Funny CW moments page 454

[billp]

Levels of intelligence and ethics. A horse is too smart to be put through the process of being raised for food. Eating one after it's died naturally is fine though.
It's the same reason a decent person wouldn't raise dogs for slaughter.

Oh please. They are just another grass muncher, eating what we can't so we can eat them. You'll be going on about dolphins next. Even if intelligence was a criteria for eating or not, which it isn't, a horse is not more intelligent than a cow or a pig. They raise dogs for meat in Laos. It's fine.

I would never eat a fallen horse. If it broke its leg and had to be shot, maybe, but not if it got sick. That's dog meat.

[Corvidae]

My answer is usually that I eat fruit seasonally, in the amounts that would be available if there were no bananaplanes.

Are those like bananaphones?

Thanks for pointing out something so missed in our society - having an animal that doesn't work for its keep is a LUXURY. I'm so tired of neighbors griping that my cat is outdoors staring at their precious birdfeeder groupies, and "OH how dangerous it is for a cat to be outside!!" Maybe they should take a close look at how the mouse problem around here has disappeared! Some of them are actually appalled at the thought that a cat might kill and eat something. Raw. Not kidding, they were appalled.

I am a cat person. I love cats, have grown up with them, and our longest running family cat was an indoor/outdoor cat. But as a biolgist, I have to say that outdoor and/or feral cats CAN have pretty bad impacts on local ecologies, decimating native birds, rodents, and small animals. Yes they are predators, i have no problem with that; in fact, their entire "Job" in human society has always been to hunt such pests from around human dwellings. As such, we have selectively bred the ones with the best hunting drive for thousands of years, leading us with little pet predators who have a much higher drive to hunt than simple hunger would allow. Compound this with people not spay/neutering their cats so they set up wild populations that wander much farther away from human areas (where their talents are actually needed) and thats where the problem begins.

[billp]

Horse meat is not treated with the care that beef is. People worm and vaccinate their horses much more than cattle people, rendering horse meat not safe to eat.

Does that make them less safe to eat? I ate loads of horse in Switz, all of it imported from the US.

[MamaGrok]

But as a biolgist, I have to say that outdoor and/or feral cats CAN have pretty bad impacts on local ecologies, decimating native birds, rodents, and small animals. Yes they are predators, i have no problem with that; in fact, their entire "Job" in human society has always been to hunt such pests from around human dwellings. As such, we have selectively bred the ones with the best hunting drive for thousands of years, leading us with little pet predators who have a much higher drive to hunt than simple hunger would allow. Compound this with people not spay/neutering their cats so they set up wild populations that wander much farther away from human areas (where their talents are actually needed) and thats where the problem begins.

Yeah, that's not the problem. I live in suburbia in an area where there are zero feral cats or dogs, and zero that aren't spayed or neutered, while there is an overabundance of 100% unneutered squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and yes, because we're near a very narrow, but long, national park, even occasional rattlesnakes, coyotes, & foxes. Oh, and owls, falcons, and hawks that occasionally swoop down and swipe toy dogs out of their strollers - not kidding.

So my cat is helping, not hurting. Their complaint is not an ecological one; it's that it's "gross" to see a cat stare hungrily at a cardinal, and unimaginably disgusting to imagine it eating a raw chipmunk.

[Corvidae]

Their complaint is not an ecological one; it's that it's "gross" to see a cat stare hungrily at a cardinal, and unimaginably disgusting to imagine it eating a raw chipmunk.

Ahhh, yeaaah. Thats the sort of mindset that leads to people feeding their carnivore pets (literally, cats and dogs are in the Order Carnivora!!) vegan diets. I saw a sign on a store recently advertising that they now had vegan dogfood. i wanted to punch through the glass.

My boyfriends cat caught a bird last year. My boyfriend was napping on the couch and woke up to the sound of terrible bird-screams. The cat dragged it shrieking through the house, shedding feathers everywhere, my boyfriend chasing after him. The bird stopped shrieking within a few minutes, dying likely from terror as much as anything else. The cat, of course, was pleased as pie.

My boyfriend was pretty shaken up, and I was kind of sad when I heard the story cause the bird was a towhee (I like towhees), but we still give mad props to the cat because he is an INDOOR ONLY CAT and was able to catch a bird from INSIDE THE HOUSE.

....Crap this is devolving into pet talk again isnt it?

[magnolia1973]

A horse is too smart to be put through the process of being raised for food.

? Healthy horses get slaughtered all the time in the US (well, not in the US, but in Canada or Mexico). It's where a lot of slow racehorses go... among other breeds. But you could raise a horse like a cow- start in a pasture, end on a feedlot and they aren't going to resist that somehow.

A lot of breeders overproduce horses in hopes of getting a valuable performance animal but knowing that any that don't cut it can be cut off the feed tab by going to auction, and likely slaughter.

[Owly]

? Healthy horses get slaughtered all the time in the US (well, not in the US, but in Canada or Mexico). It's where a lot of slow racehorses go... among other breeds. But you could raise a horse like a cow- start in a pasture, end on a feedlot and they aren't going to resist that somehow.

A lot of breeders overproduce horses in hopes of getting a valuable performance animal but knowing that any that don't cut it can be cut off the feed tab by going to auction, and likely slaughter.

Also, horses are not actually all that smart. They're very trainable and work well with humans, but that's not the same thing.

[justyouraveragecavemen]

Are those like bananaphones?

Yes, which are descendant of the Coconut Telegraph. See, being a former Parrothead does come in handy.

[Milty]

Jillian's Health plan for Leslie

I like the part where she says "I do not want you eating processed foods" and then it cuts to a shot of some cupcakes that are on her meal plan.

Health Action Plan to Promote Weight Loss Video

[Alex Good]

I thought you meant that they cut to a picture of a cupcake for an example of processd foods, not an example of the frigging meal plan!