[Icy Tea]

I saw a bumper sticker the other day: " If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?"

[jimboburnsy]

Sympathy for arthropods is a little new to me. I haven't eaten lobster in quite a while, but there have been numerous shrimp/crawfish/crab boils in recent memory. I guess I should stop that practice along with swatting flies or mosquitos, stomping roaches, spraying yellow-jackets, poisoning ants and treating the dogs for fleas and ticks. Doesn't seem fair now that I think about it.

Hey, at least the lobsters, crabs, shrimp and crawfish whose deaths I have been directly responsible for were consumed...

[Nite Ryder]

Don't confuse people. There are still people out there that think the local grocery store makes beef steak. If God didn't want us to eat animals he wouldn't have made them out of meat.

[jimboburnsy]

Oh! I forgot... Termites and bedbugs have feelings too.

[Marylandkitten]

Let's not get out of hand here!

I came to the boards with an honest question, because I was honestly concerned and confused. But since you bring it up... stomping on bugs is not out of my nature, but I know many many people that go out of their way (even if they think that their existence is hindering and gross) to capture the one stray spider, and release it outside, rather than just smush it to death. I don't think it has as much to do with considering the spider's feelings, as it does with just respecting their existence.

Killing fleas, gnats, bedbugs, mosquitoes and the like is understandable. They are parasites, they can cause problems. So on that hand, I could see a third world country, like Algeria where I used to live.. if they decided to turn a profit and benefit from their cat overpopulation by eating them (because cats there cause problems with food contamination, traffic hazards, rabies vaccinations). But that's not the nature of this post! What got this pot a' stirrin was the articles I was reading about how they have breeding farms for these cats and dogs, and go out of their way to bring these lives into existence, just to torture them as they are dying- for specialty foods and medicines, when they are neither starving, nor compassionate about their feelings.

So to answer your rather sarcastic jabs.... yes - if you found a certain specie of insect or animal that was not causing you any hinderances, but you made it a point to raise them, hurt their feelings while you kill them, and sell them.. even if I was not particularly a lover of your choice of menu, I would most likely be miffed and sympathize over them.

Don't confuse people. I'm confused enough as it is.

If you eat meat and don't care, fine. If you eat meat and do care, fine. If you damn everyone to hell that eats meat, and kills bugs, fine! But it's wrong to openly attack people on the boards for who they are or why they are. I asked for their beliefs, and practical reasonings behind it to better justify the growth and/or direction of mine. That doesn't mean this thread is open game to pick on them for it.

[Yzette]

I stopped eating poultry about five years ago because it was too much like eating my pets. How on earth could I eat a bird, and then sit down on the couch and watch a movie with one snuggled under my chin? And seeing "whole chicken, cut up" in a package to make soup--augh, I saw the wings and thought of how much they are like my birds' wings and I lost it right there in the grocery store.

You've explained the rest of my vegetarianism: An animal is an animal. I don't like the horrific conditions of factory farming and have chosen not to contribute to the suffering of animals just so I can clog my arteries. Organic, or even kosher, is no guarantee of humane treatment, either. If you go to the vegetarian and vegan boards on here, plenty of folks can explain why.

And you can always watch Food, Inc. Never mind the suffering. The filthy, nasty conditions in factory farming also make the animals very sick--and then people eat them, along with all the hormones and antibiotics they're shot up with. No thanks.

[groar]

Originally Posted by Icy Tea

I saw a bumper sticker the other day: " If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?"

i feel the same way about babies.

and it kind of floors me that some people here are saying that they'd rather eat their pets than become vegetarian. really now? you feel that strongly about eating meat?

i'd eat my pets if i was *starving* and there was truly nothing else to eat, but even if i did eat meat i can't see doing it before exhausting every other option first, including vegetarianism.

[sugarsugar]

I am another that eats meat and has pets. The only decision I made was to quit eating "meat" that was produced by others whose methods I don't like.

Animals are not raised and processed as they were when I was a youngster, and it took a lot of research on my part before I finally realized that it made me sick and uncomfortable to see what kind of "modern" processing it took to make meat become a daily need, instead of the once or twice a week splurge it was for my working class family growing up. I started searching this info out, because I'd noticed over the last so many years that frankly, meat from the supermarket tasted either average or like crap, requiring some kind of sauce as a coverup, instead of because I felt like saucing it up. And I was wondering why that was, and now I know.

So we started raising our own beef - they live in a herd, on hundreds of acres, and do their own thing until it is time for us to slaughter one. Either the mobile guy or my dh makes the shot - it is out where they live, & it is instantaneous. There is no panic before, or suffering due to a misplaced shot or device malfunction. If you have to die, it is probably better than how our local cougars kill them (we just lost a calf to a predator, believe a coyote, and it isn't nearly as fast or painfree, and panic is high in that situation).

I have read too much about the living conditions of chickens, and am done with that. Pretty much, unless I can raise it myself or know with certainty how a creature other than my own are cared for, up to and through the death process (ie, local and I know the people), I don't eat it anymore.

When the day comes that I can no longer raise my cattle due to age, etc, I will either eat locally where I can supervise conditions to my satisfaction, or not eat meat. Raising one's own isn't a solution for everyone, nor is it necessarily the best solution for some, esp. those who prefer not to eat meat. But it has worked for us, for now.

[stanman13]

We are just a part of the food chain like the rest. Does the wolf feel bad for the elk? We'll never know, but he eats it just the same. I think, though, that the way we currently go about it in this country is indecent. We should be treating animals, even those we intend to eat (or maybe especially those), with respect.

My freezer is full of venison, too. Each one taken has a blessing and prayer of thankfulness said over it at the moment that it gave its life so that I may live.

[mg420]

"If one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people." --- Leo Tolstoy