Is eating a kitten immoral or just bad manners?

[donkeyoatey]

Yes.
Is eating an OP immoral or just bad manners?

[Daowajan]

It depends. Did you cook it on the barbecue?

[elfkin477]

At worst it's bad manners, at best it's high cusine.

<mini-rant>
Who am I to say people shouldn't eat puppies or kittens? As long as they're not my pets, that is... I don't get the celebrities and others who are all upset that people eat animals that we consider pets. So what? How would they like it if a bunch of people from India started protests here about us eating cows? It must be nice to go to sleep at night thinking that you could save cuddly animals overseas from being eaten in places were people often starve...
</mini-rant>

[mandielise]

Eat what ya like! I, personally, couldn't imagine eating a kitten.... then again, I wouldn't eat bugs either, and they're delicacies in certain places. I believe, so long as it doesn't kill you, you should eat whatever you want. Yes, that includes certain illegal plants that can become a wonderful ingredient in brownies (you need to eat your greens!).

[chula]

With regard to whether it's bad manners, if it'snot rude to eat meat in front of a vegetarian (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130566), I don't see why it would be rude to eat a kitten.

[Jervoise]

My breath smells like cat-food.

;)

[Kakkerlak]

[The Tick]

Eating kittens is just plain wrong,
and no one should do it !

[/The Tick]

[Genseric]

It's definitely bad manners if it's not your kitten.

[Celyn]

Of course, first you have to catch the kitten and they can be quite fast-moving little things.

But on the plus side, you could end up with lots of really cute miniature fireside rugs!

And cutesy little kitten heads mounted on the walls.

Hmm



<Goes in search of her cat>

[Zorro]

I've noticed that a kitten has almost exactly the same morphology as a rabbit, so preparing the carcass wouldn't be a problem. However, having seen what I give my kitten to eat, I don't think that it would be very pleasant to the palate. As for the moral implications, well, it's my bloody kitten and I'll eat it if I want to, although I doubt that the Fascists at the RSPCA would see it that way, but they can bugger off.

[SUPERKARLENE]

Last July, we had a big Independence Day bash here in town: barbecue, picnic, fireworks, etc. Hundreds of people came.

Imagine their surprise when one family on the lawn barbecued a kitten over an open flame.

Pandemonium. Screams. Projective vomiting the likes of which has never been seen before by human eyes. (TMI. Sorry.)

(I'll hide now.)

[hazel-rah]

Eating a kitten is unthinkable.

[Genseric]

These are fun. Who else votes that OP-less posts are sometimes better than real ones?

[dantheman]

Kittens? Nah. I prefer the euphemism. ;)

[gooti]

I read a really good article last year about people eating dogs in Korea, and the adverse American reaction to it. But basically, it came down to the idea that if you have no objections to someone eating bacon, ham, or other pig parts, that you really dpn't have a leg to stand on if you want to bitch about people in other parts of the world eating cats and dogs.

The "but they are so cute" argument doesn't go very far. Is it because we keep them for pets? Many people have pet pigs. Is it because of their intelligence? I don't have stats handy but I think it's been established that pigs are about on par with dogs as far as intelligence goes. I'm sure that I am forgetting several of the good points in the article, but I went from "That's disgusting, they should be ashamed of themselves" to "you know, although I don't agree, it's really no different than eating pigs" in about 15 minutes of reading.

[mouthbreather]

Once again, we play the old "forgot to see who was logged in" game.

The above post is mine.

[Clever Hans]

I would have to say neither nor, just a difference in culture and customs.

You didn't say cat though, and since we have no OP perhaps you meant, is it wrong to eat milk fed kitten that has been in a feeding box for 6 weeks on an intensive force feeding regiment. That would be a different issue all together.

[not quite a hijack]My favorite chineese food place was shut down by the health food department not to long ago, so now I have to pretend it's been beef I've been eating all these years. Honestly though, if they reopened today I would be first in line, fido was that good.[/

[CalMeacham]

"Peter de Vries thought: The Filthy Pig. He's kept all the best kittens for himself"

from Doon, the National Lampoon parody of Frank Herbert's Dune

[sailor]

Hmmm, kitty (http://www.geocities.com/monroe1809/cat.htm), the *other* white meat.

[Space Vampire]

I would eat dog, but I would never eat cat.

[Little Bird]

I can't believe this thread has gone this long with no "pussy-eating" jokes.....

[dantheman]

I kinda made one. :)

Kinda.

[World Eater]

Although you can eat whatever the hell you please, it still disgusts me to think about it.

[dantheman]

You're one to talk! You eat the entire world!

[lieu]

I probably wouldn't do it...


unless I needed some more guitar string.

[Judith Prietht]

Or your tennis racket had a big hole in it.

[MovieMogul]

Kittens? Too scrawny. They don't call them furballs for nothin'.

Now a full-grown cat, that's another story.

[Max Torque]

"When the game of life makes you feel like quittin'
It helps a lot if you kill a kitten
Mark my words cause from where I'm sittin'
You can't go wrong if you kill a kitten"
-- Stephen Lynch

Ya gotta admit, it makes a lot of sense.

[AndrewL]

So, anyone got any recipies?

[RadioWave]

Astro, requests for recipes go in Cafe Society. ;)


And just like eating beef would be bad form in India, eating kitten would be bad form in most kitten-luvin countries.

[Gyrate]

Well, considering all the kittens that God kills when people masturbate, it would be a shame to let them go to waste. Plus, you could make a musical instrument of of it (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120726) while you're at it...

[kittenblue]

Hmmph. I'd really like to get to know you a little first, but as long as we both enjoy it, it's bad manners not to.

[MovieMogul]

Holy cow! You are a rare breed indeed...

[Guinastasia]

:(

Although, we could get a LOT of meat out of our Misty-she's huge.



But I say immoral, since cats are our superiors. ;)

[dantheman]

According to Douglas Adams, they're not. Only dolphins and mice are. :)

[Boo Boo Foo]

Down here in Australia, pet cats have escaped into the wild and have bred into feral cats the size of mini lions. Some of 'em stand 18 inches high and are over 2 1/2 feet long. Every animal in the continent less than "knee height" is now an endangered species thanks to feral cats. They're the ultimate lethal killing machine on the Australian landscape. There are billabongs down here now in the Outback totally devoid of life and the last skeleton to have laid down it's bones was the local feral cat which had killed off everything else and then died itself from starvation.

Is it good manners to eat a kitten? Ask the Australian environment! (smile)

[donkeyoatey]

Would it be immoral to take money for eating a pet (http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~petersm/mark/pets.html) ?
If a complete stranger asked me if he could eat my beloved pet it would take about $57.37 so that after he was done I could go buy a banana and some ducks.

[grendel72]

It's bad manners if you didn't bring enough for everyone to eat.

[chula]

I must cross-reference astro's other post, Insanely fat pussycat (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130944). I think it explains a lot.

[Sivalensis]

I would say that in our society, yes it immoral. We have cats as pets and they are dependent upon us. We don't need them to survive, we have plenty of options at the supermarket already prepared for us.

For someone starving in the middle of nowhere, or in a very poor country or whatever, I have no moral quandry with their eating cat. That's a clear cut case of natural selection...you eat it or you die.

[betenoir]

Ya know...when it comes to eating our fellow mammals, humans eat a lot of herbavors, some omnivores (pigs, dogs...other humans occasionally) but though they otherwise seem to be willing to eat anything, seem never have to made a practice of
eating carnavors. Even ones, like kitties, that they can catch.

Maybe they're just not very tasty.

In which case it would be bad manners to serve a kitty to you're guests.

[clairobscur]

I would say that in our society, yes it immoral. We have cats as pets

A lot of people have rabbits as pets. And some people have ducks, or even pigs.


and they are dependent upon us.


Cows too are dependent upon us



We don't need them to survive, we have plenty of options at the supermarket


Yes. And we don't need cow meat to survive, either, we have plenty of other options at the supermarket.



already prepared for us.

Why would it change a thing whether is it prepared for us or not? Isn't the animal killed for our comsumption in both cases? Would eating cats be acceptable if they were killed and prepared by your neighbor, or if they were sold at the supermarket? Would it be unacceptable to eat a chicken if you had to kill and prepare it yourself?

[clairobscur]

For someone starving in the middle of nowhere, or in a very poor country or whatever,


Koreans aren't starving in the middle of nowhere, still some of them like dog's meat. Why would you have to starve for eating a dog to be morally acceptable, while eating a pig is fine in all situations?

[kambuckta]

Originally posted by ArchiveGuy
Kittens? Too scrawny......

Yeah, but you can fit a few on a skewer. Kitten-kebabs! :p

[Bryan Ekers]

Why would you bother? You'll just find yourself coughing up hairballs.

[dantheman]

Well, Bryan, there are more than 101 ways to skin a cat, you know.

[racer72]

I accidently ran over a cat and it became wedged between the muffler of my car and the floor board. When I arrived at my destination, I could smell cooked meat and was able to extract the now dead pussy. The smell of cooked cat is not pleasant, it would require some serious marinating or seasoning. I have eaten some strange meats but I will not eat cat.

[Annie-Xmas]

If you want to kill wild cats and eat them, I don't see why not. Killing someone's pet would be very bad manners.

In Susan Kay's book Phantom , she mentions people eating "boiled cat with pistachio nuts."

[World Eater]

Originally posted by dantheman
You're one to talk! You eat the entire world!

Not any worlds with kittens on 'em :)

[lieu]

I didn't know that's where pistachios came from.

[easy e]

"Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop
Does her business, but I've noticed something weird
Lately all her neighbors cats have disappeared
Have to hand it to her
What I calls enterprise
Popping pussies into pies
Wouldn't do in my shop
Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick
And I'm telling you them pussycats is quick"

--Mrs Lovett, "Worst Pies in London," Sweeny Todd


Wow, I was able to do that from memory. It helps that my stepmother introduced me to that musical when I was in 3rd grade.