They would just grab them by the head and beat them against anything, each other or the table, shoot, jump on them or whatever they could find to do that seemed fun to kill the bird and get it down the line. No secretive company hidden from public over site will have a good practice. Look at Blackwater or Dyncorp. No one should go out to eat if they care. Restaurants are for making money first, not for serving food. I eat meat and I’m ashamed when I eat out. You can’t trust a thing from these big suppliers. The Seattle P.I. had a very interesting article today about the pesticides in non organic foods and children today, very worth reading. It also shows the lack of testing our food in the USDA.
I will not go into the fact that we have teeth for BOTH herbs and Meats. It is a waste of time. If you worry about the world start a farm and keep it small. Make what you will, but sell it only locally and you will be a saint. Don’t try to impress others as it makes you look small and to argue with a fool makes two.
If you jog twenty miles a day as a vegetarian, you will get sick, you will need meat as your body cannot eat that much produce. Beef at least once to twice a month not too much more is ever needed. Chicken or fish, more often. If you are worried about animal cruelty, raise your own and see what it takes, the world will be a better place and you will know for sure. The best tasting meat is the happiest animal. Any small farmer can tell you that. All animals need a happy job. I live in a zoo, We have about ten species, twenty kids or so, and I know its not an easy task to do your best. You may not sleep some nights if you have a heart.
If you can be a vegetarian, do it, as it does help the planet, some lazy bones desk jockeys can. Don’t kill yourself trying. If you have no real energy using lifestyle, try it. It might get you to do yoga and think for yourself. If you work like a horse, you will need your meat, as running out will cause brain damage in the long run. That will explain some vegans. Don’t ask me, ask ‘their’ doctor. Lack of protein and too much sugar, you see the result in poor kids alot!
To argue with a fool make two. I love that quote! Politics at its finest!
Calcium is a fickle thing as when its cooked it loses all its water solubility, causing it to become inorganic. That means it needs, in your body, real calcium, organic water soluble calcium, to remove it or it will give you damage like calcium deposits, spurs and bone loss. The simple answer is the best.
Pill vitamins are a dried out powder. Vegetables are fresh and alive like you! If you don’t eat your vegetables every day you will run out of vitamins! You need a gram of protein for half a pound you weigh every day all the way till you are dead for proper function. That is a lot of beans and nut butters. If you are active to very active you need more.
How does your back yard look mister/misses know it alls out there? I don’t think vegetarians, unless they are lazy, and vegans for sure, can really tell anyone anything about diet because they most likely DON”T HAVE A FULL DECK as they have been robbing their bodies and brains for years!
“I will not go into the fact that we have teeth for BOTH herbs and Meats.”
This is ridiculous. Your anatomy does not lie. And this sort of spin doctor is too common… pretend to care about the issue, then take control of people’s trust… and spin them to your conclusions. And, to your attempt to discredit those of us who are imparting facts which are relevant.
Humans who are herbivores have no business eating meat, whether factory produced, hunted, or raised on small farms.
The only thing that is small here is your sense of responsibility for covering up your disinfo with the introduction about the suffering of animals.
If you care about any animals, including human animals, stop trying to prevent people from realizing the most basic thing about their own ecology and their own proper relationship with other animals.
Read the chart. Tell the truth. It is that simple. No more need to live in ignorance nor subject the innocent (other animals) to the crimes you commit to protect that ignorance.
Major Jaw Muscles
CARNIVORE: Temporalis
HERBIVORE: Masseter and pterygoids
OMNIVORE: Temporalis
HUMAN: Masseter and pterygoids
Mouth Opening vs. Head Size
CARNIVORE: Large
HERBIVORE: Small
OMNIVORE: Large
HUMAN: Small
Teeth: Incisors
CARNIVORE: Short and pointed
HERBIVORE: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
OMNIVORE: Short and pointed
HUMAN: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
Teeth: Canines
CARNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HERBIVORE: Dull and short or long (for defense), or none
OMNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HUMAN: Short and blunted
Teeth: Molars
CARNIVORE: Sharp, jagged and blade shaped
HERBIVORE: Flattened with cusps vs complex surface
OMNIVORE: Sharp blades and/or flattened
HUMAN: Flattened with nodular cusps
Chewing
CARNIVORE: None; swallows food whole
HERBIVORE: Extensive chewing necessary
OMNIVORE: Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing
HUMAN: Extensive chewing necessary
Saliva
CARNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HERBIVORE: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
OMNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HUMAN: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
You all can rub how you “feel” in to the best of your abilities, but get the DIET facts straight first. I was a vegan. It doesn’t work for most if not all, but is a great short term thing for most to PRACTICE at least once a year for a month or so, if you can, just not for ever. Just like the seasons you must change too!
“If you work like a horse, you will need your meat, as running out will cause brain damage in the long run. That will explain some vegans. Don’t ask me, ask ‘their’ doctor. Lack of protein and too much sugar, you see the result in poor kids a lot!”
I have been a vegan for over two decades! Doctors one and all (after hearing I am a vegan) have this too say, “I can do some tests but I guarantee, there is nothing wrong with you.” And, there never is.
You have a lot of opinion (Fox News begotten I presume), but no real knowledge.
Stamina studies as well as studies on recovery time after exertion prove that vegans are by far healthier than vegetarians or meat-eaters. Go to http://pcrm.org. Do some checking. You will find references to numbers of studies there.
You are quite in error. Meat-eating not only does not give strength or endurance to humans, it robs our body of strength and wellness compared to that which may be derived from an all plant diet.
The book ‘eating for your blood type’ was proven to be a hoax.
Some warm climate folks I hear, who are lazy and/or in their heads alot like Indian Yogis, can be vegetarians, but not the Inuit tribes in the arctic. The Indians have ground their teeth down on grains and the Inuits are noticeably sharper. What does that have to say about a black man vs. a white man, or a asian man vs. a latin man?
GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS! STOP JUDGING WHAT YOU KNOW NOTHING OF AND LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE!
Good night!
“I was a vegan. It doesn’t work for most if not all, but is a great short term thing for most to PRACTICE at least once a year for a month or so, if you can, just not for ever. Just like the seasons you must change too!”
I SERIOUSLY doubt you were a vegan. And, since vegans are actually practicing human herbivores (and I was a ‘vegan’ before I knew the word ‘vegan’), and ALL humans are herbivores, it does work for EVERYONE perfectly ALL the time!
Along the lines of your advice, do you also advise, cows to eat other cows (everyone must change just like the seasons?;) or rabbits to eat buffalo steaks?
Can members of this culture get any more alienated, inane, dishonest, ignorant, random, callous… Puh-Leez!
Short term studies, I see you don’t read here much. Munch1 Fattie. Not to many studies are related to the blacks or hispanics at your site. I see you are easily confused with the real medicines that are out there, go to a medical practice that has been around for more than a thousand years, say an acupuncturist, try TCM. You would like something new. Naturopathy is only 50 yrs old, western med is only 200. TCM is 4000yrs old.
“LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE!”
And let the agribusinesses, media moguls and weapons contractors decide what everyone will know? and eat?
Not this time! Too many lives are at stake, in fact ALL life.
Learn the facts, act like your life depended on it because it does, and so does mine and everyone elses.
Humans are herbivores.
The Herbivore Awareness Project, http://allinharmony.com
From “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating”, by Milton R. Mills, MD
Facial Muscles
CARNIVORE: Reduced to allow wide mouth gape
HERBIVORE: Well-developed
OMNIVORE: Reduced
HUMAN: Well-developed
Jaw Type
CARNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HERBIVORE: Expanded angle
OMNIVORE: Angle not expanded
HUMAN: Expanded angle
Jaw Joint Location
CARNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HERBIVORE: Above the plane of the molars
OMNIVORE: On same plane as molar teeth
HUMAN: Above the plane of the molars
Jaw Motion
CARNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side motion
HERBIVORE: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
OMNIVORE: Shearing; minimal side-to-side
HUMAN: No shear; good side-to-side, front-to-back
Major Jaw Muscles
CARNIVORE: Temporalis
HERBIVORE: Masseter and pterygoids
OMNIVORE: Temporalis
HUMAN: Masseter and pterygoids
Mouth Opening vs. Head Size
CARNIVORE: Large
HERBIVORE: Small
OMNIVORE: Large
HUMAN: Small
Teeth: Incisors
CARNIVORE: Short and pointed
HERBIVORE: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
OMNIVORE: Short and pointed
HUMAN: Broad, flattened and spade shaped
Teeth: Canines
CARNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HERBIVORE: Dull and short or long (for defense), or none
OMNIVORE: Long, sharp and curved
HUMAN: Short and blunted
Teeth: Molars
CARNIVORE: Sharp, jagged and blade shaped
HERBIVORE: Flattened with cusps vs complex surface
OMNIVORE: Sharp blades and/or flattened
HUMAN: Flattened with nodular cusps
Chewing
CARNIVORE: None; swallows food whole
HERBIVORE: Extensive chewing necessary
OMNIVORE: Swallows food whole and/or simple crushing
HUMAN: Extensive chewing necessary
Saliva
CARNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HERBIVORE: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
OMNIVORE: No digestive enzymes
HUMAN: Carbohydrate digesting enzymes
Stomach Type
CARNIVORE: Simple
HERBIVORE: Simple or multiple chambers
OMNIVORE: Simple
HUMAN: Simple
Stomach Acidity
CARNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HERBIVORE: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
OMNIVORE: Less than or equal to pH 1 with food in stomach
HUMAN: pH 4 to 5 with food in stomach
Stomach Capacity
CARNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract
HERBIVORE: Less than 30% of total volume of digestive tract
OMNIVORE: 60% to 70% of total volume of digestive tract
HUMAN: 21% to 27% of total volume of digestive tract
Length of Small Intestine
CARNIVORE: 3 to 6 times body length
HERBIVORE: 10 to more than 12 times body length
OMNIVORE: 4 to 6 times body length
HUMAN: 10 to 11 times body length
Colon
CARNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth
HERBIVORE: Long, complex; may be sacculated
OMNIVORE: Simple, short and smooth
HUMAN: Long, sacculated
Liver
CARNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A
HERBIVORE: Cannot detoxify vitamin A
OMNIVORE: Can detoxify vitamin A
HUMAN: Cannot detoxify vitamin A
Kidney
CARNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine
HERBIVORE: Moderately concentrated urine
OMNIVORE: Extremely concentrated urine
HUMAN: Moderately concentrated urine
Nails
CARNIVORE: Sharp claws
HERBIVORE: Flattened nails or blunt hooves
OMNIVORE: Sharp claws
HUMAN: Flattened nails
I see your attitude is most arrogant and not in need of further conversation as you would rather talk to yourself, to make your self feel better, instead of learning about your health and talking to others, rationally.
“Not to many studies are related to the blacks or hispanics at your site.”
???? What ??????
My site deals with facts regarding HUMAN anatomy!
Since when are Hispanics or Blacks not human?
“I see your attitude is most arrogant and not in need of further conversation as you would rather talk to yourself, to make your self feel better, instead of learning about your health and talking to others, rationally.”
again ??????
Are you stoned? Those are completely unfounded and absurd statements.
“Can members of this culture get any more alienated, inane, dishonest, ignorant, random, callous… Puh-Leez!”
With an attitude like yours, you ask what? FUCK OFF ALIEN! Like folks want to be around you! No wonder your a raving nutjob! You are a brain damaged VEGAN! Now I see all you symptoms showing! I didn’t see your tongue but now I can picture it flapping!
Are you stoned?
Not like you! Obviously!
“My site deals with facts regarding HUMAN anatomy!”
Like its yours, what about physiology? It sounds like a big blanket made to make you feel better at the drop of a PILL made by DOW CHEMICAL!
The Bush family owns a big stock in Lilly Miller Pharmaceuticals, You like your site now? Your site is bought a paid for by the western drug companies like your doctor and you want to trust them? They test the meat and vegetables for our made up on religion not science health standards.
“You are a brain damaged VEGAN”
BTW, that B12 thing, it doesn’t work the way you think either.
So, this is just more name calling. Who would have guessed, vegan is the ‘new’ Black.
Oh, that’s right, the FBI ‘guessed’ when they identified vegans and vegetarians as the ‘new’ terrorist group back in the mid-nineties… and voila, all sorts of demonizing began…
“They’re crazy, ‘brain damaged’, animal rights terrorists, cranky, fanatical… ”
I didn’t buy it then when it was being scripted and I don’t buy it now. Remember, I have been a vegan for over two decades.
“I didn’t buy it then when it was being scripted and I don’t buy it now. Remember, I have been a vegan for over two decades.”
You cannot be a vegan with out subscribing to the capitalist system. You could not do it on your own. Its a sell out mind set. (It might be the best for a capitalist system but that is not what the argument is about.) You would be eating bark and have to end up eating bugs! Bugs lead to steak! Bugs are the gateway meat.
Look…vegan-ism might be right for you, but that doesn’t mean its right for everyone. Shoving a particular belief around doesn’t make you look less fanatical, look at our president. Information is meant to be shared here, politely, not arrogantly. You post like a brain damaged fool. What B12 thing? jskddn My point is explained. You act like a fanatic, a fun-dementia-list. Read through your own posts if you can bear it. Good night!
What would the illegal Mexicans and others do with out the slaughter house industry? So on humanitarian grounds Americans should continue to eat meat and lots of it.
“The Bush family owns a big stock in Lilly Miller Pharmaceuticals, You like your site now? Your site is bought a paid for by the western drug companies like your doctor and you want to trust them?”
http://allinharmony.com is funded by my partner and myself. And we do it because it urgently needs doing.
You are writing complete nonsense.
“You cannot be a vegan with out subscribing to the capitalist system. You could not do it on your own. Its a sell out mind set. (It might be the best for a capitalist system but that is not what the argument is about.) You would be eating bark and have to end up eating bugs! Bugs lead to steak! Bugs are the gateway meat.”
Hmm… where have you been locked up all your life? Ever see an apple tree, pear? Ever picked berries, mangos?
Do you know what a cucumber is? acorns? avocados?
Wow, this IS serious! No, capitalism actually came AFTER the appearance of fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains on the earth.
I have been hearing about the rotten educational system but… I have to say… WOW!
Bugs, BTW, are not the ‘gateway’ to EATING animals but they are indeed necessary to the living ecosphere including the continuance of animal life. People who happen to swallow a bug or two on say an apple, will not instantly think to grab a rabbit and bite its head off…
Wow, are you for real?
Imagine what we would feel if the recent shocking images of tortured cows were- women and children from a people intent on defending their country and their rights and instead of people who have been so abused by society that they are condemned to work for a miserable salary in such terrible places, the torturers wear well cut uniforms and receive generous pay. Two or three 1 second shots of that on CBS-FOX-etera would put R Paul in the white house. Ironically in the first case the lowest of the low gets fired and in the second case they are promoted. The torturehouse owners sip bloody-maries by the pool
MUNCH1
well, i really enjoyed your ‘tete a tete’ with JUNGLEBOY. and i must say JB became quite verbally violent at times: quote: ‘FUCK OFF ALIEN’ ‘you are a brain damaged VEGAN’ etc.etc….. i take offence at his ‘VEGANS DON’T HAVE A FULL DECK as they have been robbing their bodies and brains for years. i beg to differ with JB. i have been vegan for over 25 years and i have a higher than average i.q. (and that of the current president of the u.s.a.- according to media sources) whatever anyone’s preference for food, the fact still remains that these slaughterhouses are violating state and federal laws and should be punished accordingly. now that the inspectors are aware of these abhorrent practices, they should make ’spot’ checks to these premises - in addition to the pre-arranged timings for inspections. it might open their eyes…………………
Gail Eisnitz wrote about this kind of neglect and cruelty in “Slaughterhouse.”
According to John Robbins, author of Diet For A New America, it takes more than 2500 gallons of water to grow a single pound of beef. Depending where you go, that is enough food to feed 1 to 4 people. Talk about inefficient and wasteful.
Also, the environmental impact on raising cattle and other livestock is as bad, if not worse, than the impact that fossil fuel consumption.
I am a vegetarian. When people ask me why, I now tell them that I am trying to curb global warming, in addition to supporting humane treatment of animals and avoiding the degenerative diseases that cost us so much to treat.
Please read this article:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/dec/truth.htm
Despite the primeval, fierce image we may have in our mind’s eye, all the skeletons we have found tell us that those guys would have looked frail compared to the average 5 foot 8 inch, modern, sedentary man, and they still didn’t have our brain. Lions and other predators were already as big and smart as they are today. Yes, Homo erectus used to hunt, but can you envision what it is to hunt with a spear when you’re 5′5″ and have three quarters of the brain capacity of a human being? Even in our macho-inclined-sports’-buff society nobody wants to do it anymore. Hunters use high power rifles to kill those grizzly bears. Hunting antelope with spears in those prehistoric times meant that you had to leave the cover of whatever wooded area protected you. Frankly I don’t picture Homo erectus, a poor runner, as a creature able to survive too long in the open. Have you ever had to fight a couple of nasty dogs while jogging? Try a pack of hungry wolves, with bare hands. Most assuredly, between found carcasses the first humans ate a lot of vegetables and fruits. A lot. I understand that, for some of us it must be very pleasing to think that our ancestors were fierce colossuses roaming Africa and terrorizing everything around them. But no, we didn’t look or act like Tarzan or Conan. Most of the time we were probably terrorized and were very careful out in open fields, if we ever even ventured there. Vegetables and fruits were most surely our main foods between our not-so-glorious hunting parties.
Katharine Milton of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley underscores this hypothesis, stating:
“There is strong consensus that the ancestral line giving rise to both humans and extant apes was likewise very strongly herbivorous”
S.Boyd Eaton, MD in his article co-written with Stanley B. Eaton III adds:
“With regard to diet what students of human evolution and advocates of evolutionary medicine need most from paleoprimatologists is an estimate of the nutritional pattern likely to have characterized the last common ancestor of apes and humans, a hypothetical species thought to have existed in Africa between seven and five million years ago. If members of this elusive taxon were like current chimpanzees and bonobos, plant foods such as fruits, leaves, gums, and stalks probably comprised at least 95% of their dietary intake with insects, eggs, and small animals making up the remainder (Milton, 1993; Tutin & Fernandez, 1993).
Along with five other species humans cannot make vitamin C in their liver. This is very unusual in the animal kingdom. What do all these 5 species have to do in order to get vital vitamin C? They have to get it from their food. Where do you get it? Certainly not in bread, cereal, and flour products. It is derived from fresh fruits and vegetables. You absolutely need vitamin C to be healthy, which means your diet must be comprised of a lot of vegetables and fruits.
“Though most mammals synthesize their own vitamin C internally, anthropoids (monkeys, apes and humans) are one exception… If a lineage lacks the ability to synthesize a vitamin essential for life this suggests that in the past evolutionary history of that lineage there was no need for such synthesis–thus vitamin C must have been abundant in the diet of the common ancestor of all anthropoids and must still be present in the natural diets of extant monkeys and apes today. ( from a talk prepared for : The Origins and Evolution of Human Diet, 14th International Congress and Ethnological Sciences, July 26-August 1, 1998, Williamburg, Virginia. Eating What Comes Naturally: An Examination of Some Differences between the Dietary Components of Humans and Wild Primates. Katharine Milton, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
We can eat meat, but apparently it kills us. Like smoking, it takes 30 years, but in the end it kills us.
I don’t think eating meat has any thing to do with disease in humans. If you want to blame anything blame what we feed our meat for the diseases in humans. I working on moving to the country and when I do I’m going to raise my own beef, chickens, quail and fish. I also plan on having a large vegi garden to go along with my meat eating.
Archaeological evidence proves that man has been eating meat since the beginning of time.
Simple Sauce is a troll. All of his/her arguments are apologetic to justify selfishness and absence of higher compassion.
As for Jungleboy’s anecdotal studies, he is full of it.
If you jog twenty miles a day as a vegetarian, you will get sick. World class marathon winners are vegans.
Oh, and “The Comparative Anatomy of Eating”, by Milton R. Mills, did leave out one important thing about humans that eat meat. They smell. Meat eaters usually have vile breath, and the smell of rancid fat permeates from their skin. This is one of the reasons for the heavy use of herbs (especially garlic) in meat dishes. If meat was so “delicious” and easy to digest, why smother it in herbs?
WTF “If meat was so “delicious” and easy to digest, why smother it in herbs?”
The same reason I use herbs on vegetables they taste good. As far as a person’s odor goes, some people just stink. It’s like the old wives tale beans make you pass gas. Do vegetarians pass a lot of gas, seems like they do.
Well rickster, it is true that “beanz meanz fartz”, especially when it is out of a can (can you spell processed?), but the extraordinary high rate of halitosis in people on the Atkins diet is well-documented.
People’s (and animal’s) odor is directly related to diet and health. “Some people stink” for a reason.
“Simple Sauce is a troll. All of his/her arguments are apologetic to justify selfishness and absence of higher compassion.”
This is outstanding, coming from someone who posts the same comment about eating any meat causing warlike tendencies in people on several unrelated threads every day. Since my values don’t line up exactly with yours I therefore have no compassion? What arrogance. By the way, you’ll be happy to know that my preferred way to eat meat is unseasoned, medium rare, fresh off the grill, with my fingers.
I am encouraged to see notes about things like vitamin C implying that vegetables made up a significant portion of our diets throughout our evolution. That’s exactly right, but it doesn’t prove that we never eat/ate meat. The fossil and anthropological record do in fact show many different human societies eating meat in all parts of the world using technologies from stone age to the present. Try being a vegan where the Inuit live…
That doesn’t say that industrial slaughterhouses are a good thing. I, like most everyone here, find them abhorrent, and I do not support them. I kill and butcher my own.
Projecting your own assumptions about the image of hunters onto actual people doesn’t really do anyone any good. No hunters I know fit the descriptions laid out here, and certainly none of us fantasize about violence or dream of our ancestors being fierce carnivores. We hunt because we find it appropriate in our ecosystem, and to fill in that last 5% of our diet (you know, like the primates who ate insects, eggs, and animals smaller than them) without supporting industrial agriculture.
It’s absurd to suggest that meat makes up most of my diet. Fresh fruits and veggies make up the bulk, with whole grains and legumes filling in another big portion. You people differ little from religious proselytizers, and you’re not convincing anyone as much as you are alienating. The sad part is that we likely have a lot of values and goals in common, but your holier-than-thou attitude and intolerance for other ways of living mean that we’re not likely to be able to successfully cooperate to achieve much together.
Simple Sauce I totally agree with your last lines and I have no argument with you or your point of view. My post were placed to defend the lite meat eater. Not the McDs eater full of waste or the safeway burger eater(or a burger eater in general, for that matter, talk about bad meat.). For all of history people have eaten meat until now in this age of corporate vegetable starts. Vegans are mostly deficient and their blood work shows this, ask your naturopath.
As for being a humanitarian, yes eating organic vegetables is better than eating meat from our messed up system. No argument. The argument I have is with people trying to force their personal lifestyle down others throats. Ones eating habits are just like their religion. It like the argument for not driving and riding your bike everywhere, it can work in limited situations. I don’t like vegans who act like their religion is better than the next person.
Unfortunately most vegans show signs of deficiency, Fact. The deficiency shows up in the same category as mental illness, caused by lack of nutrition to the brain. Not all, but most for sure.
To argue eating meat vs. veganism is stupid here because most folk here are not your over consumers of meat that are causing these problems that might need your arguments. Veganism is a religion and all fundamentalists are whack-jobs, I believe its safe to say! Lets argue instead organic vs. non organic. The only meat and vegetables I buy are organic.
So coco, you have an IQ of over two? Thats higher than our president for sure! Sorry, I meant MOST vegans. Don’t take offense.
Simple Sauce, having identified 2 mistruths in your first sentence (1: That I stated absolute causality between eating meat and aggression, and 2: that I cross-post to unrelated discussions), the remainder of your post is, at best, specious and the rantings of a wannabe.
Taking the advice from another poster above, “arguing with a fool makes two”, I end here.
WTF:
Thanks, I was starting to feel foolish.
Joking aside,
“I contend that advocates of violence against animals (i.e., meat-eaters) pre-disposes such people for advocating violence against people. Yes, meat-eaters will swear blue that they are peaceniks, but that is just lip service.”
This comment has been cut and pasted by you on 3 threads in the past two days, and those were just the articles that I saw. Sure, the words “absolute causality” are absent, but your implication is clear, especially in the absence of any other suggested causal mechanism. Stop splitting hairs and own up to your contention. Defend it if you can.
Thanks for not reading anything that I wrote, and thanks for not responding to any questions I directed at you on the other industrial agriculture thread the other day. It makes it that much easier to conclude that you are unable or unwilling to respond to questions that challenge your black-and-white universal morality. Thanks for calling me a troll with no “higher compassion,” a ranting wannabe, and a fool. Thanks for implying that everyone who eats meat must be brain dead and must buy it from the supermarket. You’re contributing greatly to our understanding of the world and ability to determine our own responses to questions with moral implications.
Munch1 — thank you for the link to the YouTube video—!!!
SSW — when I was 6, I instinctively wanted to be a vegetarian but my family went nuts. It wasn’t until I was 48 that I was able to do it and 3 years after that I became a Vegan. Glad you were able to do it so much earlier!
Ghandi — “Violence starts at the end of your fork”
Violence breeds violence —
And no matter how the military tries to desensitize soldiers to brutality, to killing … it doesn’t work.
The violence of war continues to make a huge impact on
even those who carry it out.
This is simply a war on animals - exploitation for profit.
What it leaves behind for the consumer is sickness, both physical and spiritual.
Thank you to the many intelligent people here who fight for animal rights and who understand the violence of animal-eating.
I can not believe this happening in california, these ppl that did this to the animals should be jailed as well as the owners and supervisors, especially the supervisors they where there and aware what went on this madder should not be ignored something should be done to make sure that somewhere else it does not take place , Iam very angrey at seeing this on the news, and our children that see something like this , will take this to their adult hood and think we allowed this !!!!
Go to raw milk dot com and find out why industrial processed milk is so bad for your body. Then imagine it doesn’t have to be this way and buy a goat.
When it gets old you can eat it.
Old goats are tough and not worth eating. Young goat taste and looks a lot like venison.
They have a service that will come to your place (farm) and do it for you and then take the animal to a butcher and have it dressed. The animals die fairly humanly, they slit the throat and they are dead in a heartbeat. Sheep die very quietly. Chicken you just cut thier head off and hang them up. Turkeys are another story.
Well that is how it use to be done, animals that would be nearing the end of thier life were the ones used for food. Maybe you just need a better recipe.
Also, quite a few people are raising Guinea pigs for meat. Think I would have to pass on that one. I can see the vegans reading this going into panic attacks.
The reason meat-eaters are so rude and defensive is that they are addicted to rotting flesh just as SUV-drivers are addicted to oil.
The meat-eaters are causing more damage to the planet.
You have to live with evolution, you cannot change that overnight. It would serve people well to have to deal with thier food first hand and they would not be so inclined to eat the way they do. I eat very little meat, but I’ve taken some responsibility in having addressed the issue myself. Try calling one of those slaughter houses and see what they tell you, I did.
btw people are omnivorous, no different that a wolf eating a deer or any other animal. We are just more inhumane about it.
“Munch1 — thank you for the link to the YouTube video—!!!”
I’m glad you liked it. Here it is again for any who missed it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=05zhL1YUd8Q
We pass meat-eaters all the time on trails.
I gag often, try to hold my breath. It is very acute outdoors to come in smelling distance of a human meat-eater.
I try to not to give offense so I have to control my reactions until the offending meat-eater is out of sight and hearing.
Anyway, it was interesting that someone else mentioned this. Just wanted to say, it’s true and the perfumes only seem to intensify the oily cloud these people carry around with themselves.
I know this sounds mean and petty and I don’t want to be mean to anyone but it is something about which few people seem to be aware.
According to Will Tuttle, it is not just a smell, it is an acidic condition that actually attracts all sorts of bacteria. In his book, he writes that humnas become acidic when they die and that is the signal to nature to begin the breakdown process (decomposition) in earnest. Thus, huamn meat eaters are always signalling nature to decompose them…
So, it may not just be the rotting corpses in their bowels that cause that smell but a decaying process that is happening prematurely due to their unnatural diets.
Treefrog January 31st, 2008 4:39 pm “Well that is how it use to be done, animals that would be nearing the end of thier life were the ones used for food.”
No that’s not how it works, never has. Cows can you say cows, they make babies and them babies are a mixture of bulls and more baby producing cows. Do you know what they do to bulls? They turn them into steers, raise them to full size and butcher them. A herd of cows don’t need more than a few bulls to take care of their needs you know.
Sometimes we do end up with too many females than and only then do young females get butchered. Same thing happens more or less with other eatable critters.
munch1 January 31st, 2008 5:33 pm
“We pass meat-eaters all the time on trails.
I gag often, try to hold my breath. It is very acute outdoors to come in smelling distance of a huamn meat-eater. “
Too Much garlic does it every time.
Rickster
Yes, that is the way it works on a cattle producing ranch, but if you go back a little further to the family farm…animals that no longer produced milk or reproductive benefits became food for the winter. No need to get all patronizing about it.
Garlic keeps meat for putrifying in your intestine. Really smelly people are ususally chemically toxic and some of that comes from meat.
Eat a lot of garlic a few days before you enter the woods and the bugs will leave you along. I hate mosquitoes and chiggers. Really try it sometimes garlic really works. You don’t have to eat it raw.
Garlic is a natural antibiotic..
And back a little further to the buffalo hunt where you prepared meat without cooking it.
Treefrog January 31st, 2008 5:38 pm
Yes, that is the way it works on a cattle producing ranch, but if you go back a little further to the family farm…animals that no longer produced milk or reproductive benefits became food for the winter.
It didn’t work that way on any of the family farms I grew up around. We usually put them out to pasture till they died or we put them out of their misery and buried them. Most of the small farmers I know become attached to their breeding animals and would never eat them.
Most of the small farms today