No-one's really defending the American meat industry so much as defending kosher/halal slaughter as being reasonably humane. In Frumple's case I'm pretty sure he's arguing that if the animals are raised in shitty factory farms anyway then it doesn't make sense to argue for humane slaughter on its own.
I wasn't saying that people were defending the American meat industry. Reelya seemed to have a problem with the idea that someone would criticize schechita without also criticizing the American meat industry, and I was justifying that by saying that generally people don't defend the latter so there's not a lot of internet arguing to do about it.
I should have been clearer about what I was responding to:
Which is exactly why I think the daily mail-style halal butchery outrage is hypocritical and racially motivated.
I mean, Daily Mail also has stories of the same or worse happening in both English and American non-halal slaughter-houses, but very few people jump up and down about those.
And yeah, I was misunderstanding Frumple's point a bit. I suppose caring solely about butchery is hypocritical, but... who has demonstrated that opinion? I wouldn't assume people who have mentioned butchery in one conversation only care about butchery. I know plenty of people who care about humane slaughter, and they all oppose factory farm conditions. In my experience people care
more about the living conditions of the animal than how it's killed. I've certainly seen more media controversies about living conditions than slaughter practices.
40% sure it's also categorically false. I know it's false for sheep/pigs, but maybe the acid does something nice for venison? I doubt it though. I also don't know any deer farmers I could ask.
It's opinion, there's no false. In the case of the guy I know, it's a reasonably informed opinion, as he's eaten a lot of deer. I assume it's an uncommon preference, but if you're going to say the best argument for treating animals well is that you should strive to get quality meat, you've got to realize that those arguments motivate some people to be cruel. You can't just say their tastes are wrong. We live in a world where people eat cheese filled with live maggots, and it had to be banned because people could not be trusted to avoid it just out of nastiness.