Mammals: Cows (Cattle)

by Dick Mac

Cows (more generally known as cattle) are the most well-known ungulates, they are bovines. They are domesticated and raised as livestock (meat), dairy cows, and draft animals. Their skins are used for leather goods and their shit is used as fertilizer.

In India they are sacred, and in the rest of the world they are a multi-billion dollar industry,

Some people think they are cute, I find them scary-looking.

There are many, many different types of cattle, and Wikipedia has an excellent List of cattle breeds. Yes, some are cuter than others, and some are scarier than others.

My relationship to cattle is pretty much the same as all other non-Indian humans. I think of them as a product. It's rare to see them in a zoo (but not impossible). They are not mysterious or cuddly, they are thought of, sadly, as a product.

I am lactose-intolerant. I suffer when I enjoy cheese or ice cream. I haven't had a glass of milk since 1973, because it just makes me sick. Not sick in the figurative ("that makes me sick") sense, but physically sick with stomach cramps, a runny nose, etc. I accept the lesser discomfort I experience from cheese, because I just love cheese - especially stinky cheese.

I am an omnivore, and I am neither allergic nor physically intolerant to the meat of cattle the way I am to their milk. I love a steak, I love a burger, I love a good beef stew. Not intending to totally gross-out my vegan and vegetarian friends, I admit that I quite like liver, sweetbreads, and other forms of offal.

I am vegan during my Lenten fast. That is, for all of Lent I eat no animal products. None. No butter or cheese, certainly no meat or fish. It's a challenge, but it's a challenge I embrace and rather enjoy. In fact, for some weeks after Easter, I find myself continuing to avoid animal products. Eventually, though, I am back in the throes of animal-consumption and forget all about the healthy alternative of a vegan lifestyle.

As a meat-eater, and like most meat-eaters, I am loathe to consider the process used to deliver that yummy burger to my plate.

Like all products, however, cattle are processed. We often see movies of dairy farms: shiny, clean barns with rows and rows of cows attached to tubes that extract their milk. These are basically corporate propaganda films; they do not show the bruising and abuse of the cows' teats, or the remarkable amount of antibiotics pumped into the animals. What is shown is a rather sterile, almost lovely, image of modern efficiency.

It's rare that we see movies of slaughterhouses. Just the thought is unpleasant, and even the most gullible person can't be convinced to see the process as modern, clean, efficient, and downright attractive.

So, I have decided to provide you with the opportunity to see how that burger gets to my plate.

Enjoy!

Mammals: Whales

by Dick Mac

In 1971, protesters around the world started demonstrating for the protection of whales and other sea mammals. The cry was heard by millions and most Westerners embraced the idea.

Like so many movements of the mid-20th Century, this movement was inspired by song.

In 1970, "Songs of the Humpback Whale" was released. The LP was a collection of recordings made by Roger Payne, Frank Watlington and other contributors. It sold well. We had the record in our collection at home.

The sounds of whales communicating with each other in our living rooms, and the flood of information that was spread through the media about the whales turned pretty much everyone into whale-lovers.

Eventually, a worldwide moratorium on whaling was enacted by the International Whaling Commission. The IWC had been formed in 1946 to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry" and is largely controlled by nations that oppose commercial whaling.

This is changing now, and the world's largest whaling nation, Japan, has spent billions of yen purchasing the support of developing and undeveloped nations to reverse the ban, or at least gut it beyond recognition (sort of like what they do to whales).

Nations are allowed to apply to the IWC for permission to harvest a certain number of whales each year, ostensibly for research. Japan was allotted just over a thousand whales during the last whale-hunting season.

Japan sends a whale-processing factory boat, three smaller whaling boats and a security boat to Antarctica to harvest their allotment.

The anti-whaling movement, however, is stronger than it's ever been and substantial funding has been provided to various non-government agencies over the past few decades. One of these agencies is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Among many other works, Sea Shepherd funds a fleet of boats that operate out of the South Pacific and make every effort to disrupt Japanese whaling in the waters around Antarctica. This work is the basis for the television series Whale Wars on Animal Planet.

Sea Shepherd's methods get more aggressive, their tactics more sophisticated, and their exploits more daring each year. During the last whaling season, the Sea Shepherds' interdiction kept Japan's harvest down to 528 animals, about half of that to which they were entitled.

It is hoped that this harassment will make whaling unprofitable, and the Japanese will turn away from the slaughter.

As I mentioned in yesterday's article about dolphins, I fear that Japan now sees whaling as a matter of honor and will stop at nothing to enlarge their testicular domination over Western ideas about protecting marine mammals. They know the slaughter of whales and dolphins is unsustainable and unprofitable, but they continue to do it as a matter of pride; which is sad, really.

Photo by Rolf Hicker

Mammals: Dolphins

by Dick Mac

I watched The Cove last night.

I have been a bit shell-shocked since.

I know the Japanese resent the Western domination they've suffered since the end of WWII. It seems to me, and is suggested in the movie, that their insistence on continuing to hunt marine mammals is not rooted in their need for a food supply, but a need to snub Western ideas and ideals about the need to protect those animals.

The mercury levels in our oceans are particularly bad for dolphins, who seem to absorb and manage higher levels of mercury more quickly than fish. One scientist/activist in the film referred to them as living toxic waste dumps.

Dolphin meat is dangerous to eat. It is not tasty and it contains upwards of 2000 ppm of mercury. Generally, food from the sea is allowed to be sold only when the mercury level is 4 ppm or lower.

Many Japanese believe that nobody in Japan eats dolphin. The government perpetuates this myth by allowing dolphin meat to be sold as whale meat, and most consumers do not know they are getting dolphin.

There is no natural market for dolphin meat, so I can only conclude that this is a matter of "honor" and "tradition" that Japanese officials cling to the way Americans cling to flags, guns, and bibles.

In fact, the dolphin meat industry is completely fabricated and propped-up by the Japanese government. In order to continue propping-up the dolphin-slaughter industry, the Japanese government is considering a law that requires Japanese schools to serve dolphin in school meals. School meals are mandatory in Japan; children are required to eat all of the food they are served. Serving them toxic dolphin meat will likely have the short-term effect of benefiting some politically well-connected "fishermen"; but could have devastating long-term affects on the health of Japanese children.

The International Whaling Commission is completely ineffective, as it is a governing body that does next to nothing. In fact, Japan has successfully collected enough votes with bribes to begin reversing some of the hunting bans that have been most effective over the past few decades. How? They give money to the politicians of small, developing nations to build fisheries. These countries really need the money, and since the United States can only prop up a certain number of industries, we are in no position to try and outbid the Japanese in this market.

Dolphins are mammals. They have a remarkable sense of self-awareness, they may even have ego for all we know. They belong to the same branch of living things as humans, yet we treat them like fish.

We waste billions trying to contact beings in space who may not be there and we slaughter beings in the ocean that we KNOW communicate effectively, live in familial units, breathe air, give birth to live young, breast feed, and grow hair.

The slaughter of dolphins at The Cove in Japan is wrong. I am willing to discuss dolphins as a viable food source for people; but what is happening in Japan is veiled in secrecy and is endangering not only dolphins, but the citizens of that nation.

Watch The Cove on Animal Plant.