[Jazzy_Grape]

I'm a proud vegetarian.. but lately i've been questioning somethings. Like what would happen if everyone went veg... there would be this huge excess of animals and where would the balance be. Like in India the people don't eat cows, and the cows just end up wandering around the streets, eating garbage, miserable and skinny. Is this what we want? How would that even work?

Just curious for other thoughts, I feel guilty promoting my veg beliefs when I myself are unsure about them..

 

[Eclipse]

I think the biggest problems I see if everyone went veg would be medical products that are made of slaughterhouse by products and family farms such as ranches losing their livey hoods. I can see how people who live on ranches and possibly don't know any other way of living would feel very threatened.

Surplus animals would not be a problem among domesticated animals. Wild animals people hunt is a different story.

 

[Sevenseas]

We breed animals to be exploited. If we stop exploiting them, we don't breed them and they don't exist.

 

[Irizary]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclipse

...and family farms such as ranches losing their livey hoods. I can see how people who live on ranches and possibly don't know any other way of living would feel very threatened.

There really aren't that many small animal farms anymore. Over 99% of food animals in the US now are produced on factory farms. But I suppose they would have to switch over to another way of life, the same as plantation owners had to change their businesses when the slaves were freed, or many typists lost their jobs when computers came into useage, or...any number of jobs in which technology or ethics changed the landscape.

 

[Ludi]

If everyone suddenly went veg there would be many hundreds of thousands of animals who would still need care. But as people point out, as more people go veg, there will be demand for fewer and fewer animals and so fewer of them will be bred. Some animals live for a long time under good conditions, cattle can live 30 years, chickens 8 years, sheep about 15 years, geese 50 years. Some of these might need care if in a strange ideal future most people go veg*n.

The percentage of people who actually make a living raising farm animals is very small, even many ranchers only keep cattle to get agricultural tax status on their land, and not to make a living. So some people might have to sell off their family land if they were no longer ranching on it, which would be sad because so many large ranches are being sold off anyway. But here in Texas we have "wildlife management" tax status which is equal to agricultural status except you specifically manage the land to preserve specific wild animal species, such as song birds. It's rather difficult to get this status, but some people are doing it, and so are able to preserve their land without raising domestic animals.

 

[ChiKat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ludi

If everyone suddenly went veg there would be many hundreds of thousands of animals who would still need care. But as people point out, as more people go veg, there will be demand for fewer and fewer animals and so fewer of them will be bred.

That's a good point. It's not like one day everyone would suddenly go veg and we'd be stuck with millions of animals...

 

[troub]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclipse

family farms such as ranches losing their livey hoods. I can see how people who live on ranches and possibly don't know any other way of living would feel very threatened.

family slave operations probably felt threatened when slavery became abolished. What ever did ol "Jim Bob's Slaves 4 Sale" do when slavery was banned. Poor mom n' pop slave farms probably went out of business. Boo hoo.

industry employment is a poor excuse to limit progression.

 

[VeggieMath]

I want everyone to go veg too, but I really don't believe we would be overun by animals. I agree less and less would be bred. The surpless would go away eventually. I think that will happen in India also. Just my 2 cents.

 

[lilacmoonbeam]

I think it would be a better thing if it was a gradual process. And I agree that eventually due to the fall in meat sales, there would be no need for breeding as many animals for meat purposes. It would probably only be a bad thing for the animals if it was a sudden mega change, which wouldn't happen anyway. I just wish I had more powers to convert people not to eat meat, I've discovered it's very hard to get people to change a mindset that has been planted in them since they were very small

 

[queenarmadillo]

If everyone went vegetarian, they would still farm the cows and sheep and goats and chickens to make milk and cheese and wool and eggs.

But yeah, its not going to just happen that suddenly everyone goes veg, so even if there were no other uses for animals, you wouldnt just have all the animals currently bred for meat released out onto the streets.

 

[derwenna]

There wouldn't be surplus animals, if everyone was vegetarian no-one would breed all the animals they produce for meat now because they wouldn't make any money from it. Chickens produced for meat only live for 7 weeks in total before they are killed, and I doubt the whole world would go vegetarian in 7 weeks. If it happened it would be a gradual process and there would be time to phase out meat farming gently, so there wouldn't be surplus animals, they'd just produce fewer and fewer of them over time.

 

[Eclipse]

I could see some of these animals becoming companion animals during this phase. People already take in animals raised for meat sometimes and when there's much less of them,this might be much more possible.

More of the percentage wise could go to animal santuaries.

 

[Ludi]

Would the male animals be used for pet food, or what?

 

[Eclipse]

The male animals could be companions as well. Farm sanctuary has steers.

I mean people don't in general prefer female companion animals over males.

 

[Tuffenoughtoroc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ludi

Would the male animals be used for pet food, or what?

Yes, I wonder what would be used in our pet's food. Hopefully it would become veggie as well.

 

[Eclipse]

You mean to feed carnivorious animals?. Lab vat grown meat should satisfy the needs of most carnivorious animals.

 

[Ludi]

Do you think that many people would want pet roosters, though? I mean, how many veg*ns have pet roosters now?

 

[Eclipse]

Yes I think a few people would adopt roosters.

I had a liltte, white bantam rooster named Henry. I think he was from a egg layer breed and he was adorable. Come to think of it, he was among the more pleasent of the chickens I had and I wish I had him longer. Wild animals killed him.

A nice rooster makes just as good a companion as a hen so why not?.

 

[troub]

perhaps the proliferation of companion animals could end at the same time as the proliferation of food animals does.

either that or the demand for vegetarian dog/cat food will skyrocket. *buys 100000 shares in veg* pet food companies*

 

[Jazzy_Grape]

Well I don't really agree with turning your carnivor pets veg just because they are domesticated. Come on now. If this ever happened we have to at least let the food cycle continue. Some of the cows would have to be continue to reproduce of course so there would still have to be farms. It's not like now we can just release cows bred for farms into the woods, they just wouldn't last.