Cows fed chicken waste

I don't know how I came across this article from care2 causes, but I did and it left me with mixed emotions.

If you eat feedlot meat, chances are you may be eating chicken waste!

Unless science has progressed so much that we are already raising meat on feedlots, let's call a spade a spade. Animals, in this case cattle, are fattened for slaughter on feedlots, not meat. You are not eating chicken waste, you are eating the flesh of a cow who has been fed chicken waste.

It is astonishing that herbivorous mammals are being fed feathers and feces, but not any more astonishing than their diets on feedlots. A cow is biologically predisposed to consuming grasses. Yet on feedlots she is fed grain, a diet so high in protein that it can ruin her digestive system and mess up how her blood flows to her extremities. Too much grain can restrict bloodflow to her legs, causing laminitis and other joint and leg problems. Grain as the primary source of nutrition is abnormal for ruminants, as much as feathers and feces are.

The author then goes on to explain why cows eat feces and feathers:

Because cows eat what is in front of them...

There is an implication here, unintended or otherwise, that suggests cattle are machines too stupid to figure out what to eat and not eat. At the sanctuary, we compost all the chicken feces and straw. While the cattle love to lie in the compost piles (primarily straw), I cannot recall a time when I've seen them just eating every feather, piece of manure or straw in front of them. They are not vacuum cleaners. That isn't to say they eat inappropriate things, but that is not because they have some insatiable drive to eat whatever is in front of them.

Regardless of your dietary choices, no one (animals included) should be allowed to eat floor waste. It's disgusting, unsafe and inhumane.

And then there is a link to sign a petition to stop the feeding of feathers and feces to cattle. The problem is not feeding feathers and feces to cattle, the problem is that people eat chickens. The most obvious solution to this problem is to not participate in the cycle at all. Don't eat chickens - there won't be an overabundance of feces and feathers. Don't eat cattle - there won't be a viable mechanism to dispose of those feces and feathers.

The lives of cattle or chickens will NOT improve in any significant manner by removing feces and feathers from cattle's diet. Your health will not improve by eliminating this practice - it isn't the feeding of feces and feathers that is unhealthy, it's the feeding of grain. It isn't removing feathers from a cow's diet that will alter your risk of high cholesterol, it's not eating the cow that will.

So yes, it's about choice. You can choose to do something as meaningless as signing a petition that changes nothing. Or you can choose to be part of something that saves lives and improves health. It really is that simple.