Last year, I wrote a great deal about the rise of “ventilation shutdown plus” (VSD+), a method being used to mass kill poultry birds on factory farms by sealing off the airflow inside barns and pumping in extreme heat using industrial-scale heaters, so that the animals die of heatstroke over the course of hours. It is one of the worst forms of cruelty being inflicted on animals in the US food system — the equivalent of roasting animals to death — and it’s been used to kill tens of millions of poultry birds during the current avian flu outbreak.

As of this summer, the most recent period for which data is available, more than 49 million birds, or over 80 percent of the depopulated total, were killed in culls that used VSD+ either alone or in combination with other methods, according to an analysis of USDA data by Gwendolen Reyes-Illg, a veterinary adviser to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), an animal advocacy nonprofit. These mass killings, or “depopulations,” in the industry’s jargon, are paid for with public dollars through a USDA program that compensates livestock farmers for their losses.

      • HerrBeter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        “capitalism is more effective than alternatives”

        Capitalism showing why it is more effective :

      • max@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Lmao how does this have more upvotes than the one you’re replying to.

      • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        So you’ll put your money where your mouth is and stop buying chicken then right? That’s how condemnation works.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          And yet, you couldn’t resist the temptation to be aggressive and further turn off people to the idea of going meat free, vs trying to kindly convince them.

        • AlecSadler@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I get my chicken (and beef) from small, local neighboring farms, directly. I don’t see the problem?

        • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I raise my own chickens. I love them very much. Some of them get eaten. I am very grateful to those. You don’t have to be a vegan to be a good person.

            • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              You don’t necessarily have to be vegan to be a good person. I’m sure your chickens wouldn’t miss an egg or two every once in a while. It is pretty fucked up to claim that you love them, but also kill and eat them sometimes. Like, I love my cat, and because of that the idea of putting her dead body in my mouth makes me feel sick.

            • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Wow. I’m really fucking floored by y’all’s response. Where do you think your food comes from man? Seriously. I’m not being ugly, like you are, im trying to understand how you feel like you have less impact than I do. I am just able to take the responsibility for my own food

              • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                My food comes primarily from farms. I’m not saying I necessarily have less of an impact on anything than you, all I’m saying is that I don’t kill animals for food and I don’t pay for them to be killed.

                • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  You mocked me, man. It only hurts in the super small space that internet strangers can reach but it exists, regardless of how small. So. Bullshit.

                  • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    I pointed out some cognitive dissonance. I care a little bit more about random animals’ lives than I do about random internet strangers’ feelings.

            • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yes. I do. I have a separate small flock. I feed my family a proportion of our food over half that I grow, rise, and make myself. It would be impossible with out the protein from the chickens. And before anyone says some dumb shit to me, you do the math of your monoculture grown vegan food and if you still think my overall footprint is greater than yours, you are wrong.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                That must be really hard on you. I’ve killed animals before and that’s why I know I never want to be part of that and I never want to make anyone else do that for me. I know the statistics, people who kill animals are more likely to abuse drugs, self harm, hurt others, and commit suicide. When you kill animals you kill part of yourself. You have to, because our human instincts make us empathize with animals.

                That’s why I’m vegan. I don’t pretend like consumer choices are going to save the environment - nothing either of us do as individuals matters on that front. I’m vegan because someone has to kill those animals and it fucks people up. Maybe you’re fine. I doubt it.

                Seek help.

                • daltotron@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  what would you think of a backyard farm where chickens are only killed once they’re dead? or, are only basically killed when they would otherwise die from old age in the next, say, 2 months, to just put a random number on it? would only be killed when they are diseased, have cancer etc. Cause we already do that with people a good amount of the time, assisted suicide, hospice, whatever.

                  also what do you think of if we just ate like old people

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                    1 year ago

                    I’d honestly be okay if someone ate their 17 year old dog that they had to put down because she broke her hip or whatever; they lived a good and long life filled with love and were put down humanely. I think that’s weird as fuck and I sure as hell wouldn’t do it, but I don’t have a problem with it. I guess.

                    You have to realize how ridiculous the concept is, though, right?

                • MycoBro@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  You are an insane person and a coward. You buy your food at a supermarket and are not able to comprehend the impact of your precious soy. As a matter of fact, your not even on my level really. You are probably a child. If you ever need help, call me.

        • 4lan@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s hilarious, people have no sense of personal responsibility whatsoever. Just look at COVID.

          They use the argument that one person not eating meat won’t change anything. Ignoring the fact that they are literally deriving joy from suffering. It doesn’t have to be this way. I truly believe meat can be ethical, but when 99.8% of beef is factory farmed I do not have the option to ethically eat meat.

          17 years meat free and every once in awhile I reconsider adding chicken to my diet. Then I see a post like this lol

        • LuckyBoy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You do understand you’re not doing your cause any favours by being a fundamentalist right?

            • Flambo@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              This is such a common phenomenon that it has a name: cognitive dissonance. If you already knew what that was, then your comment suggests another example of it.

            • Wogi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I hate capitalism, I still spend money

              I can exist within society and still be critical of it, quite frankly I’m not sure how else one exists.

              You’re aware of how we treat produce pickers right? How we treat the people who sew your clothes together? Or the people who assembled the device you’re reading this on?

              Cruelty to life exists at every level. If you’ve ever eaten chocolate, or had coffee you’ve participated in slavery.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            A vegan that can’t resist antagonizing others over their diet is being rather counterproductive. It’s an easier lifestyle choice to keep your mouth shut and not be snarky than it is to completely change your diet.

            It begs the question, if this person criticizing me can’t make an easier lifestyle change than what they want me to do, why should I even listen?

            (And I’m going to get replies that completely miss the point and continue to moralize at me)

            • Wogi@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Most vegans can’t keep up the lifestyle more than about 5-7 years, as health issues start to creep in.

              The diet isn’t as nutritious as they claim, and there is no good replacement for animal fat and protein.

              The meat industry has problems. Don’t get me wrong. But they’re not at the same scale most vegans will tell you they are, and as it happens herbivores are much better at turning plants in to energy than we are. Plus it’s not like we’re treating the actual humans picking tomatoes much better than we treat cattle.

              • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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                Gonna cite these stats or are you just parroting Joe Rogan? Obviously there’s a large amount of gastronomic variation among humans, some people can’t go vegan easily. But the idea meat has anything you can’t get from plants is absolutely a myth: I eat dark chocolate and nuts for iron, and B12 is in all sorts of shit from mushrooms to potatoes (and is easy to supplement with vitamin water or fortified cereal if not pills). And protein? Protein is the textbook example of this. Y’all just have some weird thing against broccoli and chickpeas.