Animal Rights: Part 1 Meat

I have to admit straight up that I am a meat eater. I love meat as well as other assorted animal products. So perhaps this trail of thought is biased but I will try as hard as possible to justify all schools of thoughts. Today I want to share some of my thoughts to you about my views on animal cruelty and particularly the meat industry. I will try to stray away from moral conundrums such as is a chicken better of lobotomized  and being breed from a tree or is it better off the way it is now as these are purely dependant on individual views.

There seems to be an increasing trend of vegetarians and vegans around. This is perhaps because the lifestyle now is much more affordable so more people choose to adopt it. Vegetarians/vegans mostly live this lifestyle due to them not wanting to eat animals because they are either treated horribly or just because they are dead animals. I will talk about the treatment side here. I don’t like it as much as you. The horrible graphic images, the poor treatment of animals in battery farms, the antibiotic full chickens(for those of you not aware, there are a lot of videos online showing the stuff that are going on at a butcheries etc), all make me feel horrible. On the other hand though, I am maintaining a realistic attitude. I tend to shop free-range meat and if possible organic meat (although most of the time free-range may be all that I can afford. I am a student after all!) but I feel that meat production will decrease significantly if all the battery farms were to switch to free range or organic.  Let me give you an example to understand where I am getting at.

This is a made up example though so keep that in mind.  John is a livestock owner. He has 3 acres of land. In those 3 acres he can fit 300 chickens in a battery building. Of those 300 chickens he sells 250(some will die off, diseased, not enough meat etc) for about 2 dollars a chicken. That means that John gets 500 dollars. John has to then pay for food, medicine, maintenance, new chickens etc which cost about 100 dollars. So in total John’s profit is 400 dollars and so he keeps the business going. John however is then forced to convert to free range farm. So in his 3 acres he can now hold only 100 chickens.  John then sells 84 chickens (assuming the same amount of mortality, which may be less as chickens won’t be so crammed and disease won’t spread that easily or chickens won’t heat themselves to death etc., but I assume it is the same mortality just to make a point) Originally he could sell the chickens for 2 dollars each. If he does so then he will get 168 dollars if his costs are the same then that means he will only gain 68 dollars out of the chickens. So John will be forced to raise his price to 5 dollars in order to make the previous profit as before. Hence meat is more expensive; Bear with me, some more assumptions to go. Now, free range or organic meat is more expensive anyway so what’s the deal? The deal is that despite it being more expensive, meat will also be scarcer. Even if John is satisfied with a 68 dollar profit, or even if his profit was highest because there would be less mortality and less maintenance, John would only be able to provide the market with 100 chickens at best. That is 150 chickens less than he could before. That means that 150 people will go to the supermarket and not be able to buy chicken. And as always the rarer the item the more the price increases. John will increase the price in an attempt to make more money so chicken will be expensive and rare.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have free range/organic farms around. But with an ever-growing population and with most of it being raised with meat as a stable part of their diet, a conversion to all free range/organic  will lead to less meat being consumed and people freaking out because of that.  I won’t leave it here though I promise.  This is a very controversial subject one on which, in my opinion, both sides have valid points so I will attempt to delve into it more in later posts.

Perception and Conservation

It is not an unknown matter that beautiful animals get more attention. Animals which are regarded as majestic, cute, beautiful  and so forth are often the center of attention. These animals are usually the ones which gain more and more support in the matter of conservation,. And I am here to ask whether there is something that can be done to change it?

Usually such a matter is not of great importance because most of the animals that are beautiful are usually the center of poaching, fur trading  or trophy hunting hence these animals are the ones that are usually in need of conservation and protection methods. Hence the more publicity, animals such as tigers, leopards and foxes  gain, the more funds and energy are focused to stop their poaching and conserve their environment.  So far so good as more of the public gain awareness in regards to these beautiful animals  then more effort and pressure is placed on governments and it's very likely that these governments will focus on conserving those species.

But  there is a major problem with this. Whilst people are focusing on tigers and pandas, smaller "uglier" animals are often pushed aside. An example of this are bats. Although some people find them beautiful, most people look back in disgust or ignorance on bats and other "ugly species". This means that groups aiming at conservation or study of these species  often find themselves underfunded and having more trouble with local authorities in regards of legislations that concern the species they are trying to conserve. 

So what can we do about it? Awareness of these species is often the best idea but also a combination of species conservation such as WWF which although receives funds for a particular animal due to its beauty but chooses to spend it where it is most needed. In addition to that linking conservation efforts to different species might encourage the general public to show an interest in animals they otherwise wouldn't because they affect animals which they care about. For example linking insects with birds will often have an effect where the general public understands that in order for the birds to flourish , insects are needed and in order for insects to flourish less pollution should take place and so forth.

There needs to be an understanding of how ecosystems work. Organizations have to let people know that their money will be spend in such a way which might benefit a species indirectly rather than directly. People need to understanding that nature works in a balance and a petition which could save the rainforest will indirectly save the jaguar. Although major organizations have made sure that money don't go directly to the animal conservation but also to habitat conservation which benefits the animal directly and indirectly, some people still seem to protest about their money going elsewhere. Hopefully with proper education people will soon find out what it means to conserve even the ugliest of species.

Looks for sale

There is a certain controversy regarding white tigers. To bring everyone up to date, white tigers have genetically obtained a double recessive gene. A double recessive gene means that even if the mother and the father are orange but have the gene, there is 25% chance that a cub will turn out to be white. This has often resulted to zoos interbreeding white tigers to get white tiger cubs. Interbreeding means that relatives will couple. This often results to mutants which are cross-eyed and deformed. These tigers are often killed or kept away from public display and only those that look right are displayed.

Public outcry to stop breeding white tigers has forced a lot of zoos to stop white tiger inbreeding. However this practice still occurs on some zoos under the excuse that white tigers help gain awareness and help their orange coloured counterparts which are still in the wild. I agree on this particular aspect. White tigers tend to attract more attention as they are more exotic. With the correct and proper information, zoo audiences can find themselves carrying more for some animals they rarely get to see in the wild. Let's face it, even with the best circumstances it is hard to find tigers in the wild. Not to mention the travel expenses that for some of us are too steep.

Personally I believe that tigers and white tigers are both equally beautiful. My main argument however is that white tigers are not viable animals. Some genetic mutations have a reason that do not survive in the wild and white tigers are no different. A white tiger cannot camouflage itself in the wild and thus will have a much harder time surviving. By breeding an animal that most of the times will not be found in the wild you are cause a flow of misinformation to people not so educated about wild animals. Although white tigers will boost a zoos attendance and reputation they are no more than a marketing ploy most of the times. Claiming that the white tigers help boost tiger awareness is in my opinion is the wrong way to go about it. Should a white tiger cub occur at your zoo through no planned means apart from two none related tigers carrying the gene which is okay with me.

Can we do anything about it? I believe so. Proper zoo education should tell the audience that these tigers do not appear in the wild unless under rare circumstances. Encouraging zoos to display their regular tigers instead of their white counterparts and raising tiger awareness. One of the main problems that I find in some zoos is the fact that they market the white tiger as a rare subspecies instead of a genetic variation of the regular tiger which hampers conservation efforts for the actual tigers in the wild. Education will encourage people to love tigers for what they look like and not just the white ones.

In my own opinion is up to the public to make a statement for zoos to stop breeding white tigers. Boycotting zoos however is not exactly the right answer as zoos will suffer and will lead to further problems. One proper approach in my opinion is to let the zoo know that you do not agree with the inbreeding for white tigers, donate to wild tigers and sanctuaries that do not support white tiger inbreeding. Educate people and let them know about the situation.

In conclusion white tigers although they have their uses through education and public attraction they are unnecessary as people are already interested in regular tigers. The being said white tigers would attract more attention if they are actually bred naturally in zoos and occur more rarely. Support the sanctuaries that provide help and aid to inbreed tigers and educate and spread proper awareness.

Greetings!

Greetings there wildlife lovers. I would like to welcome you to my blog. I will be writing a variety of thoughts and discussions and wildlife as well as important news. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.