I’ve just seen something that has left me feeling very upset and shaky

It must have been really distressing for you OP to have seen this pop up on your screen and to have it brought to your attention that animals suffer at the hands of people but it’s no more cruel than what cows pigs poultry and sheep suffer at slaughter houses daily throughout the world!
Animals lining up to be murdered can see what’s happening to the ones in front of them. Oh but they’re stunned first I hear you say, in most slaughter houses they don’t have the time to check if every animal is unconscious before slashing their throats and some of them are still alive while hung up to bleed out!
Animals at these places are at the mercy of the people who work there some of whom are cruel to beyond humanity and often torture the animals who are about to lose their lives in such an abhorrent way.
I never needed to watch any of the videos regarding the heinous activity of animal slaughter before becoming vegan but one popped up on my wall a few weeks ago that I was foolish enough to watch where workers were punching and kicking a cow on the slaughter conveyor belt and then laughing at the poor creature’s cries of distress. It was horrendous,I’ll never unhear those terrible sounds. What kind of people could do that to an already terrified sentient being.
In another scene I saw male calves taken from their mothers and physically thrown into the back of trucks ready to be transported off to slaughter again being punched and kicked because they were too slow for the liking of the inhumane pricks putting them on the truck.
Incidentally the mothers cry for their babies when they’re taken off them. It’s heartbreaking.
I don’t know about anyone else but I cannot justify eating meat when such cruelty and suffering goes on in the meat and dairy industry. ??

Interesting. People mention respecting an animal. Surely killing it is not respecting its right to live. I once drove down a road....fields either side. One side were derr the other horses. I found it strange that people here will eat the deer but not the horse. Does this mean that they respect the horse but not the deer? Confused plant eater here.....

Vegetarian and vegan food is delicious. You can ease your way in, by first trying the 'substitute' versions, e.g. Swedish meatballs, sausages, burgers. The recipes for these have come such a long way since the Linda McCartney products came on the market. You could start off by trying the vegan restaurant dishes. See if you like them. Read somewhere, but sorry, can't give a reference right now, that by going vegan, you will reduce your carbon footprint by 70%. Yes, I get those disturbing posts too, Whitewave, and it was the wee piggies that got to me first. Have a go GNs. New dawn, new adventures, new recipes.

jaylucy

"Trolling through Twitter" ?

I think the reason it popped up is because I follow the RSBP, RSPCA and dog/puppy photos and videos.

I signed up for veganuary two and a half years ago, which encourages you to give up eating meat for just a month. At the end of the month, I felt so much more energetic and I also learned a lot of new tasty recipes that don't involve meat, so I carried on. DH still eats meat, but we manage very weel. If we are doing a stir fry for example, we have two pans going. He puts chicken in his and I put 'This isn't Chicken' in mine and even he says that mine is just as tasty. I did force myself to watch a couple of videos so that I could see what really went on and it reinforced my opnion that I didn't want to go back to eating dead flesh from any animal. I don't mention it to people very often, as I find people get very defensive, but I have seen a group of 10 meat eaters round at my house devour my vegan shepherds pie!

I support PETA with a monthly donation and must admit some of their videos are horrific. Surely it is no bad thing to be made aware of the animal cruelty that is out there just so you can purchase your leather handbag, alpaca jumper or goose-feather filled coat. Admitted most of this animal cruelty is abroad: Australian sheep tail docking, donkies skinned - I’ll leave it there as it’s not nice reading. You can choose or not to look at PETA’s website but be prepared to be shocked.

I would love to go vegetarian or vegan but DH loves his meat and I don't want the hassle of making different meals all the time, plus expecting family to do the same when we visit. DD and family love their meat.
I used to eat steak and pork or lamb chops but now I don't want them. I don't like or want to eat fish either but DH loves it.
If I was on my own I'd eat vegetables, fruit and bread.
Basically I don't like someone killing animals for me to eat!

I was having a really nice morning until I read the story of the killing of dogs and the methods used. That's really upset me now.

I do eat meat but as far as possible from reliable sources where the animals are treated humanely, and respected. I have never knowingly eaten dogs, cats, or monkeys for that matter, despite living in Hong Kong for several years.

I appreciate that the public needs to be aware of blatant abuse, but is it really necessary to go go into such graphic detail?

The production of food has more of an environmental impact than the transportation . A banana from a tropical country has less environmental impact than a locally produced burger. This idea that only vegans eat imported food is ridiculous - 60% of food consumed in the U.K. is imported and not just eaten by vegans. Anyway, this has become a vegan bashing thread when it should be about animal cruelty which is why many don’t eat meat in the first place, but also many eat less because of the environmental impact of animal farming- eating less meat should be encouraged surely even if you don’t care about animal welfare.

Well NOT we’ll. Where did that redundant apostrophe come from?

I've watched it Jan135, I hope more people do. I think the worse thing is seeing so much fish in the supermarket reduced section.

It is illegal to shoot seals, but fishermen here still do it from their salmon boats.

Does anyone remember when B films were shown as well as the main feature in cinemas? As a girl I inadvertently saw Le sang des Bêtes, a French film set in a slaughterhouse. I nearly had a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t kill an animal in order to eat it - we’ll perhaps if children were starving…

Yesterday I watched Seaspiracy on Netflix. It was a real eye opener. If you think, as I did, that eating fish is harmless watch this film. Even the organisations which promote ‘ dolphin friendly’ tuna are just money making organisations who don’t protect dolphins. The fish reared on fish farms suffer too. The damage being done to the oceans and the planet is just so awful. Its all short term money making with no thought for the long term consequences. Anyone with Netflix please watch this documentary

If you are a vegan who uses grain products which are combined harvested, animals have been killed in the making of your food. Baby deer amongst a range of animals are killed by the combine harvester in a terrible way.
We are only concerned about the eating of dogs in the same way as other cultures are about the eating of pork or beef. Whilst I wouldn't want to eat a dog or a cat per se, it is the cruelty they suffer before entering the food chain that it completely objectionable.

It is upsetting when you see something that you don’t expect to see, i agree with the suggestion that you watch something you like to make your brain move on. And I don’t think its wrong not to watch such things, watching them will not change anything just as - and I am sorry for this - pushing veganism is not going to stop the slaughter of dogs in china.
This is about not wanting to see unpleasant things unexpectedly not should I give up eating meat!

@ElderlyPerson, your diet has never cost the life of an animal? Never eaten oyster mushrooms? What about the pesticides used in crop growing? Don't insects count as animals? Or the animals further up the food chain that have had their food (the insects) stolen by the plant eating humans? When I was a child you couldn't drive a few miles down the road in the summer without the windscreen of the car becoming covered in bugs. Now there's hardly any!
I totally respect anyone's decision to become vegan but the only way to truly help the planet is to eat within one's own ecosystem, eat less meat and waste nothing. We can't keep growing crops without the fertilizer supplied by the herbivores we are perfectly formed to digest as part of our diet putting back the nutrients we strip from the soil with our crop growing. Without them, we must resort to more and more chemicals. Vegetables force grown under miles and miles of plastic then shipped halfway around the world by plane are not good for the planet, not good for the ecosystem and not good for animal life generally, not just humans.

Every time we buy any item at all that bears the words Made in China we uphold this abhorrent practice - I’ve worked in China and seen the barbaric treatment of dogs and cats which makes my stomach turn - it’s not just becoming vegan because basically you’re not going to eat dogs yourself but it’s also about hitting the Chinese economy and letting China know that the rest of the world disapproves - who am I kidding - look what’s just happened in Hong Kong!!

peaseblossom there is also the transportation issue. A great many who live a vegan lifestyle are usually concerned about global warming yet a lot of their foods are flown to UK then driven for distribution. Meat can be bred, reared, slaughtered then sold all very locally.

"Trolling through Twitter" ?

Whitewavemark 2, I don't know how badly you are affected, but if you cannot get the horrible pictures out of your head it might be worth asking your GP for advice about how to get some CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). You can be taught simple strategies on how to manage unwanted pictures/thoughts/behaviours.

You can get CBT online and a GP recommended therapist should be fine.

In the future, if you ever come across anything like that again, you would be better at handling it.

I had never heard of this so-called 'festival', it sounds absolutely horrific.

I try to avoid buying anything from China but when I opened the lateral flow test kit out popped a label ‘made in China’ I couldn’t believe it. The way they treat those poor dogs and cats is deeply disturbing I find it hard to think any human being could inflict such pain and torture on defenceless animals. It makes my blood boil ?! I haven’t seen the recent video (thankfully) but did see one a few years ago. I cried for days and like the OP could not get it out of my head. It is heartbreaking I too thought this was now banned, how could any government allow this to happen? ?

I think I know the images referred to and they are nightmarish. I wouldn't care to look at them again but I am aware of the terrible cruelty involved. I despair of humankind sometimes - human beings have at times been treated to same level of refined torture. I don't know what the answer is ?

I knew it wouldn’t be long before we had a vegan post, totally agree with Corisanda and MerylStreep posts, truly sad to have seen the posts on Twitter regarding yulin festival totally heartbreaking! And jaxjackys post, I’m glad you pointed that out elderlyperson that we are free to make our choices and our family do thank you, we are all meat eaters, and all of us have inner peace too

I don’t consider myself smug . I am a vegan as I hate animal cruelty so try to do the least harm possible. I know being in the 21st century anything I consume will have an environmental impact so I would try to minimise that impact that doesn’t mean no harm is ever done. Why do you expect perfection? Surely anyone who tries to minimise harm should be at least tolerated rather than abused.

Hopefully it will make you think about what you are eating. We can survive easily without meat and fish. I am an extremely fit and healthy 70 year old and have not eaten either for 42 years. We do not need to kill to live....simple