1/12/2004: Civet cat kill

If it's an animal pic, and it's not Friday, it's not gonna be good. And this is not good. This is part of the effort to prevent the spread of SARS in China; they're killing all the civet cats that were expected to become food. They think there might be a disease connection.

It looks like this is not the normal way of killing them; this one tried to escape, says the caption, and so it wound up getting a sudden death by bludgeoning.

Weird fact of the day, then: historically, a lot of perfume has been produced using the "skunk-like spray" of the civet cat. This gunk was actually collected from little sacs under the cats' tails. You could say "ewwwww" and try another brand, but that one might be made from the peri-anal glands of the beaver, or "ambergris" which is basically whale vomit. But nowadays, apparently the animal-derived scents have man-made chemical reproductions which are cheaper to produce. Leave the cats and their poor little glands alone.

Gee honey, you smell amazingly like whale vomit tonight.

I LIKE it!

Hasn't one of the basic problems been one of hygiene? A friend came back from that part of the world in September and noted that the 'wipe with one hand, eat with the other' ethic is still fairly common.
On top of that, there are just LOTS AND LOTS of people, which, even under the best of circumstances (which China is not), leads to large-scale spread of disease.

The chemically synthesized perfumes often contain chemicals that are considered toxic. Better not to wear any of it.

I read that SARS started with the cooks that prepared these civet cats.
If you want to smell good use vanilla extract.

Yeah, the real stuff and not the fake vanilla.

Killing the civet cats has really bothered me. All these critters, I read something like 10,000 to be killed, are kept in lousy conditions just because people want to eat exotic meat. Who the heck needs to eat a civet cat? Does anyone know whether these are wild caught animals?

As an unspoken rule, founded on courtesy, nobody uses perfumes in the restrictive confines of a warship but one girl tried to circumvent this by wearing a vanilla based scent.
We were on station for four and a half months.
Vanilla, VANILLA! ...... !!!!!SERENITY NOW

Definately a case for Orwells' Animal Farm...

Do we know these are perfume civets and not coffee-cherry civets?

Yes, to me farmed raised is different than wild caught. Wild caught kept in tiny cages is worse than wild caught that is killed immediately.

I don't care if you like my view or not so ranting at me doesn't help anything.

Just ignore quzah. He's got a condition known as "vegetarian rage". Basically, the vegetarian experiences dissatisfaction and cravings due to the lack of meat in his diet. Unable, according to his moral code, to satisfy these cravings and often disgusted at himself for feeling them, the vegetarian becomes frustrated, tense, and angry. He finds a target for his frustrations by displacing his shame in his own cravings into anger at meat-eaters for satisfying theirs.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for this condition. Force-feeding or tricking the vegetarian into eating meat satisfies the cravings temporarily, but it only makes the vegetarian feel MORE ashamed of himself (to the point of suicide in extreme cases), and it redoubles his rage when the meat wears off.

Spam patches?

It IS sticky meat.

And gross....just utterly gross.

I think you need to stop breathing because with every breath you run the risk of breathing in a bug and killing it. A life is a life after all.

Things die all the time, some day so will you. That's the way it is. How we raise them, hunt them, kill them and eat them says something about us and our humanity but life lives on life and we all have our roles in the circle.

Oh and about the bug thing, you have little worms living in your eyelashes and I bet some fall off on occasion and you do breath them in. You probably kill some every time you take a shower too. Are you careful when you walk not to step on a bug? What if you get a cockroach or mouse invasion into your house?

These are all things that Jains have considered long before you. They wear masks over their noses and mouths just to avoid the possibility of taking a life of an insect. They don't walk around very fast either.

I think you are the hypocrite if you don't at least take on the precautions that they take.

Civet cat kill

It has to be the same reaction in India to the United States responce to Mad Cow, ya think?

Re: Civet cat kill

I dunno...compared to the UK or Canada, our mad cow scare has seemed tame. Being able to blame Canada has probably helped.

I'm talking short-term/current though. The beef industry here is apparently doing well (though some countries have blocked our exports), and the media coverage (and general concern) all but died once they announced that the initial case originated in Canada.

Man, quzah has some major issues. Reading all he has to offer (or not), he is full of rage pointed at no one in particular, but at anyone who doesn't see eye to eye perfectly with him. If they don't he lets loose a barrage of insults. One thing he has succeeded however is leading everyone off the subject of civet cat culling to a heated debate over vegan/non-vegan diet plans. He seems intent on proving everyone wrong when no one agrees with him.

I, myself, am an omnivore and I agree that a healthy well balanced diet includes meat. Science and our own biology confirms our meat eating genes. There are some nutrients you must get from animal sources like some proteins and fatty acids. Take a look at our tooth structure. If we weren't meant to eat meat, then we wouldn't desire meat. Humans have been eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. Whether you are a creationist or an evolutionist, both theories support meat eating habits.

On a more personal note, quzah, you radical fool! Chill out. Relax and have a nice porter house on me.

Wow. That took you like 60 seconds to figure out.

Welcome to the Cellar. Don't mind quzah. That's just his way.

Not everybody is like that. Well, radar is, but there's a different style to him and he's on vacation, sort of.

As far as the whole mad cow disease case in the U.S. goes, I'm disapointed in the US media. I really think that this deserves to be getting a lot more attention than it has.

This cow came from Canada. OK. I buy that. But how does it follow that it is the only one?

I forget the exact numbers, and don't feel like doing a Google search right now, but there is one cow tested for something like every 12,000 cows that are processed. That means, the "experts" have determined that 1 in 12,000 is a fair representative sample. The fact that 1 cow has shown up with the disease, and it supposedly is representative of 12,000 cows, means that 12,000 cows have the disease. We don't actually know that, but that's what statistics tell us.

I love meat. I love beef. But I haven't eaten ANY beef since that cow was found to have the disease. I know, it's probably too little too late at this point. If other tainted meat was out there, I probably ate it already. All the "experts" keep saying that our supply is safe, but these are the same experts who said it would never happen here. It did happen here. They were wrong then, and they are probably wrong now.

The rules are SLOWLY being changed to make it less likely to happen again, but there are tens of millions of cows out there that have been raised under the old guidelines. Eating blood and ground up downers mixed with their feed. It will be months or years before the current cow supplyis all gone. I'm happy to let all of you eat those old cows. I'll come back to beef eating after a few years. Assuming I don't have mad cow disease myself by then.

Personally, I think pork has a real nice flavor. Chicken is yummy too, although it has too much antibiotic in it.

And another thing.

Because I lived in Germany for a year and a half in the 80s, I'm not allowed to donate blood. The Red Cross thinks I might be carrying Mad Cow Disease in my blood. I used to donate all the time, and it bothers me that I can't anymore. There are almost always blood shortages, because it has such a short shelf life, and donations are low.

Since the disease has been found in the US cattle population, does that mean the US Red Cross now won't take blood from anyone that has lived in the US?

I also lived in Germany from 1992 to 1997 and I'm barred from giving blood, platelets, or anything. Even though I'm healthy and test negative for everything. You'd think that if I had mad cow I'd be dead by now.

Man, I sure could use a nice, big, juicy T-bone right about now.

Quote:

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce I was under the impression that we ate meat from the git go, along with found things like fruit and berries. The diet didn't change significantly until beer was invented and an agricultural society was formed to support that endeavor.

Dangit Quzah! You're making me hungry... The very thought of a 'steak tree'.....

[Homer Mode]
MMMmmmmmmmm Steeeeakkk treeeeee.....
[/Homer Mode]


On a more serious note, I'll stop eating meat when my eyes slide to the sides of my head... Look at the animal kingdom... Predators have their eyes near each other, on the front of their face, for better depth perception during the hunt and the kill...
Herbivores tend to have their eyes on either side of their head, to better see a predator coming in for them, a wide field of view being more important that good depth perception...

Quote:

Originally posted by juju And when exactly is the "git go"? It all depends on how far back you go. 65 million years ago, for example, our ancestors were eating insects. Hell, that's why they survived and the dinosaurs didn't. Even a giant fucking asteroid can't kill the cockroaches on this planet.

Shit, Bruce....when are you ever gonna let me talk?????

Shaddap and eat your insects.

Quote:

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce Shaddap and eat your insects.

Etymophagy isn't all that uncommon. It's the western world that's weird. tones of protein, roughage. It's just getting over the fact that they're *bugs*.

Why do I have the feeling that most people that eat bugs (intentionally), never heard the word etymophagy.

'Cause we American are weird!

Mad Cow is Baaack

Well, after all my ranting about being dissapointed in the press on this story, I feel a little vindicated.

I'm still dissapointed, because this was put on page 2 instead of front page above the fold, but page two is a start.

Expert panel at Department of Agriculture thinks there are still numerous cases of cows infected with Mad Cow disease in the US beef supply, and current standards do nothing to find them or prevent YOU from eating them.

But don't take my word for it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2004Feb4.html

I stand by my decision to avoid beef until all this plays out in a couple years. Pains me to say it, cause I love beef. If you love your higher functions, you should avoid beef too.

The beef industry brought this upon themselves, and if they crash and burn, I will feel zero sympathy for them.

Maybe I'm just talking to myself on this one, but I'm going to post this anyway.

It looks like another case of mad cow disease was found over the weekend. Tests are not conclusive yet, and we won't know for a few more days, but I view it as a good sign. The sooner we find more of the infected cows, the sooner the problem will be taken seriously, and the sooner I will be able to eat my beloved beef again. You can't fix a problem until everyone agrees that there is one.

Saturday, June 26, 2004; Page A05 Washington Post

Preliminary Test Results 'Inconclusive' for Mad Cow

A U.S. animal tested positive in a preliminary screening test for mad cow disease, Agriculture Department officials said late yesterday.

John Clifford, deputy administrator of USDA veterinary services, said officials learned of the "inconclusive" test result at 5:30 p.m. The carcass is being sent to the USDA National Veterinary Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for additional tests. Results are expected in four to seven days.

Clifford declined to identify the animal or its location until testing is complete, noting that it is "very likely" final testing could turn up negative.

"The animal in question didn't enter the food chain," he said. "If [additional tests are] positive, we'll provide additional information on the animal and origins."

It was the first "inconclusive" test result for the brain-wasting disease since the government began using rapid test kits in June as part of a program to test more cattle after a Holstein tested positive in Washington state in December. The faster test carries a greater risk of false positives. The USDA did not say whether the animal was a cow, steer or bull.

"This is not at all unexpected," Clifford said. "Screening tests are designed to be extremely sensitive."

I'm listening to you, Glatt.