China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears

Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by throwaway07Ju19 on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:30PM (#21187099)

As someone who accidentally killed a small bull while working on a free range ranch, I can tell you that cows are surprisingly sentient and sensitive. The dead yearling's mother-cow howl-moo'ed the rest of the day and into the late evening. Her moos of agony still haunt me.

I defy you to find 1 chicken in 1000 that is capable of suffering this at this level.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by wil421 on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:48PM (#21187574)

If it was chickens they’d be doing the killing instead of you. They don’t call it pecking order for a reason.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by mr_toad on Monday October 07, 2019 @09:40PM (#21187864)

If there were one ton chickens running around they’d probably be killing us. They’re not that far removed from their ancestors.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by yesenadam on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @01:02AM (#21188919)

There were half-ton "chickens" in Australia 5 million years ago. 10 feet tall!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromornis_stirtoni

Or the even heavier Elephant birds in Madagascar until 800 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_bird

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by GhettoMaestro on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:03PM (#21187326)

There was an article I read a while back about a guy in Europe who raises cows until they are like 20-years of age (the end of their life). When they are getting near the end of their natural lifespan, they are then slaughtered and and sold. He denied they are his "pets", but you can tell that caring for a life-form for 10-20 years definitely will cause a bond to develop.

It made me think that cows really are just big dogs. But big dogs that we have taken to eating, unfortunately.

I'm not sure I want to keep eating pork and beef. I do eat a lot of chicken these days in lieu of that anyways.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by workthrowaway on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @06:48AM (#21190790)

oh wow, well this is a very silence of the lambs like scenario. thanks for sharing. i, too, have witnessed other animals being extra aware of death in the past.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by gruez on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:19PM (#21187406)

>The meat-eating utilitarian vegetarian tries to pick meat from larger animals over smaller animals. Since you get more meat per unit of pain inflicted.

By that logic, the endgame would be an animal bred so it can't experience pain or suffering. After all, if it can't suffer, you can treat it however badly you want, right?

relevant Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri quote:

>My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot feel pain?

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by Mountain_Skies on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:29PM (#21187471)

You've created one of the characters from Douglas Adams' "Restaurant at the End of the Universe", the Ameglian Major Cow, which had been bred to actually want to be slaughtered and eaten.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by maxerickson on Monday October 07, 2019 @06:25PM (#21186653)

The definition of vegetarian stretches ever further.

I guess you could just strike that word without changing your meaning.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by delecti on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:11PM (#21186972)

We don't though. You can be perfectly healthy without ever eating meat. The only vitamins that humans "need" to eat meat to get (basically vitamin B12, and sometimes D) are only present in factory farmed animals because they're supplemented in those animals' diets. Skip a step and just take those same supplements yourself.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by hthtegr on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @12:28AM (#21188777)

My children and 5 and 3 and have (almost) never eaten meat, eggs or dairy. Tested regularily in a world class health system and they are stellar in every way.

B12 supplimentation is pretty trivial.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by arcticfox on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @12:25AM (#21188759)

What? I eat meat, but this comment makes no sense. I have a number of healthy friends that have never touched meat in their lives.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by garmaine on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @03:01AM (#21189509)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2912628/

“Need” was perhaps a strong word. But basically if one eats a strictly vegan diet during growth years without supplements, they WILL develop malnutrition related disorders and/or stunted growth. It is the recommendation of pediatricians to feed kids some meat so as to provide a natural source of essential vitamins and minerals. Kids who do not eat meat need to be screened for various malnutrition, growth, and eating disorders.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by nkoren on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:16PM (#21187007)

How long exactly is "from time to time"? 'Cause it's been 36 years for me and I haven't felt the need for meat yet...

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by Skunkleton on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:09PM (#21186956)

There are plenty of ways to express that you value vegetarianism without making false or misleading titles. Part-time vegetarian would be fine.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by mc32 on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:03PM (#21187325)

Yeah but people readily accept almond milk and rice milk, etc... and say, “language changes.” And vegetarian “sausages”.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by Skunkleton on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @01:59PM (#21195070)

Sure, but I would be pretty annoyed if someone sold me almond milk as "utilitarian milk".

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by Skunkleton on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @04:10PM (#21196626)

Oh, and also many countries do not allow almond milk to be labeled as milk in any way.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by ASalazarMX on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @02:56PM (#21206621)

Behold the "Impossible Milk"!

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by taneq on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:57PM (#21187284)

> meat-eating utilitarian vegetarian tries to pick meat from larger animals over smaller animals

That’s not what ‘vegetarian’ means.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by hthtegr on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @12:32AM (#21188792)

Good on him. It's worth promoting. And going to extremes is almost never the right answer, so enjoying meat on a special occasion with friends seems sensible.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by ethbro on Monday October 07, 2019 @07:31PM (#21187104)

Ironically, the exact inverse of carbon emissions per meat species. Chicken < Pork << Beef

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by dpau on Monday October 07, 2019 @08:02PM (#21187320)

Personally I'd prefer to order it in terms of sentience & intelligence as well, which still leaves us with chicken for dinner..

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by ethbro on Monday October 07, 2019 @09:14PM (#21187721)

My dad was a poultry pathologist. Spent some of my childhood touring chicken houses.

I feel absolutely no ethical qualms about murdering chickens from an intelligence aspect. ;)

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by egdod on Monday October 07, 2019 @10:05PM (#21187971)

It'd take a lot of crickets to make up one cow's worth of meat... but I don't think crickets experience anything like what we would call pain. So the correct answer may lie at the opposite end of the spectrum.

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Re:China’s Breeding Giant Pigs That Are as Heavy as Polar Bears by sbmthakur on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @03:24AM (#21189633)

Why not Beef > Mutton > Pork > Chicken?

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