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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Can you elaborate?
I can provide an example, but you might hate me for it. I swear this is just to explain what I mean by this fallacy because I can't think of another example right now.
Justifying killing/using an animal for its skin/hide (e.g. leather or fur), because you're already killing the animal for its flesh, when in actual fact the killing of the animal doesn't need to take place at all (hypothetically).
Or justifying the killing of calves for veal as a necessary component of dairy production, when in fact dairy production isn't necessary, either.
I hope that makes sense
I know it's just an example but I wanted to point out that almost no calves end up as veal.
Actually almost all male calves do (in the dairy industry), because they can't produce milk and it wouldn't be profitable or financially feasible to keep them alive otherwise
"Male dairy calves are surplus to the requirement of dairy production, and thus, are often sold from the dairy farm in early life. In the United States, male calves are generally sold within days of birth (Shivley et al., 2019) for veal or dairy beef production (Perdue and Hamer, 2017). Raising young male dairy calves for meat, particularly veal, is a contentious issue that has received public scrutiny in the United States (e.g., California Prop 2, 2008) and globally (reviewed by Bolton and von Keyserlingk, 2021)."
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fanim.2022.1000897/full
Source for number of dairy cows in the usa
Source for annual veal production in the usa
thousands of head of cows = 9448.0
actual cows = 1000 * thousands of head of cows
annual male calves = .5 * actual cows
veal weight of calves in pounds = 450
annual veal production in millions of pounds = 58
annual percentage of bobby calves that become veal = ((annual veal production in millions of pounds * 1000000) / (veal weight of calves in pounds * annual male calves))*100 = 2.728384608147521%
the vast majority of calves are brought to full weight before slaughter
edit:
this user is using this thread to advocate for a position that clearly isn't supported by the facts, but by the ideology they are evangelizing here. if you want to waste your time watching me waste my time arguing with someone who is not engaging in good faith, this is the thread for you. otherwise it comes down to this: they think dairy is unnecessary and cruel and therefore immoral. any problem i've pointed to in their position is glossed over and turned into a personal attack.
I think your "veal weight" is off by an order of magnitude. At four days old, when they are sent to the slaughterhouse, they weigh less than 40kg each, which equates to a ballpark of 10kg "veal" per calf.
I'm sorry but your math doesn't reflect the reality of most dairy farms. The male calves are indeed mainly killed for veal. And I didn't say most calves are killed for veal, I said most male calves. Indeed, most female calves are raised to become dairy cows, and some male calves are raised to become beef cows, or bulls used for their semen for artificially inseminating dairy cows, or in some cases for mating.
Overall you might say then that most calves are raised until a few years old for slaughter, either as dairy cows, dairy bulls or beef cattle (keep in mind they can live until 20-25 years), but most male calves are killed as babies for veal.
"Because male cattle cannot produce milk, dairy producers treat these animals as disposable—or “surplus.” Some are sold to be raised for beef, likely on crowded feedlots with up to 150,000 cattle crammed into filthy enclosures. Others—in fact, the majority—will be sold for veal. The remaining calves will be killed shortly after birth."
https://thehumaneleague.org/article/veal-animal#:~:text=Because%20male%20cattle%20cannot%20produce,will%20be%20sold%20for%20veal.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/26/dairy-dirty-secret-its-still-cheaper-to-kill-male-calves-than-to-rear-them
My math is based on numbers from the USDA. your sources are narratives from biased organizations. Even they aren't dishonest enough to not admit that male calves are raised for beef. they prefer to focus on the veal production because they think it's more horrific but try to pin them down on the actual number of cattle that are brought to full weight before slaughter.
USDA is inherently biased toward animal farming, and the first source I linked was a scientific study. But I'm not necessarily denying what USDA says. Holding a bias doesn't automatically make something untrue. You didn't quote anything they said, you made some hasty calculations based on their statistics, which seemed to overlook the distinction between male calves and female calves. You used this to make a statement that I never disagreed with, because I was making a different one. (One could call that a strawman fallacy).
Humane League is an animal welfare organisation. Of course they're going to focus on the most ethically unsound aspects of animal farming, since that's their purpose, but nothing they said was false. They did acknowledge that some male calves in the dairy industry are raised for beef, but that most are killed for veal.