A slaughterhouse connected to an internet website.
The goal is to make people conscious about the massacres that go on daily on an industrial scale.
A camera tracks the cows and the calves as they enter the slaughter-house.
Whatever method is used to kill it (probably: electroshock), a camera will show it online.
You can visit the website and follow a "marked-for-death" cow around. When it comes to the "kill area", you, as a user, can decide to push the RED DEATH BUTTON.
Or you can decide to let the cow go. You would then pay a sum needed to let the cow have a life on a green pasture, to die in peace and of natural causes. Some of your contribution will be donated to other awareness campaigns.
Obviously the whole concept is a bit problematic, because it would attract cruel people who enjoy the idea of killing an animal online.
But on the other hand, it might create a bit of a buzz, attract ordinary, kind people, and convert them into vegetarians and calf-savers. The media would jump on it and spread the message of cruelty of the meat industry.
[EDIT after Noexit's comment]: you obviously have to pay a sum too to push the death button. (We could even choose to put a higher price tag on this option). This will ensure enough income with which to honor the obligation to have the saved cows graze on land. With the two types of income (death / life), we can buy / rent some land for our saved cows.-- django, Aug 13 2008 Cows With Guns - Still a classic http://www.cowswithguns.com/cowmovie.html"They eat to grow, grow to dieDie to be et at the hamburger fry" [Klaatu, Aug 14 2008] "After you have pressed the RED DEATH BUTTON please do not press the 'Back' button as this results in the creation of a zombie cow"-- hippo, Aug 13 2008 I don't know if you'd get cruel people. You'd probably get a bunch of video gamers.-- normzone, Aug 13 2008 I am sure that the slaughterhouses would be all over this. It is reminiscent of your "save a child online" idea except what good is it to keep a bunch of cows around until they die of old age.
I think the money is milking the cruel people for the right to press the button.
But +, for hippo's zombie cow back button, which brightened my day.-- bungston, Aug 13 2008 I'd be banging on that red button every minute of every day.
But let's just assume I didn't. How are you going to provide for the cattle that get passed over? Let's say 10,000 calf-savers a day hit the site. 1/4 of them actually get to save a life and 2500 head of cattle go free. Where will you put them and ensure that they will live out their lives in green, cruelty-free pastures?
I think your problem is in actually honoring that choice, not the bloodthirsty savages that will choose to slaughter an animal already on the block.-- Noexit, Aug 13 2008 //"After you have pressed the RED DEATH BUTTON please do not press the 'Back' button as this results in the creation of a zombie cow"// [marked-for-tagline]-- shapu, Aug 13 2008 Meat is awesome. Is there anyway it could be a giant throw switch instead if a red button?-- Giblet, Aug 13 2008 Oh, like the gamer accessory joysticks?-- normzone, Aug 13 2008 [Noexit] good point. You would honor the "let-them-live" choice by buying / renting land with the money you got from both the cruel people (as they too have to pay for the privilege of pushing the death button), and from the calve-saving people.
You would adjust the price in such a way that you can buy / rent enough land where the cows can eat grass and die.-- django, Aug 13 2008 This idea could really go places. Stick a satellite webcam in a random impoverished African village. Do you send money to save the starving or just watch them fade away on the screen of your Vaio?
As a carnivore I'm very comfortable with killing cows, even if I have to do it myself, but I'm bunning this for the underlying idea.-- wagster, Aug 13 2008 You could wire stuff up to the cow's brain and control her movements with a joystick.
(I'm actually a veggie.)-- nineteenthly, Aug 13 2008 I've met a few beef cattle, being raised on a horse ranch by my cowboy friend. They were dumber than a box full of hammers. It was difficult to muster much sympathy for them.-- normzone, Aug 13 2008 So many people would push the button that the cattle industry would become entirely Kobe.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 13 2008 Would you also pay to have enough CO2 sequestered to counter the methane the cow will produce in its long life? Can you not just turn this into a cow auction option? I imagine farmers saying, I payed for it, I'll "take care" of it. More eyes on the beef=a more fair price per head.I, for one, would not hesitate to kill a cow. I think those bolts they use are quite humain. I think anyone who eats beef but wouldn't personally kill a cow is a hypocrite.-- Voice, Aug 13 2008 I doubt that you would attract anyone willing to pay to kill a cow that is set to be slaughtered anyway, and few who would pay to "save a bovine life". Those who wish to buy cows alive and pasture them can do it right now TODAY at any feeder cattle auction. These cows will be cheaper, thriftier and will soak up your disembodied webcam oggling affection. No need for any nonsense. Furthermore STOP BREEDING THE COWS if you don't intend to eat the meat. ITS A HUGE WASTE OF RESOURCES.-- WcW, Aug 14 2008 I was rather hoping that I might be paid a small sum for each electroshock trigger pulled or Red Death Button pushed, if only to offset the escalating cost of living and the oportunity to earn a small income in my dotage. But in all other respects I would have to agree with the comment [WcW} made immediately preceding this. The only economically viable and environmentally responsible reason for humans to cultivate and breed cattle is as a source of leather, dairy products, gelatine, and beef meat.-- jurist, Aug 14 2008 [Voice], i tend to agree. However, beef production is relatively inefficient compared to other meat, unless you include dairy. I prefer the idea of people going out and shooting wild animals such as rabbits and pigeons, or getting them from road kill.-- nineteenthly, Aug 14 2008 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.-- copycat042, Aug 14 2008 //You could wire stuff up to the cow's brain and control her movements with a joystick//
On second thoughts, I'm giving my bun to [nineteenthly].-- wagster, Aug 14 2008 Humans have evolved to kill and eat meat, something not readily apparent in our evolutionary chimpanzee relatives which eat more of a tropical fruity diet. At any rate, vegetarianism will help you live longer if you eat large portions of vegetables, whereas meat is clearly more easy for your body to assimilate than veggies are and meat contains a much higher caloric content which is beneficial to your metabolism and makes you more active. It sort of is a trade off.
As for killing, well, we can just say that evolutionary survival depends on killing as an arms race to get food. However, there is no real need to experience the carnarge of killing for food since the onset of agriculture, the domestication of farm animals, and trade though. I think, however, that the problem of eating meat is in eating too much processed meat that is typically trucked over long distances in the modern mass market. Perhaps, logistically, we could more efficiently and more healthily feed the world if those large grassy farmlands were used for growing vegetables instead of feeding grass to cows which produce methane? [+]-- quantum_flux, Aug 14 2008 //I don't know if you'd get cruel people. You'd probably get a bunch of video gamers.//
Is there a difference? <ducks>
//I think anyone who eats beef but wouldn't personally kill a cow is a hypocrite.//
What if they don't have any moral objection to killing cows, but just don't want to be the one to do it? That doesn't sound too hypocritical. But yes, if you're talking about people who act like killing cows is immoral (yet eat beef), ok.-- bnip, Aug 19 2008 random, halfbakery