Soooo...is PETA and Meat.org's long term plan for cows/chickens extinction?

Question

This is a follow up to

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkchsZKJaWdnmq6VR.S6Ca_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080618183527AAjz35t

This has really been a fascinating fact-finding mission for me. So ultimately, cows and chickens whose milk/egg production slow are sent to slaughter because it just costs too much to let them live out their natural lifespan in a "retirement barnyard" type setting.

Let's say everyone in the world suddenly agrees with PETA. We all renounce the consumption of all animal products. So what happens to cows and chickens a species. Do they become wild animals? Extinct?

I just wonder what these organizations see as the "ultimate" goal.

Answer 1

Don't think.  It interferes with the great "feelings" of liberalism.

Answer 2

Farm animals exist in such large numbers only because we breed them for slaughter, often through artificial insemination. As more and more people become vegetarian, fewer farm animals will be bred and their population will be reduced.

I don't think that cows and chickens would become extinct. We'd just have a dramatically smaller number of these animals. Maybe people in rural areas would breed them for pets instead of for food.

In any case, extinction would be preferable to the situation we have now. Considering how the vast majority of farm animals are currently raised in modern industrialized agriculture, these animals would have been far better off never having been born.

If you disagree, imagine that we hypothetically live in a cannibalistic society that breeds and raises a race of humans for food. Would you condemn this practice, even though without it, these humans never would have existed in the first place?

Answer 3

Cheryl, Great point. These organizations would then expect everyone to put up a fence and keep cows and chickens alive. 3 cows and 5 chickens per household. Once the cost is realized, you would just have them spayed and nutered anyway. A .25 shotgun shell is a lot cheaper than putting up with them. I dont understand their gripe about every little thing that goes on with every animal. I have never got why they value critter lives more than that of humans.

Answer 4

Those organizations are really just Anti-Human in their basic philosophy.  They identify eating animals or any of their by-products to be cruel.

But eating vegetables, plants and fruits can also be defined as cruel...because they are living and breathing.

It all comes down to how far from us as humans is it acceptable to consume an inferior living being.

Aside from that, are the living beings being treated as respectfully as we can?

Are we being wasteful?  In otherwords, are we using as much of the living being as possible?

You mentioned on another post, that you gained weight when you were a Vegan.  The Vegans/Vegetarians that I know are all over-weight.

For most people, a vegeterian diet is not healthy.  I think Alicia Silverstone is the only person I know who has actually stated that she is healthier as a Vegeterian.

My girlfriend feels guilty when she eats meat.  She tried becoming a Vegetarian and can't process the fibers.  So now, she confines herself to specific meats.

As far as cows and chickens as a species, they'll get along fine in their natural state.

Answer 5

Hopefully that would cause humans to stop breeding like cockroaches and save wildlife and the planet in the long term!!!! Go PETA!!!

Answer 6

I don't think any of us know what the long term goal is or if there even is one.  

I have heard accounts of Ingrid Newkirk saying the goal was, "total animal liberation,"  but even the extent to what this means isn't really known.

I believe if we stopped producing animals for food and clothing, most would die-off, yes.   But that's not such a bad thing.  After all, cows are the most devastating environmental factor on the American landscape.  They are not native to North America and they have a horrible effect on agriculture.  90% of public land is grazed by cattle with only 10% reserved for native, wild species.  This means many moose, deer, buffalo, pronghorn sheep, etc. are dying because of their lack of grazing ground.

Cows, in their present state, are so far from the original species because of breeding (for profit and meat/dairy output) that they are nowhere near natural.

I actually favor the extinction of cows and chickens because they are only having a negative impact on water/air/land ecosystems.  Also, it would be better for a species to be in peace rather than to subject them to the cruelest forms of animal husbandry.

Answer 7

PETA, yes. What they can't have because of a ridiculous belief, they don't want anybody else to have to. I don't understand why someone would lie for PETA but it was obvious that Ingrid Newkirk advocated total extemination for at least some species of animals. That very same feeling in fact is being expressed by a paid PETA promoters here on YA. Complete with false and outright lies about the statistics of land use.

As for the meat industry, probably not. That would be like killing the goose that lays the golden egg.