I like meat. But I don’t knowingly eat lamb, veal, piglet, cornish hens (which despite fancy the name are simply baby birds), seafood or wild game.
Do I have well thought out reasons for this? Nope. It is sort of like this: Fish taste terrible, and they live in their own floating poop. Wild animals are sort of noble and free. Baby animals are cute, and nothing should die a virgin(not that I ask if the older animals got to screw before eating a steak. I know the steers didn’t, but they didn’t really have that option). But hey, I don’t really need to justify not eating them, so why bother putting more thought into it? I don’t have any moral objections to other people eating these animals, per say, as long as they accept I’m not going to.
When I was little ( 6-10) my dad made veal cutlets once a month or so, and I loved them… until i went to visit my aunt and she told me what veal was. at the age of ten, the only thing I could say was “Ewwwwww.” I always thought it was some kind of tough chicken. ( then again I was so little that everything tasted like chicken, come to think of it everything still tastes like chicken!"
Ill eat pretty much any meat you can find in your average grocery store. I have a few observations of other peoples food views that always seem contradictory to me. First are the non veal eaters that think that keeping a veal in a little pen to keep them tender is cruel. To me its no different than having chickens stacked on top of each other 3 or 4 thick at your average commercial chicken pen. True, some would say that why i dont eat chickens either but ill bet youd find a suprising # of people that will eat chicken and NOT veal for just that reason.Also as to the “cruelness " of the veal pens i had a farmer once tell me that humans transfer human feelings onto animals when it may not nessesarily be that way. His arguements were that calfs felt safe and secure in thier pens and the “being jailed” feeling is a human construct. Who knows if this is true or can be proven one way or the other but there ya go. And there are the” no babies" eaters. Can you define what a baby shrimp looks like as compared to an undersized adult?? I cant and all ages are delicious to me. One big baby lobster is the same to me as a tiny adult but yet there are a large # of people who still eat meat and seafood, but dont eat “babies” that give none of these issues a second thought. Why is the age of a food important <aside from cullinary issues> in determining wether it should be eaten or not?? Seems rather arbitrary to me.
The Great Unwashed, if you wish to preach, do so in Great Debates.
Everyone else, please give your position without reacting to the honest opinions of others(that is what we do here at IMHO, after all), then move on.
I suppose this could count as a reaction, Czarcasm, but I hope you’ll let it pass since it isn’t critical in any way…
Flowerchild – scene in the Restaurant of the Future:
[Me] Wow, grilled Martian!!? What does it taste like?
[Waiter] Like chicken sir.
[Me] So how much is the chicken? …er, I’ll have the chicken then.
I apologize also, Czarcasm. I hope you’ll allow me a minor nitpick.
<hijack> jonpluc, two things. One, aves are a step below mammals on the evolutionary ladder. They lack a cerebrum, which is believed to be responsible for higher-level thinking and memory. There are some very smart birds like parrots, but in general chickens aren’t the brightest creatures. Hence the expression, “bird-brained.” That doesn’t make mistreatment of chickens in commercial farms any less severe, but I guess I just assume penning is worse on a mammal than a bird. I’m open to correction on that. Second, caged mammals exhibit very clear symptoms of duress, like pulling out their hair, pacing, lack of appetite, failure to groom themselves or even take care of their young. This is in reference to zooed animals that receive amazing care and treatment. I can’t imagine penned calves waiting for slaughter aren’t experiencing similar problems. Jail may be a human construct, but that doesn’t mean animals can’t grasp it.
</hijack>
That said, I have absolutely nothing against people who eat veal. I’m the only one in my family who doesn’t, I was just wondering what the doper opinion was.
Cows and veg, I’d kill a cow, get some veggies, cook both up and have a nice balanced meal, smoke the rest of the cow or something to preserve it, live off the remainder of the cow and any veggies I picked until the meat ran out(probably take a while) and I needed to kill another cow.
Dolphins and veggies, probably just veggies until I figured out how to catch a dolphin( Unless are special “Land-Dolphins”). Though if they turn out to be too rubbery, then I’ll skip it.
Dog and veg, eat the veggies and hope the dog agrees. Now if were a bunch of wild dogs as the only other signifcant mammel on the island, then I’d probably have dog every once in a while, if I could kill or trap them.
I don’t think I’ve ever had Veal or lamb but I have no moral or ethical problem with it. I eat chicken, I eat beef, I eat deer, I eat sea food, etc, so I really don’t see the difference between eating lamb and eating a cow. I’d probably eat monkeys if I had too(They’re cute, they’re funny and they’re tasty:D). I’m not going to eat bugs, and even shrimp makes me a little leary (even though I love shrimp) but I don’t see a moral problem.
I also don’t have a problem killing the animals myself if I have to, but I do not hunt for sport.
Don’t worry - it’s nothing to do with electricty. It’s a term we use over here for chickens (and other poultry) that are kept in stacks of small, wire-frame cages.
They’re controversial because they’re unsanitary and the birds have practically no freedom of movement.