Despite Protest, College Plans To Slaughter, Serve Farm's Beloved Oxen

[cali]

If the thought of eating horse meat makes you queasy, what about strong, sturdy oxen? A small Vermont college that emphasizes sustainable living will soon slaughter two beloved campus residents: Bill and Lou, a pair of oxen. Green Mountain College plans to serve the meat from the oxen in its dining hall, but the plan has drawn international outcry and a massive Facebook petition to save the oxen.

For the last 10 years, Bill and Lou were a daily sight working the campus's Cerridwen Farm. But earlier this year, Lou stepped in a gopher hole and injured his leg.

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Bill's and Lou's big brown eyes, their curving horns and gentle, but massive girth have made them minor celebrities on campus and beyond. Many say that's what makes it so hard to believe the college wants to slaughter and eat them.

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The petition to save Bill and Lou on Facebook has attracted more than 30,000 signatures from all over the world. The animal sanctuary has offered to take Bill and Lou to live there for free. Vine's Pattrice Jones says the staff was stunned when the college said no and cited sustainability as one of its reasons.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/21/163257176/despite-protest-college-plans-to-slaughter-serve-farms-beloved-oxen

link to Cerridwen Farm and the College's statement on their decision to slaughter Bill and Lou.

http://www.greenmtn.edu/farm_food.aspx

[Sunlei]

1. This animal received medications that are banned for human consumption

Some of the medications are proven to cause human disease.

No matter there is also the moral side of this story. The animal has worked faithfully it's lifetime. It deserves to be euthanized on land it is comfortable with. Not shoved into a trailer with terrifying suffering days before it's killed.

To show a sustainable farm could have a professional shooter instantly end the animals life. The farm could easily compost the remains. Use the compost on their farm crops.

[LARED]

3. Unless I missed it neither article states the animals were given medications that are banned

for human consumption.

How do you know this?

[Sunlei]

5. didn't they use a Vet and treat the injury?

[LARED]

9. I would assume so. Is there some requirement

that the treatment use medicine that would render the meat unfit for human consumption forever?

[cali]

11. So? You have no idea what medicines they used.

Are you actually ignorantly suggesting that any medicine used would render an animal unfit for consumption?

[Sunlei]

14. The inflammatories used for a joint injury render an animal permanently unfit for human consumption

[cali]

15. I think you mean anti-inflammatories, but could you please give

actual evidence for your claim?

Not to mention that you haven't a clue as to what pharmaceutical products were used on this animal.

[Sunlei]

19. yes meant anti, to treat the joint injury

America is behind the curve in food safety but even the FDA has banned the use of some of the common drugs in food animals. read the labels on many livestock drugs and you will see the words, not for use in animals intended for human consumption. More progressive countries like the UK won't even accept many forms of American meat because of the medications they ban from food animals.

One of the most common (If Vets did actually treat the animals injury like they said) is Phenylbutazone.
The FDA says of this drug- 'Phenylbutazone is known to induce blood dyscrasias, including aplastic anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia and deaths. Hypersensitivity reactions of the serum-sickness type have also been reported. In addition, phenylbutazone is a carcinogen, as determined by the National Toxicology Program.' http://www.fda.gov/default.htm Animals treated with this drug and many others are banned for life as food, in the UK.

None the less this is a work animal and was raised for and used to train many students. Similar to the farms sheep dogs and barn cats we owe them a respectfully humane end of life. They were not raised for food or AS food animals,could be contaminated with medications dangerous for humans to consume.

This is a very wealthy school who could afford to retire their WORK animals to pasture, place in a sanctuary, or (if suffering) euthanize them in thir life-long comfortable place and compost the remains.

[LARED]

17. I'm pretty sure given this is taking place on a collage campus, with a lot of experts and

transparency, the medical treatment and it's effect on consuming the animals may have received some thought.

[kestrel91316]

26. Provide a link, please, that documents your specious claim

about what medications have and have not been given to these animals, and when. Hopefully it will include a factual discussion of whether or not any of these medications are banned in animals used for human consumption.

I'll be waiting for your intelligent, fact-based response.

But I won't be holding my breath.

[sl8]

49. re: "This animal received medications that are banned for human consumption"

"This animal received medications that are banned for human consumption"

We are fortunate to have someone among us that has some first-hand knowledge of the situation.

Which medications did the animal receive? If it's not too much trouble, can you tell us the dosage and the date administered?

Thank you.

[LARED]

2. Really?

"We do not believe that the way to conserve resources is to kill the elderly and disabled to prevent them from using up resources because they're not useful anymore," Jones says. "We just ethically find that repugnant."

Sorry comparing killing Oxen in order to eat them and killing the elderly and disabled is idiotic. Oxen no matter how brown eyed and curvy horned they are, remain useful.......for eating.

[lynne]

4. Appropriate action for studies in Sustainable Farming -

- as this is exactly how farming has been done for centuries. Animals may serve in one capacity for years and when they can no longer serve in that fashion, they are then brought to the table. This is no different than the hen that is no longer laying eggs being placed in the stew pot. For true sustainable farming, an animal that is consuming feed and taking up acreage without contributing to the larger welfare of the farm is a liability and is then used in another contributing fashion - many times as food for the farmer.

[cali]

6. except that they aren't feeding farmer and family

Not that there's anything wrong with it but Cerridwen is a show farm and this is a school where students pay 41,000 a year to attend.

And there has been an offer from a sanctuary to take the animals and care for them.

I'm not coming down on either side here. I think you make some excellent points.

[Sunlei]

7. a hen doesn't faithfully plow your fields for a decade

We don't live in the 1800s and aren't starving. The remains can be composted and will grow acres of crops. That is sustainable farming all the 'farmers' can live with.

[cali]

8. So why not let them go to the animal sanctuary that's offered to take them?

[Sunlei]

18. The sanctuary is the most humane option if the animals joint damage isn't life threatening

Sounds like they have had him at pasture rest for months and he's able to walk,graze, get up and lay down.

[lynne]

12. As someone who has hens, I'm aware of their contribution -

- and I thank them daily for their eggs that we use as both food and at times for extra income. Hens require little in the way of both feed and space and their contribution is an almost daily food product, a continuous supply of composting matter, and the elimination of bugs that would otherwise damage crops. Chickens are true partners in a farm setting. And, when they stop laying, I will thank them for their contribution to our stew pot.

This is a study in sustainable farming and this is the truth and the reality of sustainable farming. Composting those remains isn't an option used in sustainable farming as you don't compost meat products. You can incinerate them to ash before composting but incinerating an animal requires wood and kerosene or gasoline that is better used elsewhere on a farm. (And actually brings to mind a BBQ) One option used in sustainable farming that hasn't been considered here is feeding the oxen back to the other farm animals. The pigs would love it.

[cali]

13. Say what? Actually animals are indeed composted.

One of the foremost composting outfits in the country is down the road from me: Highfields. It's a non-profit concern- Bill McKibben is a big booster. They regularly compost dairy cows.

http://www.highfieldscomposting.org/index.htm

[MattBaggins]

33. They can be turned into compost

Right after they pass through my belly.

[Drahthaardogs]

10. Who the hell wants to eat a twelve year old oxen?

Pass the shoe leather please. All you could do with these animals would be to grind them up into burger. This is stupidity not sustainability.

[kestrel91316]

27. Fail. They'll braise beautifully and be very flavorful.

[MattBaggins]

34. Ox Tail soup please

[Drahthaardogs]

39. Fail my left foot.

I have hunted my entire life. Elk, moose, bear, etc. I never buy meat from the store. I have eaten enough bull elk and bull moose that were mature to know better. Old animals = tough meat. Ever compared mutton to lamb?

[kestrel91316]

40. Mutton is delicious when cooked long and slow. Pressure cooking it

turns out well.

My grandparents used to have a sheep ranch.

Uncastrated wild elk and moose are not remotely like domestic CASTRATED beef. In my experience even THEY are delicious.

[Drahthaardogs]

42. Yes, a castrated beef (steer) that is grained for 90 to 120 days is certainly a nice piece of meat.

It is also 18 months old. I used to go to the sales, and the old cancer-eyed cows and bulls were only good for hamburger. McDonald's reps used to buy them up. These oxen have been working for years, using their muscles, making them tough. They are old, have not been grained etc.

Really, we ran 1000 mother cows on our ranch growing up (well over 65,000 acres we owned or leased). My grandfather also had a feed lot and he owned a butcher shop. I was cutting meat before I knew how to add fractions. I know a thing or two about beef.

[Robb]

16. Good teachable moment.

This is one of the lessons 4-H kids learn, too.

[Sunlei]

20. The difference is the 4-H kids know from the beginning they raise a FOOD animal.

[Robb]

22. No, the 4-H kids learn what food *is*.

Two oxen = 1 ton of meat.

[madokie]

21. Heres a link about what an Oxen is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about cattle used for draft. For other uses of "ox" or "oxen", see Ox (disambiguation). For other uses of "bullock", see Bullock (disambiguation).
Zebu oxen in Mumbai, India.

An ox (plural oxen), also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas.

Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging.

Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs.

[MineralMan]

23. Back in the days when many farms used oxen to work the

fields and pull carts to market, what do you suppose they did with those animals when they could no longer work? The answer to that question should inform your opinion about what this college should do with that pair of oxen. Sustainable farming utilizes everything. It did before the tractor was invented, too. That's why there are hundreds of 19th century recipes for oxtail stew.

When the chicken stops laying enough eggs to earn her keep, she becomes soup. So does the old rooster. When the ox comes up lame, it feeds the family it served and the young ox that has been trained to do the job takes over. That's sustainable farming at work.

An ox is simply a steer that has been put to work. It is made of beef. Sustainable agriculture does not waste food.

[kestrel91316]

28. THANK YOU.

[MineralMan]

24. Here's what the Bible says about the ox:

Deuteronomy 14
King James Version
1Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
3Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. 6And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. 7Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.

[forestpath]

25. I think this is barbaric.

And before anyone can ask, yes, I am a vegetarian.

[LisaL]

29. I am not a vegetarian, but I agree with you.

They have a rescue willing to take these oxen.
I just don't understand why refuse to send them to the rescue.

[kestrel91316]

30. And aren't you happy that no one is forcing you to eat something of which you morally disapprove?

I am happy that I live in a relatively free country where I am NEVER forced to consume any particular food I don't want to.

[forestpath]

50. I'm happy I morally disapprove of eating what amounts to PETS. If you don't then chow down.

[kestrel91316]

51. Some of us understand the difference between livestock and pets.

My dad came from a ranching family. They definitely knew the difference, because they kept both. They ate livestock but they never ate pets.

[XemaSab]

31. It's a cow

If you're going to eat one cow, why not eat another?

[LisaL]

35. They had them for 10 years and they become mascots during this time.

They are pets now.
They shouldn't be eating their pets.

[sl8]

46. About how long is it acceptable to keep cattle before it becomes unacceptable to eat them?

How long do you keep your cattle before eating them or selling them to someone else for food?

Would you require that someone else keep the same timetable as you or do you allow them some leeway?

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. I sent an email

[progressivebydesign]

36. Sick. The college is not feeding the poor, they're feeding the wealthy students.

WTF is wrong with those people??? Beloved mascots are killed and EATEN, when a sanctuary has offered them a fucking home?? Are people at the school REALLY going to Eat Lou and Bill? REally??

[LisaL]

38. ITA. These animals worked for them for 10 years.

Now one is sick so they are going to kill them and eat them, instead of sending them to the sanctuary? What does that actually teach their students?

[Puregonzo1188]

41. Exploit a living creature for its labor and when it no longer works for you kill it and eat it.

Maybe they'll grind up Grandmother too?

[sl8]

43. Sustainability.

The college purports to teach sustainability and responsible animal husbandry. How can they decide to send their cattle to a refuge, while millions of beef cattle are raised in horrendous conditions to provide for their and our appetite for meat, and still remain true to their principles?

Philip Ackerman-Leist, head of Green Mountain College's Farm and Food project, says the issue is a lot more complicated. "We have been very clear from the beginning that this is not a petting zoo," he says. "It was going to be a sustainable farm operation."

Ackerman-Leist notes that 70 percent of students eat meat. But 12 years ago, when the college began developing its sustainable farm program, vegetarian students specifically asked that livestock be included to confront the realities of eating meat. He says this debate goes way beyond Bill and Lou, and faculty and students have spent a lot of time discussing it.

I'd certainly give them a pass if they decided to give Lou & Bill a reprieve due to sentimentality - sentimentality is just as valid an emotion as any other and they don't need for me or anyone else to agree with their decision - absent evidence of outright cruelty, these cattle belong to them and they are free to do with them as they decide best.

Furthermore, I think that anyone that isn't a vegan or vegetarian and still condemns these people for making such a difficult decision, a decision made in order to remain true to their principles despite the emotional cost, well, I think that person to be the worst sort of hypocrite.

[LisaL]

44. Just the fact that these animals have names should give these people a clue.

Dear students: you are now eating Bill and Lou.

[sl8]

45. Which clue? Don't eat animals that someone had an emotional attachment to?

I can't say that I know that about the animal flesh I've eaten - can you?

Or are you saying that it's not okay to eat animals that you have an emotional attachment to, but it's OK to eat other animals?

[sl8]

47. re:"Dear students: you are now eating Bill and Lou" :

That issue is easily resolved - sell the meat to someone else. Would that assuage your concerns?

Selling the meat to someone else seems a fairly obvious option - why didn't the college choose that course? Maybe they just didn't think of that? Maybe some other reason?

[roody]

37. Love animals; don't eat them.

[a la izquierda]

48. Yup.

This story makes me sad.