I have no idea what you are saying, stubbyes and typewriters are not a good mix.

The worst thing they done to beef was marbling, and that was to suite the japanese market. In the 70's the japanese wanted chilled beef. That was a tenderizing process, the meat was cryovac packed then kept at one degree c for six weeks, before being containerized and sent to Japan. Somewhere along the way, the container had been left without being injected with liquid nitrogen to keep the temperature right. When the doors were opened in Japan it ran out the door.
Now you can not separate the fat from the meat, and not as healthy as it used to be. Chicken is ok as long as it doesn't glow in the dark. Pork is not good at all.

Goodonya Yabby, contributing much sanity to this discussion.

Farmers practice animal husbandry, and those who don't, or don't do it well, don't last very long in the business. With vaccinations, worm and parasite treatments (internal and external), supplements, treatment for various infections, assistance in birthing, sire and dam selection, and pasture and grazing management, water quality maintenance and fencing, you can't help but feel at times that you're doing it all for the animals. And, that is the reality. You have to de-horn or risk others losing an eye, or worse, or injury to yourself. Animals have to be managed quietly and calmly, or you just make a rod for your own back.

A relationship is inevitable, and, after all that care, you don't put up with livestock handlers being rough or abusive of your stock. Livestock raising is as humane as you can make it, and our meat is monitored from paddock to plate, with effective checks and assurances all the way through.

This article is just a beat-up, and would be better aimed at poaching practices and exploitation in the Third World.

579,

Most Aussie beef in our supermarkets and butcher shops is grass fed, and the bulk of feedlot fattened marbled beef is exported. I even suspect that most of our best beef, marbled or otherwise, is exported. The only marbled beef I have seen was some Wagyu in a specialist butchery.

Back again.
Good post Saltepetre, I agree entirely with your sentiments.
So how do you account for 88% (over 20 million sheep) of Austalia's merino flock being mulesed?
On reflection, I even agree that Yabby's posts were 'sane'. I'm sure the Freuds would have been delighted with the examples he offered; first the classic 'denial' syndrome: notice even when directly confronted he refuses to mention mulesing. He also exhibits other classic defence strategies: intellectualisation and rationalisation.
Fact: More than 20 million sheep have had the skin cut off their hindquarters, while they were still alive.
Again, on reflection, perhaps I was wrong about upbraiding Yabby for his claims of a “close bond”. Looking back, I'm sure my mother would have claimed to have had a close bond to her children, despite being firmly of the traditions of 'spare the rod, and spoil the child', and 'cruel to be kind'.
Strangely, her children felt considerably less of a close bond to our mother.
Do you think those 20 million plus sheep felt a 'close bond' to those who mutilated them? Sympathy and empathy; there is a great difference between feeling for someone (or thing) and understanding how someone (or thing) feels.
Of course, many if not most would have been “operated” on by contractors, rather than the farmers themselves, which really puts those farmers in much the same boat as those animal lovers who only eat meat plastic wrapped; people who contract out their killing and mutilating are just as culpable as the actual killers by law and by ethical code.
I have also been to abattoirs to deliver my beasts, and I don't recall ever seeing animals skipping gaily down the runs, keen to meet their maker. Most animals start getting stressed before they are loaded onto the truck, and either stay that way or fall into a state of emotional shock until they die. Not only bad for the animal, but also bad for the meat; innumerable studies have demonstrated animal stress significantly reduces tenderness.
Do you think abattoir workers form a 'close bond' to the animals?

It really isn't necessary to resort to quoting pop psychology to address this issue. The phenomenon I was referring to in earlier posts is simply callousness. The relationship between the words “Callus” -a toughening of the skin in response to repetitive injury- and “Callous” -a similar response to emotional injury- has been established in the English language and psyche since at least the 14th century. The concept has been recognised since before the time of Plato. Anyone who would deny the existence of this very common phenomenon must be living in Lala land.
And anyone who would deny skinning an animal while it was still alive is an extremely callous act is... At least as callous as the perpetrator.
Callousness, and the dehumanising effect thereof, is always a matter of degree, so one certainly does not have to be 'emotionally engulfed'. Rather, one needs to be emotionally engaged. Callousness is a defence against a problem. Once this defence has been successfully engaged, the callous person no longer sees any need to actually fix the problem, since for him it no longer is a problem.
IOW, insensitive people lack the sensitivity to realise they're insensitive. Again, this is a matter of degree, and we are all at one time or another insensitive, often in very specific areas; just as we only grow calluses where they are specifically needed.
Here is a great essay on this subject, and how it applies in the marketplace and our modern society:

http://ashokalab.org/empathy

Grim,

Good post, and thanks for the link - interesting discussion of empathy, also relevant to another article on this forum titled "Extinguishing Conscience".

I agree with you that mulesing is barbaric, and if I had sheep I couldn't allow it, and would have to stick to the old regime of fly-strike prevention/treatment.

As livestock producers (and occasional hunters - in my case of feral dogs/dingo-crosses) we can't help facing some realities which may not be all that comfortable - as having to put a beast down, which unfortunately is not that uncommon. When you have live ones, you will have dead ones - ticks, calving paralysis, pestivurus, BEF, coccidiosis, theileriosis, etc, even blackleg, tetanus or leptospirosis if we don't vaccinate accordingly.

However, we all have to eat, and part of our diet is meat and seafood, including lobsters (if we're so lucky). It is natural for most I think to feel pangs seeing, let alone selecting, a live fish, crab or lobster from a display tank, and I wouldn't feel right about selecting one, but that's really pretty squeamish on my part. Reality is reality. If we can't accept that then we have to become vegitarian.

But, there can be no excuse for avoidable and unnessary cruelty, so it's good to see painless euthenasia being employed in preparing those poor seafood, and in world's best practice being employed in abattoirs. (Have you seen what some Chinese restaurants do with fish, serving them fried but still alive - pretty disgusting - and reminds one of some cultures eating the brains of a still-alive stunned monkey. Ugghh.)

In the end result, some of us have to be brave and do what needs to be done to feed people, and we need to do this with the least stress to animals and livestock. I'm sorry they have to go to slaughter at all, but that is life. The best we can do is to keep stress to a minimum for all concerned, ourselves included.