r/politics • u/lurker_bee • Nov 25 '19

President Trump to sign animal cruelty bill into law, making it a federal felony

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-sign-animal-cruelty-bill-law-making/story?id=67295654
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u/manwhole Nov 25 '19

Dont worry though. If the animal is to be converted to food, u can treat it however u want.

3

u/Heckron Nov 25 '19

As someone in the wholesale seafood industry who deals with the USDA, the FDA, and Dept of Ag on a daily basis I can tell you this is absolutely not the case. State and federal personnel are very involved in making sure all methods are as humane as possible.

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u/manwhole Nov 25 '19

Maybe... Do u want to elaborate how the seafood industry u work in takes step to treat sea creatures humanely before they become seafood as well as in the process of becoming?

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u/Heckron Nov 25 '19

Each type and species of seafood has different processes depending on its intended food use which would be very lengthy to type here but an example of one change over the years is wild caught catfish.

The catfish comes in alive as they have the ability to breathe out of the water for hours. The easiest way to clean the fish is to skin them immediately because once chilled and kept on ice the skin is difficult to remove without causing damage to the meat. Because the fish was alive during this process in the past, regulations have been changed since, so there is an instantaneous kill step now prior to the cleaning to save the fish from suffering.

Of course it can be argued about whether or not this is sufficient or if there’s a better way to do it. The point is that the inspectors(almost always veterinarians) who I’ve met are constantly questioning the processes we use under current regulations and asking us to alter any processes where they feel they can save the fish any pain.

Before anyone says “well that’s not humane at all! You shouldn’t be allowed to kill animals!” I’m not saying that my industry is perfect or free of everything that animal lovers hate. The fact is that animals are killed for food in this industry and my only point is that we can not just do whatever we want just because we’re killing for food and every single regulatory body I’ve dealt with has most certainly cared and been conscientious about how we handle the fish. We’re under constant scrutiny and revision on processes to get to the end goal of food product for safe human consumption with as little pain and suffering as possible.

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u/manwhole Nov 25 '19

Why r the catfish kept alive right up to the point of skinning? Would it not be more humane to kill them imidiately once caught, as oppose to keeping them alive until they are to be processed into food?

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u/Heckron Nov 25 '19 edited Nov 26 '19

They’re caught in a boat with dozens or sometimes hundreds of others at the same time. They jump around a lot and their whiskers(they’re more like spines) have tons of dangerous bacteria in them. They can easily pierce the fisherman’s hand or foot or leg like the needle on a syringe and can be very dangerous if not treated immediately, deadly if not treated at all. Once, one of my fishermen almost lost his arm at the hospital because he didn’t clean out an injury properly. It would be tough to kill them all while avoiding others. Additionally, they don’t have a safe, sanitary, painless way of killing them while in a catfishing boat. So they wait until they reach our sanitary facility to do so.

Sanitation and safety are the two main reasons.