#urgh i hate when i write up a long response just to find ive been blocked for no reason other that carnists dont like uncomfortable truths

[severelynerdysheep]

So for some reason, @whitecopal blocked me from responding to them... I wonder why... but since its really important not to let misinformation get spread I thought id post my reply to them anyway!

Actually, some of the most horrific footage from farm investigations are from small farms that use labels such as “organic” and “free range”.  And of course as I've repeated this multiple times, but you seem to be skipping over it, but some of the cruelest practices are industry standard across all farms, these are practices inflicted onto these animals regardless of the farm size/location, and its many of these industry standard practices that are shown in investigative footage. And, of course, they end up at the same slaughterhouses, where their lives are brutally taken from them for the personal pleasure of people such as yourself. Since you seemingly can't address the actual practices I've mentioned or the uncomfortable truth that breeding animals to exploit, abuse and slaughter needlessly is unethical, no matter how you try to twist yourself into knots to defend it. Such as using a random article from a pro-animal testing website about PETA and its campaign against cruelty at the University of Wisconsin (which has zero relation to animal agriculture investigations). If you took a minute instead of immediately seeing a post that confirmed your own biases then you would maybe have learned that this specific university even admitted that "Many of the individual facts are true," following the PETA campaign to expose and end sound-localization experiments on cats at the University. I would recommend checking out the facts before you use brutal experiments on cats to somehow defend animal exploitation and slaughter, an attempt that is indeed an act on mental gymnastics. Luckily the university has stopped these cruel experiments after mounting pressure and even a large fine for violating the Animal Welfare Act. try harder sweetie..and maybe don't be so quick to play gotcha.

The term carnist simply refers to carnism, the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals. really I don't know why you all get worked up over a descriptive term, you get more worked up over a term than of actual animals being brutally exploited and slaughtered for your own personal pleasure.

I've spoken about honey and the wool industry loads of times but yes both are cruel.

In regards to honey, standard practices in commercial beekeeping for honey, regardless of locality of the honey farm, include killing off entire hives before winter to reduce costs, artificial insemination, a process where which male bees are crushed and drained of their semen, which is then forcefully inserted into a queen bee, ripping the wings of queen bees to prevent them from flying away and taking all or most of the honey bees produce, and replacing it with a sugar syrup substitute which is thought to contribute to the development of disease in honeybees because it does not provide the proper nutrition and may produce a toxin under heat that kills the honeybees. both wild and domestic honey bees are harmed by this industry. A fab article by @acti-veg​ here.

In regards to wool, the wool of domesticated sheep (such as the merino) only needs sheering due to intensive genetic engineering through selective breeding practices in order to maximize wool production for the sake of profit. This genetic engineering means that domestic sheep suffer from all kinds of health problems. As a result, simply continuing to breed them to exploit and slaughter is inhumane and an act of cruelty in itself since these animals suffer immensely in these bodies. When it comes to the shearing process itself, sheep so very often suffer injury and distress due to the incredibly rough treatment by shearers, as they are pinned down and aggressively sheared, often being cut, sliced, and torn during the process (research also shows that even without the common brutal treatment, sheering causes distress to sheep and raises stress levels. This is an issue on a mass scale. The wool is also often harvested far too early in the season for profit reasons, which leaves the sheep bared and exposed to the elements (and many sheep die every year after being sheered too early into spring for profit reasons) and these shearers are usually paid by volume of wool sheered instead of by the hour which only encourages such awful treatment of these animals. We have so many investigations and testimonials from workers and eyewitnesses to this cruelty that is inflicted upon sheep during sheering. These sheep are also almost always slaughtered at a fraction of their lifespan when they are no longer profitable enough to farmers. They are loaded into extremely cramped lorry’s, traveling long journeys (often overseas where many perish on route to) to slaughterhouses (in countries with even worse “welfare” regulations) to be brutally slaughtered for their flesh.  I would absolutely recommend checking out this article, also by the great @acti-veg and Bitesizevgegan and also a great short video on the topic here.

For anyone reading who wants to learn more about the standard practices within the animal agriculture industry across farms ALL sizes, I would absolutely recommend checking out the links below.

~ Land of hope and glory documentary (set in the UK and using footage from rspca assured and small farms including many industry standard practices)

~ Dominion documentary (set in AUZ and also uses footage of industry standard practices)

~ Viva, a fab UK charity which has loads of info!

~ More info on all the areas of animal exploitation

~ Testimonies from former “humane” small farmers