I can’t tell you exactly how or why but I ended up on CattleStore.com today. It’s “Your Source for Agricultural Supplies.” Since I’ve stopped eating animals and their products, I’ve thought a lot about the fact that it is not okay for me to have someone kill animals for my dinner. I’ve also had passing thoughts about the positive environmental impact one can have when not financially supporting animal agriculture. But I’d never really given much thought to all the crazy accessories that must go along with animal agriculture today. Some of these products would be ridiculously comical if they weren’t so tragic. But the next time someone worries about my eating too much soy, I’ll think about the Corid 9.6% Oral Solution the “concerned” meateater is ingesting along with their burger. That solution, by the way, is a “coccidiostat which can be administered in drinking water, or as a drench, to treat or prevent bovine coccidiosis (bloody scours) caused by Eimeria bovis and E. zurnii in calves.” So, if the cow you eat drinks that, well, you do the math.
Here are some of the other products you can find at CattleStore:
Syrvet: Spiked Calf Weaner: These anti-sucking devices impede the calf’s ability to suck. Virually unbreakable, reusable plastic. Turn the wingnut to apply and remove easily.
Inosol California Bender: The CaliforniaBander is a stainless steel tool which applies stretchy surgical tubing for fast and easy bloodless castrating.
Kow-Ball Chin Ball Marker: Recognized worldwide as an effective heat detection aid assuring high conception. Made of harness leather, Kow-Ball is fully adjustable and attaches securely and comfortably to a teaser bull. Spring-loaded stainless steel ball acts like a ball-point pen marking the mounted cow with a specially formulated non-toxic marking fluid. Reservoir holds sufficient fluid for 25 to 30 mountings and is easily refilled. Marking fluid available in Yellow, Blue, Green, Magenta, and Orange.
Intervet Revalor XS: The industry’s first delayed-release combination implant. Get all the performance of reprocessing without the complication of sending your cattle back through the chute. Revalor-XS delivers the same proven combination of TBA and estradiol as an initial dose of Revalor-IS and a terminal dose of Revalor-S in a single timed-release implant. One trip through the chute boosts cattle productivity and feed efficiency for up to 200 days. Each implant contains 10 small yellow pellets, with each pellet containing 20 mg of trenbolone acetate and 4 mg estradiol.
Suddenly my lunch of tofu, tabbouleh and broccoli seems charmingly simple.
Vegans of Color 
Sick…
Eeeeewwww!
ok, if I ate meat that would put me off it in a heartbeat. (Of course, one needs only drive down the freeway in Texas at slaughtering time to know what they participate in – cows actually scream and back up into each other trying to survive)
hi all,
i like this blog a lot & just wrote a short essay that i think would be relevant here. could i do a cameo? i’ll send you a draft if you’d like.
-indran
I admit I troll and browse the animal ag sites… mostly in disbelief of what goes on behind the scenes. Yet in all the times I’ve wandered around – I never leave amazed. Their whole industry is so vile and contemptable and it’s always best seen through their machines and weapons against animals. De Sade has got nothing on animal ag – they are evil incarnate.
if you need further explanation on the ball marker thing….
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1288.htm
Hi Indran,
If you haven’t been in touch with Johanna yet, I’m sure she could set you up to post.
Thanks!
Everyone else, I was just galled reading through these product descriptions. There is absolutely nothing natural about animal agriculture, “humane” or otherwise. Not when you’ve got all these other trappings going along with it.
[…] Vegans of Color: Would You Like a Side of Aureomycin 4G Medicated Crumbles with Your Burger? […]
Wow, those devices really do bring it all home.
yes factory farming sucks, but- at a risk of being booed- not all ranchers around the world use this stuff. many ranchers keep it basic. that’s all.
Not all ranchers use these exact products, I suppose, but every farmer–big or small–must come up with ways to keep female cows pregnant so that they can produce milk. Then they need to do something with those calves that are born and that includes keeping them from nursing from their mothers. And then they need to do something with captive animals who are sick or at risk of catching an infection from other animals.
So, these supplies or a variation of them are used by ALL farmers who keep and kill animals for profit. I don’t see how they couldn’t and still stay in business.
Has anyone contemplated how much protein is added to the human diet by livestock. Cattle consume plant material which we cannot utilize. This makes them an important part of our diet.
To bad we have to exist in the real world.
Hi Jim,
I’m a pre-nursing student currently studying nutrition. You’ll have to back up your claim that “cattle consume plant material, which we cannot utilize,” because that is not verified by my nonvegan-oriented, very mainstream, evidence-based nutrition class. Humans are omnivores, meaning they get their nutrient needs met from both plant and animal sources. Plant foods are incredibly important in meeting our nutrient needs and an overabundance of animal consumption leads to disease. For instance, since human beings ARE animals, and only animals create cholesterol, we have no nutritional need to consume it. When we eat an overabundance of animals, we consume their cholesterol on top of the cholesterol we already make. This contributes to cardiovascular disease.
Even if you’re not vegan, a primarily plant-based diet is currently supported by most mainstream medical and healthcare organizations.
Hi Joselle,
The proof is in the price. If cattle were fed entirely grain based diets beef would have to be priced more than twice what it is now. Calves are primarily raised with their dams for the first 9 months (about 700 lbs) on pasture (grass). The calf is usually sold by the producer to a commercial feeder who finishes or grows the calf to approximately 1200 to 1400 lbs. The finisher uses growth hormones (adds 5 to 15% value) , less expensive co-products such as corn gluten feed, FDA approved feed based antibiotics (adds 5 to 10% value) to finish the calf.
Maybe we should pay a little more attention to what we are eating. There are alternative ways to fill the freezer with good quality beef. Look for local farmers markets and ask a producer to raise a quality beef product for you. Look for a producer who uses vaccines rather than antibiotics and ask for hormone free antibiotic free beef.
I do not disagree, we, as a society, do consume to much animal protein and we, all of us, are paying a ‘heavy’ price for it. Our very nature dictates to us what we want to eat. Education can overcome instinct, but that is an uphill battle. Why not encourage moderation.
Enjoy your life. Encourage others to eat with moderation, and please help to educate those with whom you associate.