Author: timzimmermann

Is Humane Slaughter Humane?

This has always been a question I have puzzled over. I don’t have any doubt that the lives and deaths of livestock at factory farms involve suffering and cruelty.

But meat-eating friends argue that if they buy meat from organic, humane, farmers who allow livestock to lead natural lives and slaughter the animals with care, then they are addressing the moral issues around meat-eating (note: it doesn’t deal with the environmental impact).

So, if an animal leads a reasonable farm life, and is slaughtered with care, is that cruel? Or is it humane? Writer Mac McClelland set out to answer exactly that question by witnessing the slaughter of cows at the Prather Ranch Meat Company, which produces some of the most humanely raised and slaughtered beef in the country:

Technically, humane slaughter became law in the United States with the 1958 Humane Slaughter Act, intended to prevent the “needless suffering” of livestock during slaughter. Compliance, though, historically has been hit-or-miss, and in the intervening decades, after sensational undercover investigations and Internet animal cruelty videos and activist PR campaigns, eaters have begun to demand information about the way meat meets its maker.

If Prather Ranch’s callers are any indication, that concern is growing into its own movement. And while it’s one thing to understand slaughter practices on a theoretical level, it’s another to be in the same room when a cow dies.

To that end, I wanted to find out about slaughter from the most progressive part of the meat industry. Are big slaughterhouses as bad as we imagine? Should we be paying as much attention to how animals die as to how they live? Even under the best circumstances, just how humane can slaughter ever be?

Here’s McClelland’s description of the key moment:

Early the next snowy morning, we enter a compact room in the Prather slaughterhouse. All the available space is taken up by one hanging cow being sliced, another hanging cow being skinned and a third, just-stunned cow hanging and being cut open while 5 gallons of blood gush from its body a few feet away from me. Moments ago, we heard this very cow mooing from the knock box on the other side of the wall.

Mary had warned us that “vocalization is not necessarily a good thing,” yet there are low, deep, booming bellows echoing off the walls. Grandin—whom the Rickerts have met, and who sits on the Scientific Committee behind the nonprofit Certified Humane label—considers this a sign of distress. Mary says that Grandin once told her Prather cows might moo because they smell blood and get hip to the scheme.

The next cow, the cow I watch die, is quiet. It is black. It comes casually down a walkway. It steps into a squeeze chute, the metal hugging cage that closes in on the cows’ sides to calm them. Scott Towne, the guy in charge of the killing, hits it with a CASH Knocker, a blank shell shooting from a metal apparatus at the end of the long, wooden-handled device and into the front of the head above the eyes, denting the skull but not penetrating its brain, rendering the animal insensible. Instantly the cow’s eyes close. Its neck is lax and its mouth open, easy as a child asleep at the dinner table, or a businessman asleep on a plane.

So, is this humane, moral, acceptable? McClelland decides that he can live with it (though I seriously doubt that all the meat he eats comes from Prather). And, certainly, it would be a revolution, and greatly reduce the inhumanity and cruelty of meat-eating is all meat was raised and slaughtered to the Prather standard (as unrealistic as that possibility might be).

For me, though, the scene McClelland describes remains too brutal, too raw. I have reached the point that I can’t be comfortable with the idea of food that involves hanging a live animal from a chain and slicing its throat open, even if it is insensible.

And even if slaughter didn’t involve any pain or suffering whatsoever (which I don’t believe it can), what about the social and emotional connections between the slaughtered cow and the rest of the herd? There are too many alternatives that don’t even raise a question of cruelty (in addition to the health and environmental reasons to shun meat, even if slaughter were perfectly humane).

Regardless of where you come down on the question of whether slaughter can be “humane,” McClelland has asked, and tried to answer, a very important question for all of us. (Interestingly, the photo editor and photographer Michael Friberg seem to have reached a different conclusion than McClelland, at least judging from the photos they chose to publish with the article, some of which I have included here).

Wild Kingdom: Orcas Attack A Pod Of Sperm Whales

Orcas are fascinating. But they are consummate killers, and if you are a species they will eat they are fearsome.

This video was shot off the coast of Sri Lanka, by Brett Heinrichs (just more evidence that orcas are everywhere):

How do sperm whales defend themselves against smaller, faster orcas? Do they rely on bulk (in which case the calves are a target), or can they do damage to the orcas?

Here’s an account, compiled from Heinrichs comments on the YouTube page:

April 19, 2013, Five to Six Orcas (Killer Whales) attack a pod of six Sperm whales of the coast of Sri Lanka. At the end of the video, we jump in the water and captured the first underwater footage of Orcas attacking Sperm whales.

It was truly amazing. I have been swimming with a lot of great creatures in the ocean (blue whales, tiger sharks, whale sharks, manta rays…), but this tops it all.

Alternatively, the Orcas may have been attacking the 3 sides of the pod we were not on, driving the sperm whales into us. At times we were 3 to 5 feet from the Sperm whales. Visibility was good, but not great. While initially we feared aggression from the Orcas, at no time did the Orcas show aggression towards us.

I can tell you that we were very hesitant to get in the water with no precedent for how the Orcas might behave in this attack scenario. Upon entry into the water, they came to us and checked us out then ignored us and resumed their attack. The generally avoided us. The Sperm whales appeared to pick up on this and came closer to us for safety.

I believe the Orcas killed the youngest calf. We saw 6 Sperm whales upon arrival and 5 eventually left the scene. At one point we saw the youngest calf separated from the pod and being hammered by Orcas. The underwater video and images are a first ever and being distributed through other media channels. Not sure how long that process will take.

Have to give the guy credit for getting in the water without knowing how he would be received. The underwater footage will be very interesting to see.

Good News On “Talk To Me”

Last night I got an e-mail informing me that “Talk To Me” had been selected for the 2013 edition of Best American Science And Nature Writing. That’s always a welcome e-mail, especially on a slow Sunday evening.

This year’s volume is being edited by Siddhartha Mukherjee, a doctor and the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about cancer, The Emperor Of All Maladies. I’m not sure how or why an article about trying to communicate with dolphins caught his attention. But I’m glad it did because “Talk To Me” was a story that I thoroughly enjoyed reporting and writing.

More important, being published again will hopefully result in wider awareness regarding the intelligence and sociability of dolphins, as well as the work of the Wild Dolphin Project.

The Killer In The Pool made it into the 2011 edition of Best American Science And Nature Writing, and my story about cave diver Dave Shaw was featured in the 2006 edition of Best American Sports Writing. So I guess you could say I am a big fan of the entire “Best American” series.

Earthist Music: “We’ll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one’s been”

This edition of Earthist Music, to kick off the weekend, comes from Phil Demers, who listens to Lateralus, by Tool, when he is feeling the weight of his journey. “It reminds me to keep going,” he says.

What music inspires you to do the right thing? To care? To fight for new values? Send it in (timzimmdc@gmail.com), with a brief note about why you chose it, and I’ll feature it on a Friday.

In the meantime, go full screen and crank up the volume.

Lateralus

black then white are all i see in my infancy
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me
lets me see
as below, so above and beyond, i imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason
push the envelope
watch it bend

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind
withering my intuition, missing opportunities
and i must feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines

black then white are all i see in my infancy
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me
lets me see
there is so much more and beckons me to look thru to these infinite possibilities
as below, so above and beyond, i imagine
drawn outside the lines of reason
push the envelope
watch it bend

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind
withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind

feed my will to feel this moment, urging me to cross the line
reaching out to embrace the random
reaching out to embrace whatever may come

i embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired
to fathom the power
to witness the beauty
to bathe in the fountain
to swing on the spiral
to swing on a spiral
to…
swing on a spiral of our divinity and still be a human

with my feet upon the ground i move myself between the sounds and open wide to suck it in
i feel it move across my skin
i’m reaching up and reaching out
i’m reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me
whatever will be willed on me
and following our will and wind we may just go where no one’s been
we’ll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one’s been
spiral out… keep going
spiral out… keep going
spiral out… keep going

SeaWorld IPO: Overseas Expansion?

“I’m so glad you love Shamu. Do you think they’ll love him in Dubai?”

SeaWorld president Jim Atchison visits the NYSE floor and suggests Shamu may be headed to Dubai, or other disant parts. Which could help explain why there seems to be so much orca breeding going on:

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Atchison gave some hints as to what those plans might be. Currently, SeaWorld Entertainment operates 11 theme parks in the United States, including SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, without a presence overseas.

“We could take our Shamu show in Orlando and probably show it in Malaysia or Abu Dhabi or Dubai,” Mr. Atchison said. “There’s a lot of interest in our brands from overseas.”

He cautioned that there is no “imminent announcement” along these lines.

Though building new theme parks requires capital, Mr. Atchison suggested that such projects could be undertaken in partnership with big investors, such as a sovereign wealth fund, which might add hotels or other structures to the development.

“If you look at these development opportunities, they’re often in connection with other real estate plays,” he explained. “A lot of the development opportunities we have are actually capital-light.”

New parks need whales. And that means breeding, and continuing to roll that Kshamenk AI program forward.

SeaWorld IPO Update

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From Yahoo Finance:

More than three years after its $2.3 billion sale by Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) to private-equity giant Blackstone (BX), SeaWorld (SEAS) is trading on the NYSE after raising a reported $702 million in one of the largest IPOs of the year. In its first minutes of trade, the stock is up 15% from its offer price of $27, which was at the top of a range starting at $24.

SeaWorld sold 10 million shares and Blackstone an additional 16 million, more than the 10 million originally slated. The underwriters, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have a 30-day option to sell an additional 3.9 million shares at the offer price. The deal values SeaWorld at just above $2.5 billion. This debut is part of a busy week for IPOs, which included New York-based grocery chain Fairway (FWM) on Wednesday.

Yahoo mentions the risks (another trainer tragedy, public opposition to orca captivity, and potential OSHA restrictions) that we have covered before, and adds:

When contacted regarding the IPO, a representative for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, provided its official statement on SeaWorld, which includes its plan to purchase stock Friday in order to “educate other investors about the suffering endured by … animals who are confined to tiny barren tanks for human amusement … and push for their release.”

Other factors investors should keep in mind when deciding whether to dive into SeaWorld stock or stay onshore: The company’s high debt levels and multiples. SeaWorld, when it filed to go public, had $1.8 billion in long-term debt, some of which was incurred by a special dividend of $500 million paid last year to Blackstone (following a $100 million dividend in 2011). SeaWorld states in the filing that its debt could hinder its ability to raise additional capital. Also, its high price tag gives the company a hefty trailing PE of more than 27, exceeding Cedar Fair’s 22 and Six Flags’ 10.99 (per Yahoo! Finance data).

Having PETA attend shareholder meetings is definitely one consequence of going public that SeaWorld will not enjoy.

Leopard Seals Are Cool

Well, we knew that already. But there is no reason not to revel in it.

Not quite sure what this one is up to. But the seal’s size of pretty impressive, and that kayaker will remember his paddle with a leopard seal for a long, long time.

Breaking The Cycle Of Violence And Hate

As the Boston Marathon tragedy heads toward a bloody and violent conclusion, I find myself agreeing with this thoughtful and provocative response by Charles Eisenstein:

In the wake of terror attacks, politicians are fond of proclaiming, “We will not be intimidated.” By this they seem to mean that we won’t cower in fear, but will boldly root out the terrorists, visit upon them the hand of justice, and hold them to account. “Make no mistake,” about that, they say. We will be tough, and by tough they mean heightening security at home, intensifying counter-terrorism measures abroad, and punishing the perpetrators and all who give them aid and comfort.

Tough and strong though they seem, all of these responses are based on fear. They are the actions of people who are afraid of terrorism. Looking at them, one might say that the terrorists have succeeded after all. Even if their ostensible political cause is crushed, their terror has succeeded in increasing the level of fear in the world.

From fear comes hate, and from hate comes violence. Acting from that fear, we sow the seeds of future terrorism in the world, thereby confirming the image of our terror. It is as Martin Luther King said (quoted in a marvelously brave and insightful piece by Falguni Sheth in Salon, Where does the hate come from? ): “Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody.”

He neglects to explicitly say that the past decade of terror has inspired us to torture, to hack away at the Constitution and Bill Of Rights, and to kill many more innocent civilians than we ourselves have lost to terror. But the basic point is right: we are locked into a mindless and perpetual cycle of action and reaction that is morally dubious, seemingly endless, and a spectacular, stupendous, waste of resources. How many millions more lives could we save, educate and enrich if we devoted our energies and resources away from weapons and strategies of destruction and conflict, and toward strategies of compassion and

I know that sounds incredibly naive. But to that criticism I have one response: how is the alternative working out for us?

Here’s more from Eisenstein:

To build a society of safety and trust rather than security and fear, we are going to have to act from the former rather than the latter. I therefore offer a few modest proposals for how to respond to the Boston bombing. First, let us reverse the cycle of terror by responding, not with heightened security, but with relaxed security, demonstrating that we will not be frightened into retreating behind cameras, fences, and metal detectors. We will bravely uphold an open society.

Secondly, let us reverse the cycle of hatred abroad by ceasing all preemptive and punitive drone strikes and other attacks. Those are the actions of a frightened people. It takes courage to trust that if one holds back from violence, whomever one has seen as an enemy will do the same. But in a situation of mutual distrust, someone has to take the first step. Otherwise, each act merely confirms the distrust of the other, and the violence never ends.

Thirdly, instead of vowing to take vengeance on the perpetrator of the Boston attack, let us proclaim that rather than punish him, he will have the opportunity to face the families of the people he killed and the people whose limbs he destroyed. He will hear their stories and share his own. Then together, the victims, perpetrators and communittee will agree on how best to heal the damage done and serve justice. While remorse and forgiveness may not result, it is more likely to than in punitive justice. (For more on this approach to justice, explore the Restorative Justice website or read this article.)

This response will reduce the amount of hate and fear in the world The perpetrator will not become a martyr in the eyes of his sympathizers. Any response that heightens the already-endemic fear in our society will be a victory for fear. To truly resist terrorism, we must not act from terror. Can we receive the hate of this act and transform it into love?

Eisenstein goes on to rebut all the objections he anticipates to these ideas, and they are worth reading. But here is his conclusion:

[M]aybe it is time to act from a different paradigm of human nature: a belief in our fundamental goodness, our common humanity, our desire to connect, to love, to help, and to serve. Certainly the immediate responses to the tragedy in Boston offer ample evidence for such a belief: people generously coming to the aid of total strangers. It was as if the explosions tore apart the veil of mutual suspicion that keeps us separate and allowed a latent aspect of human nature its full expression. What if we take those acts of selflessness as the true lesson of Boston? Could we create a world in their image? If MLK was right, surely it is also true that peace begets peace, forgiveness begets forgiveness, and love begets love. No less a revolution will create a society where we feel safe and at home amongst each other.

A very brave and provocative response to terror. No matter your personal response, it is well worth pondering, because moving humanity off the destructive and failing path it is on requires a very different way of thinking about our world and how we act.

Overexploitation Watch: Antarctic Krill

Sea Shepherd has a pretty depressing report on the factory ships they have seen plying Antarctic waters and scooping up krill:

The area where we found the krill fishing vessels was incredibly close to the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands that are dotted with penguin rookeries and fur seal haul-outs. This gives a full overlap between the fishery and the foraging ranges of land-based predators like the penguins (Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie and Macaroni), which cannot move to other locations. Even if there is still plenty of Krill around, both predators and fishing vessels will concentrate on the highest densities and therefore directly compete. The surrounding waters are cruised by seven species of Baleen whales. The ice floes in these waters function as resting places for Crabeater and Leopard seals. All these animals depend directly or indirectly on Krill as their food source. The true seals have flourished and the fur seals were able to bounce back from near-extinction when the Antarctic waters were emptied of the Krill-gorging baleen whales during the whaling era (early 1900s until the 1980s). The competition eliminated, more food became available for them, but a decline in Krill will eventually hit all animals in the Antarctic, even flying birds and fish, and will prevent the great whales from returning to pre-exploitation numbers.

Krill is called the single largest under-utilized commercial marine resource remaining, because the global quota set is not yet reached, but expansion of the fishery seems inevitable. The fishery was kept in check by the distance and inhospitality of Antarctica’s waters, the fact that Krill are highly perishable once killed and that consumer interest was limited. Aquaculture feed demand is on the rise however, rapid on-board processing techniques have dealt with the quick spoiling and new products are being developed. The Krill fishery is the continuation of a trend in the history of fishing. We fish further and further away from home and we fish further and further down the food chain. You can’t get much further away as Antarctica and you can’t get much further down the food web than Krill. We are reaching the end.

Worth thinking about the next time someone tells you that fish farming is sustainable. Everywhere you look, new species, and new resources, are being exploited for commercial purposes. Each one is unique, and each one has its own special role in the ecosystem, and it seems impossible to keep up with, and blunt or even slow the insatiable grind of industry and its quest for new profits.

How is it that we have created an international system of politics and economics that completely fails to value and protect these resources?

 

The only way, really, to address these endless and destructive forays into nature’s delicate balance, the only way to imagine that all these extraordinary natural resources can be defended, is to change the culture that lies behind them.  That is the only global solution, but it will take a revolution in thinking and values.