Taurus Tony
the hungarian bull and the development of the cow toilet
The one-year-old bull Tony now lives at Gut Aiderbichl Hungary. He had been discovered by a former employee of Gut Aiderbichl in a stable where she had put her own animals.
Every day, she came there to take care of her animals and in the course of this work she became friends with young Tony.
The bond between the animal-loving lady and the cattle became stronger and stronger. She was told that her Tony was to be sent to the slaughterhouse for meat production and that's when the alarm bells started ringing in her heart.
The meat desire through the ages
In the Stone Age, people were hunters and gatherers. They killed wild animals to provide themselves with meat. The fur and skin of the animals were used for clothing and housing, sinews for the bow to draw the arrow and bones as tools. The entire hunted animal, from meat to offal to stomach contents, simply everything was utilised.
People became sedentary and the food structure changed. For example, people began to cultivate plants in order to be able to supply people and animals with grain. At some point, people began to eat less meat, because they also obtained milk for food and wool for clothing. Whether people kept pigs, cattle, goats, etc. depended on the vegetation, temperature and water supply in the different regions of the earth.
People began to move more and leave their homes. At the time of the migration of peoples, meat consumption increased rapidly in Central and Northern Europe. More and more pigs, cattle, sheep and goats settled in Europe, because there are optimal husbandry conditions for these species.
In the 14th century, pasture farming could be expanded and the nutritional status for the population improved again after numerous famines. Meat consumption was only possible in the aristocratic circles, the rest of the population tended to eat a meatless diet.
In 1867, the first slaughterhouse was built in Paris
From the middle of the 18th century, the industrial revolution began and soon there were almost no more restrictions. Livestock farming was modernised and the preservation of meat was facilitated by cold storage. Since then, meat has been one of the most popular foods across all classes of society.
The meat production is not really coming to an end. Because, unfortunately, interest in how animals feel in the live transporters is only slowly increasing. Did you know that cattle are highly intelligent, sensitive animals? Or did you know that some beef is tough, because it is full of stress hormones?
When cattle are loaded, they may know from the first second that nothing good will come of the journey. They are crammed onto the transporter and develop fear and scream too. The journey to the slaughterhouse is terribly stressful. The closer they get to the slaughterhouse, the more restless the animals become. Tony was lucky once again and was spared dying for roast beef and cutlets.
Climate protection has many faces - now let's start sending cows to the toilet
What factory farming does is slowly getting through to people. There are still too many who do not want to give up the pleasure of "cheap meat". Some people are rethinking, but it is a very strange way of protecting climate from those changes. People are trying to lure cattle to the loo in order to save the environment.
In the course of a German-New Zealand research project, cattle are trained to urinate in the "cow toilet". After the work is done, they are rewarded with sugar solution. If the cow urinates outside the toilet, it is "punished" with a splash of cold water (source: journal "Current Biology").
How much suffering is transported on the world's oceans in ships to the slaughterhouses, how loud it would be on the motorways of Europe and the rest of the world if the animals roared their fears and stress from the transporters.
"If slaughterhouses had walls of glass, everyone would be a vegetarian" - Paul McCartney.
Let's think and rethink and thus protect the animals and the globe.
Sincerely,
Your Gisela
