Meet Your Meat, Part 2

How would you like your cow?

When’s the last time you dined at a steak house and the server asked how you’d like your cow prepared? I’ll venture to say, “never.”

That’s because we’re generally full of shit. We lie to ourselves so as not to confront the cold, hard facts of where our meat comes from. We don’t want to know because ignorance is lip-lickin’ bliss.

But deep down, you know, don’t you? You realize that the plastic-wrapped T-Bone steak you just purchased comes from a factory farm where an animal has endured intense suffering its whole life because, well…”Beef! It’s what’s for dinner!”

And because we’re too damned selfish to give a shit.

Now, I don’t expect to change hearts and minds here. But what I’d like to achieve is to merely get you to think. Don’t turn a blind eye like some of the readers of my first story in this series:

Or worse, don’t leave a smart-ass comment like one reader did, with his “Mmmmm. Meat!” rejoinder. Because if you do, I’ll have no problem ripping you a new one. I’ve had it up to here with assholes and, just like everywhere else, they abound on this platform.

So if that person is you, I suggest you read another “How to make a gazillion bucks on Medium” story. I’m sure that’s more your speed.

Like pigs, cows are gentle, intelligent and social creatures who experience fear and pain. And, like all of us, they want to live. They deserve to live.

Dairy cows on factory farms lead lonely, tragic lives. Immediately after giving birth, their babies are taken from them so that they can continue to breed in order to increase their milk production. This is another story entirely so for now, we’ll focus on the animals that end up sizzling on your grill on a summer’s eve.

Each year, approximately 39 million cattle and calves are slaughtered for meat in the U.S.

39 million.

Young calves spend their lives on a feedlot, where they “live” until they’ve reached a desirable weight — for your plate. By the way, when they’re taken from their mothers, their cries are so intense that their throats often become irritated.

Think about that one for a while.

Here is a brief trajectory of the “journey” that cows raised for beef must endure.

• Calves raised for beef may be subject to a number of painful mutilations, including dehorning, castration, and branding. These procedures cause extreme stress, fear, and pain, yet no pain-relief is provided.

“Fuck ‘em! They’re just cows!”

• Male calves are castrated at a young age, as it is thought to improve meat tenderness. Testicles are surgically removed with a scalpel, or spermatic cords are crushed with a clamp, which constricts blood flow to the scrotum so that the testicles die and fall off. Both methods are known to cause ongoing, extreme pain.
• Branding cattle in the U.S. is common so that beef producers can identify their cows. This is done by pressing a hot iron — 950 °F or more — into their skin for several seconds.
• I mentioned feedlots. Between 6 months and a year of age, cattle are moved from pasture to feedlots where they are fed an unnatural diet to be fattened for slaughter. The goal is to reach a “market weight” of 1,200 pounds in just 6 months.
• Only four U.S. states have feedlots. Naturally, calves are born all over the country, so they often endure long, stressful trips from their place of birth to these feedlots. During these trips, they’re neither fed, nor watered, nor given shelter from the elements.
• And let’s not forget veal! What would scallopine be without it? This is how it gets to your plate: Male calves are taken from their distressed mothers as soon as they are born, or within the first 24 hours of life, and placed in “veal crates.” These are typically no bigger than 22″ wide and 58″ long, and the calves spend their entire, short lives there, lying in their own urine and feces and chained to the bars of the crate. They are kept in near or total darkness. At approximately 18 to 20 weeks, they are slaughtered.

But, hey, “fuck ‘em! They’re just cows!”

How is it that we’ve become so hardened to this level of suffering? Are we, as a society, this clueless? This heartless?

Let’s get to the meat of this and talk slaughter. From PETA, here’s the deal:

On the way to slaughterhouses, cows are crammed onto trucks where they endure a long and brutal trip without food, water, or rest. This can go on for days. Many of the cows collapse in hot weather and in cold, they can freeze to the sides of the trucks, where they have to be pried off with crowbars.

By the time they reach their destination, many cows are too sick or injured to walk. Known to the meat and dairy industries as “downers,” they often have ropes or chains tied around their legs so that they can be dragged off the trucks.

Imagine that scenario for a minute: Dragged off the trucks and along the ground so we can enjoy our cheeseburgers.

The cows who arrive at the slaughterhouse healthy enough to walk, sense what’s coming and are too frightened to leave the truck, so they are shocked with electric prods or dragged off with chains. According to one USDA inspector, “Uncooperative animals are beaten, and have prods poked in their faces and up their rectums.”

At literally the end of the line, cows are forced through a chute and shot in the head with a captive bolt gun to stun them. But many workers are poorly trained and are moving so fast that the technique often fails to render the animals insensible to pain.

A longtime slaughterhouse worker told The Washington Post that he frequently has to cut the legs off completely conscious cows. In his recounting, he told the paper that “They blink. They make noises. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around. … They die piece by piece.”

Also, many animals are still alive and conscious for as long as seven minutes after their throats have been cut.

There’s no reason to go any farther because if you haven’t gotten the picture by now, you never will.

Look, I’m no saint. I ate meat growing up and well into my adulthood. A shit-load of it, and when I think about this, I’m appalled. I don’t think it ever occurred to me to investigate where my mother’s luscious meatballs came from.

I haven’t touched it in years, or pork for that matter, and am striving to give up chicken. And lamb? Forget about it!

We do not need meat for protein. There are plenty of other sources and better ones. You can look this up on your own if you care to.

A plant-based diet brimming with living foods, as opposed to dead animal flesh, is much healthier for us, and the environment.

What’s more, if you really must have your burger, there are innovative companies like the Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat that have come up with plant-based “beef” that looks, tastes and cooks like the real thing. I’ve tried both and love them. The Beyond Burger, especially.

Please consider giving the above a try. And the next time you visit the meat counter at your local grocery store, maybe…skip it.

Thank you for reading.

Sherry McGuinn is a slightly-twisted, longtime Chicago-area writer and award-winning screenwriter. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and numerous other publications. Sherry’s manager is currently pitching her newest screenplay, a drama with dark, comedic overtones and inspired by a true story.

I hope this story provided some important food for thought. If you’d like to read more of my work, please do.