While Gowdy has a point that many animals are treated inhumanely in the food industry – a practice that needs to end – I would suggest to her that she, and (as she puts it) people who “live in their imagination”, should try to imagine what would become of domesticated animals (including those farmed humanely) if everyone rejected milk, eggs, meat, and all animal-derived products.

The answer is that they would most likely go extinct. We’ve altered them for thousands of years, and they are now virtually symbiotic with us (try leaving a dairy cow for a day without milking her, for example, and see how distressed she is). No-one is going to look after millions of fowl, and cattle, and pigs if they are not being kept for food, and the habitat that has been replaced by cities, farms, and suburbs, is not going to be turned back into natural habitat in any case.

Animals in nature usually die horribly, from starvation, predation, accident, or disease. Humane farming, by contrast, is rather more pleasant than what many animals in nature experience. She should know that there are lots of farmers who will run into a burning barn, not because they want to save their investment (which is usually insured), but because they care for and want to save animals – animals that are being raised for food.

Instead of preaching, rather naively, about the evils of eating meat, Gowdy might use her imagination to consider what the alternative means for domesticated species, and strive instead for humane forms of farming that respect animals, giving them decent lives and painless deaths.

Paul, I can well imagine a world with animal-derived products because, to the degree that it’s possible, I live such a life. The individualm tortured animal doesn’t care about the fate of its species, it just wants–as you or I would want–to Stop Being Tortured! If you listen to the piece, you would hear that, mostly, I rant against factory-farmed meat, which is a despicable, unspeakable practice, for which I believe future generations will condemn us. Watch the factory-farming footage. It’s ubiquitous. You’ll find some on my FB page. And for the record, I’d rather not be born than to be raised to be your hamburger.

I made a typing few errors responding to Paul. Obviously, I meant “…a world WITHOUT animal-derived products…..” And the “m” following “individual” should be a comma. I write in passion. For the record, 99% of the meat eaten in the Western world is made on factory farms. Watch how they castrate pigs on my FB pages. A guys just yanks the piglet’s
genitals out…no painkillers, nothing. Then he hacks off it’s tail. Then his throws into a bin with other horrified, pain-writhing pigs Nice. Defend this if you want. I can’t.

It is counter productive to debate which type of death is less horrible. Our appetite for meat has spawned the cruel factory farming industry. I doubt these farmers would dash into the burning barn because there would be so many animals packed in together that saving them would be completely unrealistic. Hundreds of pigs, thousands of chickens. Get the picture?

What’s needed is fundamental reform. Paul, have a look at Michael Pollan’s books.

Paul, farmers torch their barns to get the insurance money constantly. They aren’t running into barns, they are setting them on fire. Sows trying in vain to escape their gestation crates are incinerated alive. You should do some research on that including the fact that there are no fire codes for barns. How many farms do you think practice “humane farming?” Very few. 98% of eggs come from battery hen operations, and very little meat is “naturally raised”. Note that an organic free range chicken is jammed into a warehouse with barely any room and slaughtered at 5 weeks of age.. this is your idea of humane farming is it?
“Naturally raised” meat is a tiny fraction of what is out there.
These domestic animals don’t need to be here suffering by the billions Paul.. keeping them alive in misery to keep them from being extinct is absurd.