My life cycle is totally respected.

June 14, 2011 1:23 PM

Animals, new sexy movie stars on the farm. (slyt) European fur breeders' association releases a youtube campaign. Oh dear. More of the same here.
posted by pica (22 comments total)

How lazy! With a little more effort they could have had animated 3d bobble head people reading the dialog in computer generated voices.
posted by idiopath at 1:28 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I had never seen them shot a horse, but I knew where it was done. Last summer Laird and I had come upon a horse's entrails before they were buried. We had thought it was a big black snake, coiled up in the sun. That was around in the field that ran up beside the barn. I thought that if we went inside the barn, and found a wide crack or a knothole to look through, we would be able to see them do it. It was not something I wanted to see; just the same, if a thing really happened it was better to see, and know.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:33 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Say you love hamburgers. Say you love chicken. Say you love wearing fur.

But don't try to justify it by saying the animals love giving it to you.

I'm not vegan anymore and this is still disgusting.
posted by Malice at 1:35 PM on June 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Reminds me of Suicide Food.
posted by elgilito at 1:44 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

But don't try to justify it by saying the animals love giving it to you.

Somethin's always cooking at the Cluckin' Chicken!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:44 PM on June 14, 2011

Well if you watch to the end (painful) the message is that there is no difference between slaughtering farm animals for meat or for fur. Which seems uncomfortably correct. I never understand why the animal rights vandals bomb the fur salon on my street but leave the shoe store and the butcher shop unmolested.
posted by three blind mice at 1:46 PM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Just realized I waited almost seven years to make my first FPP. And this is it.
posted by pica at 1:58 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, the plans I've had... The dreams...
posted by pica at 1:59 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

three blind mice, they skin the animals alive for their fur, they don't do that for meat. So NSFL that I'm not even going to make it a link: http://features.peta.org/ChineseFurFarms/
posted by stavrogin at 2:00 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a difference. We have to eat to live, and some people (maybe most, who knows) can't do well or thrive on a vegetarian diet (veggies: please don't argue this, remember: I was vegan. I've heard and spewed it all.)

So, you could say the difference is that animals who die to feed us die because it is necessary. Fur on the other hand, unless you live in a very cold place and can't afford a jacket, isn't - and the rest of the animal doesn't really get used, either. So it's a massive waste for fashionable ladies and fur-lined boots.

I'm not saying this is any better or worse, but it's different than slaughtering for food. I don't think any slaughter or killing is moral. Just necessary in some cases.
posted by Malice at 2:06 PM on June 14, 2011

stavrogin, the video is promoting European fur farms, not Chinese ones. That said, I don't know if the conditions are any better in Europe.

I guess the argument is that there's no need to farm fur when we have (often far better) synthetic alternatives.
posted by hnnrs at 2:10 PM on June 14, 2011

I don't have anything against wearing fur but I consider the raising of an animal for fur to be very different than raising a cow for meat and leather. A cow is a domesticated animal that naturally lives in a group and doesn't spend it's life trying to escape. A fur animal is pretty much a wild predator in a full cage it's entire life.
posted by Foam Pants at 2:13 PM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

some people (maybe most, who knows) can't do well or thrive on a vegetarian diet

half a billion people in India are vegetarian. does anyone know if there are Indians who can't do well without eating meat?
posted by sineater at 2:42 PM on June 14, 2011

The quadruped Dish of the Day is an Ameglian Major Cow, a ruminant specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly. When asked if he would like to see the Dish of the Day, Zaphod replies, "We'll meet the meat." The Major Cow's quite vocal and emphatic desire to be consumed by Milliways' patrons is the most revolting thing that Arthur Dent has ever heard, and the Dish is nonplussed by a queasy Arthur's subsequent order of a green salad, since it knows "many vegetables that are very clear" on the point of not wanting to be eaten — which was part of the reason for the creation of the Ameglian Major Cow in the first place. After Zaphod orders four rare steaks, the Dish announces that it is nipping off to the kitchen to shoot itself. Though it states, "I'll be very humane," this does not comfort Arthur at all.

Several years later, the principal characters encounter a herd of Ameglian Major Cows on the planet Nano, a colony planet established for exceedingly rich refugees from the destroyed Earth. Ford and Arthur (who is now far more open-minded after years spent traversing the galaxy) seriously consider the Cows' offering themselves as a meal, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Norse thunder god Thor and his subsequent duel with Bowerick Wowbagger. However, the lightning display accompanying Thor's arrival kills and chars several Major Cows (while their still-living herdmates curse their fellows' luck), and Ford and Arthur take the opportunity to sample the cooked meat. Later, a Major Cow is shown offering itself to Thor at the thunder god's victory party.

posted by mrbill at 3:21 PM on June 14, 2011

I never understand why the animal rights vandals bomb the fur salon on my street but leave the shoe store and the butcher shop unmolested.

Ehh, the way they get the fur is pretty grim and involves prolonged extreme suffering (anal electrocution etc.). Yes, slaughtering animals for food is pretty grim as well but I think a lot of animal rights "vandals" understand that a lot of people rely on the butcher and the butcher relies on his/her business. Fur, on the other hand, has nothing redeeming about it whatsoever and is merely conspicuous assholishness. Bomb the fur shop and no hungry family is going to miss out on a few pounds of cheap sausages at closing time, all it means is Paff Dibby isn't going to have something to wear on his jetski for a little while. That's my take on it at least.
posted by tumid dahlia at 3:26 PM on June 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

hich seems uncomfortably correct. I never understand why the animal rights vandals bomb the fur salon on my street but leave the shoe store and the butcher shop unmolested..

For the same reason they don't bomb the biker bars- they want to live to protest another day. C'mon, would you want to mess with someone who's trade is carving meat with knives?
posted by happyroach at 3:45 PM on June 14, 2011

I guess I'll be first to point out the Comic Sans in the cow's speech bubble. There you go.
posted by emjaybee at 4:04 PM on June 14, 2011

More than the misguided equivalence it posits, I'm struck by how amateurish this commercial is. They really paid someone to make this for them?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:41 PM on June 14, 2011

Oh God, they hired this guy to put together that video, didn't they?
posted by DarlingBri at 8:31 PM on June 14, 2011

They should totally have paid this guy to make their videos instead.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:29 PM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ehh, the way they get the fur is pretty grim and involves prolonged extreme suffering (anal electrocution etc.).

Pretty much the same way ostrich skin boots are made (or liver paté for that matter), but since I can theoretically also eat the meat of the animal (or at least its engorged liver) selling ostrich skin boots (or liver paté) is nothing at all like selling fur hats.

There is an equivalence, but I do not think advertising it helps the cause of any of the animal product industries.
posted by three blind mice at 10:10 PM on June 14, 2011

oh, boo hoo, you don't like fur or meat.

i am against factory farming, which stems from the age-old issue of immoral jerks trying to make a buck by any means necessary. however, i believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with meat/fur as long as the animal is treated properly while it's alive. that, i think, was the intended point of this absolutely retarded video -- trying to garner support for an association dedicated to raising animals properly, vs. the factory farm industry.

currently eating a hamburger for lunch.
posted by RTQP at 2:04 PM on June 15, 2011