Took a trip to my local Animal Feed store, aka supermarket.

Sadly, all trace of human foods seems to have been removed and replaced by a vast acreage of pig food. Actually, I don’t think it would be eligible for feeding livestock, there are probably regulations about permissible levels of additives, contaminants and pollutants.

There, the barrage balloons happily browse. The sort who, when eyeing the pork sausages, make you think, “No, no! That’s cannibalism.”

What shocked, but did not surprise, was the lack of choice. Stuffing the shelves with large amounts of the same product does not constitute choice. Neither does shutting down sections of the frozen food department so that the cattle will be funnelled towards whatever line of junk they need to move quickly.

I remember seeing a documentary featuring an American lady who was autistic. This meant that recognising moods, facial configurations and behaviour patterns did not come naturally to her. Being very intelligent, she set about consciously learning and memorising these behaviours so that she could cope with society in general. She was very successful.

This ability to recognise and catalogue behaviours led her to apply the same skills to animal behaviour and she became an expert on how animals react to situations and what stresses them out. She used this skill to become a leading adviser on the design of stockyards, I believe in Chicago, that allowed animals to be handled and channelled through the yards with the minimum of stress. For example, I believe she understood what width of alleyway would be most comfortable for cows to move through. Not so narrow as to be a bit scary, not so  wide as to let them feel exposed, just the right width to make it seem a safe place to go.

Nice to know that these skills are apparently transferrable to humans.