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There is no "system"; just the workings of nature, Nature is cruel, and only man (the highest species) has the capacity to mitigate it -- for his own, including those creatures he domesticates. If the vegans want to peddle their guilt-trip, it's their privilege, but it obviously can't work.
There is no "system"; just the workings of nature, Nature is cruel, and only man (the highest species) has the capacity to mitigate it -- for his own,
Man has interfered with natures way of population control - disease and starvation. Until vaccination and the ability to transport food to famine areas the earth's population remained at a sustainable level. In the world of wild animals, every individual, with very rare exception is a perfect representation of it's species. There is no sentimentality - if you can't keep up, you're food for the next in the food chain, and then for 1,000 lower species of insects and microbes, just like humans used to be.
One study showed that without the major epidemics (Black Death, Spanish Flu, Aids, etc) the earth's population would be double what it is now. Add to that major famine. Here's a partial list of famines that have historically hit China and the massive population reductions they caused https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China
Human sentimentality over death has resulted in the very weakest of the species being sustained to breed and to weaken the gene pool. Although it's a topic for another thread I read an interesting piece by an anthropologist who theorizes that with the trend of low birth rates among those of higher intelligence, in a thousand years humans could devolve to the point of not being able to tie their shoelaces.
You do know that cows are sacred in India, you can go to prison for running one over. I read an article in The Economist one time that they actually have old age homes for aging cows in India. Being what we do with cows, they're the luckiest cows in the world!
I recall one time in India, driving to Poona from Mumbai, I witnessed cows that had flopped down in the lanes of the highways, and everyone detoured around them.
I'm still not convinced that some animals in the wild do not commit suicide, given their intelligence. A deer running out in front of a car on a highway? Or a dog or cat?
If you want to see thousands of cows that will be slaughtered here in the US you can used Google 'Earth'. Simply install the 'free' program and then type in "Wildorado TX". Then go to one mile east of the town and zoom in on the corals just south of I-40. Cows are collected from all over the area and held there to be taken off to be slaughtered. Sometimes the smell you encounter on I-40 is terrible.
But one can argue that India is humane and we are not. However, without our need for the meat from our livestock, many would never live. It is expensive to raise livestock and it takes a lot of labor. One could argue that our 40 million cows would never have a chance to live if we did not use them for meat or milk.
Sometimes humane is not humane simply because we do not want to be responsible for the death of 'innocent' animals. Here is a link that goes into the problems associated with horse slaughter: https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/horse-slaughter. Basically we have been shipping our sick and dying horses to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered; but they can spend a day being transported in what many would describe as inhumane ways. The most humane way to kill a horse is to do it at the location without shipping the animal that might be in pain. But what do we do with the carcass? If we make death too expensive then people will not own horses. Every solution brings its own problems.
Minnesota alone raises 44 million turkeys for our dinner tables. While one could argue that the birds do not have quality lives; they do have a life until they are slaughtered. If they were not food; they would have no value and most would never have had a chance to live.
No animals do not choose suicide. If they run into a street they did so because something was chasing them, they sensed danger, they saw food on the other side, they were sexually attracted to the smell of a possible mate on the other side of the road. They did not go there because they wanted to die. They do not even know death or pain until they feel the car crush their bones. These are not concepts that they debate and study on the internet or in our libraries.
Sometimes humane is not humane simply because we do not want to be responsible for the death of 'innocent' animals. Here is a link that goes into the problems associated with horse slaughter: https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/horse-slaughter. Basically we have been shipping our sick and dying horses to Canada or Mexico to be slaughtered; but they can spend a day being transported in what many would describe as inhumane ways. The most humane way to kill a horse is to do it at the location without shipping the animal that might be in pain. But what do we do with the carcass? If we make death too expensive then people will not own horses. Every solution brings its own problems.
The sentimentality over the death of horses has resulted in horrible suffering. In some cases old horses live out their lives in solitary squalor in back yards of people who barely maintain them (until they die anyway), or as you said, go to auction and then are shipped thousands of miles to slaughter houses out of country, where god knows what the conditions are, but you can be very sure there is no treatment of injury or probably feed.
Euthanizing a horse on location is expensive and disposal is usually done by rendering companies if the owner has no way of burial.
Most horses are heavily dosed with wormers and antibiotics throughout their lives so some argue that it isn't fit for human consumption. However, considering the service that they give to humans throughout their lives, the least we can do is find decent ways for them to finish their lives.
Human sentimentality over death has resulted in the very weakest of the species being sustained to breed and to weaken the gene pool. Although it's a topic for another thread I read an interesting piece by an anthropologist who theorizes that with the trend of low birth rates among those of higher intelligence, in a thousand years humans could devolve to the point of not being able to tie their shoelaces.
Back to the OP: there's an old adage in biology: How fast does the slowest antelope have to run?-- faster than the fastest lion...How fast does the slowest lion have to run?-- faster than the slowest antelope. "Too old" doesn't last very long in Nature.
There is no "system"; just the workings of nature, Nature is cruel, and only man (the highest species) has the capacity to mitigate it -- for his own, including those creatures he domesticates. If the vegans want to peddle their guilt-trip, it's their privilege, but it obviously can't work.
"The system" = "nature."
That sentient beings should suffer is not how I would have designed a universe.
Man has interfered with natures way of population control - disease and starvation. Until vaccination and the ability to transport food to famine areas the earth's population remained at a sustainable level. In the world of wild animals, every individual, with very rare exception is a perfect representation of it's species. There is no sentimentality - if you can't keep up, you're food for the next in the food chain, and then for 1,000 lower species of insects and microbes, just like humans used to be.
One study showed that without the major epidemics (Black Death, Spanish Flu, Aids, etc) the earth's population would be double what it is now. Add to that major famine. Here's a partial list of famines that have historically hit China and the massive population reductions they caused https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines_in_China
Human sentimentality over death has resulted in the very weakest of the species being sustained to breed and to weaken the gene pool. Although it's a topic for another thread I read an interesting piece by an anthropologist who theorizes that with the trend of low birth rates among those of higher intelligence, in a thousand years humans could devolve to the point of not being able to tie their shoelaces.
There is a silly movie about that called Idiocracy.
Death in the wild is virtually always quick. They don't linger and suffer the way many old humans do. Whatever palliatives humans design for themselves in old age, they tend to have long, drawn-out illnesses and debility. Animals in the wild actually suffer much less than we do.
Although it's a topic for another thread I read an interesting piece by an anthropologist who theorizes that with the trend of low birth rates among those of higher intelligence, in a thousand years humans could devolve to the point of not being able to tie their shoelaces.
Isn't it foretold in the Bible?
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth".
There is no dying peacefully in their sleep. Starvation is probably the main cause of death when they can no longer hunt. I've always thought it strange that I spend a lot of time in the woods but never see a dead bird or animal. Think of the billions of birds that are constantly dying, yet bird corpses are rare.
Hawks, vultures and other scavengers that eat dead animals I suppose.
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