I’m thinking you’ve never had greasy, greasy, next-day fried chicken leftovers?
:dubious:
It’s bad enough when it’s just cooked, but it’s the reheated grease that just gets to me…leaving it cold is even worse.
My cats get only cat food, not people food, and no plain old meat because I don’t eat it. Of course there’s meat in their cat food, but it’s not like big hunks of chicken flesh.
I don’t know why my housemate would throw the food out, but that’s what he was going to do. I already give him enough shit about his diet (he survives on fast food, soda, and ice cream, and is a stick figure), so I didn’t get too into it with him about it. I just saved it from the trash can.
Nope, I’ve never had greasy next-day fried chicken leftovers. But I can imagine it’d be kind of gross - the breading probably would get all mushy. Still, if I were that worried about saving it, I would rather eat it myself rather than inflict it on someone or something else. My stomach could handle it better than my cats’ would, and that way I wouldn’t be cleaning up kitty barf for days afterward.
Ruby, I’m not hostile, I’m confused. Why would you be upset about throwing out food that you can’t or won’t eat, but aren’t upset about the person who bought more than they could eat and then chose to waste it.
I hate wasted food as much as the next guy, but if someone else is wasting it, I manage to deal, ya know?
An animal lived out its life in most likely a pretty terrible place and died in a less than humane way so that people could eat its body. Then, when it winds up in a landfill, it has lived and died in a bad way for no good reason. That’s what bothers me.
As for my feelings towards my housemate’s eating habits, those are not the subject of this discussion. He knows how I feel about meat and wasting food and his diet in general, but I cannot control how he lives or what he does. All I can do is my best to deal with it in a way that makes me feel better about it.
I don’t think you hate wasted food as much as I do. In fact, it’s pretty clear that you don’t. I’m also “managing to deal,” thankyouverymuch. I wanted to see what other Dopers would do in the same situation. That’s all. Stop reading angst into a post where there was just a question.
Oh yeah, alice, and I’m not a chump for trying to do the right thing. :dubious: When someone calls me a chump, that feels hostile to me, call me crazy.
Ok, you’re crazy. 
In any case, you’ve got my answer. I don’t eat dead birds, regardless of how they got that way, or who brought them into my house. The idea makes me physically ill just thinking about it. (God - what if you got a feather?! blech)
Anyhow - I just think it’s fruitless to feel guilty about other peoples actions. If I waste food, I feel bad. If someone else does, I don’t. The fact that the chicken had a horrible life and death has nothing to do with me. I don’t support that industry, so my conscience is totally clear - no chicken was raised or killed so that I could eat it. Really, that’s the best I can do.
Obviously, you feel differently. No worries, just a difference of opinion.
(I do have to wonder how much the dead chicken really cares if it gets eaten by a person, or gets eaten by crows at the land fill. It is, after all, dead.)
Sigh. I don’t feel guilty. I just want to do the right thing, and adding to the landfill IMO is NOT the right thing. I grew up on Staten Island and I know how vile, disgusting, and pernicious landfills can be. Do a little research on landfills and you won’t be so cavalier about contributing anything to one.
Since I’m a vegetarian, a composter, and an avid recycler, very little goes into the garbage pail here. Meat, OTOH, can’t be composted, and I’m not going to throw it in my yard because I’d have coyotes at my door. This poses a dilemma for me that has more to do with concern for waste than guilt.
But it affects you. It affects everyone. You know, think globally, act locally. I can’t control what my housemate does, but I can control what I send to the landfill. See what I mean?
Let’s have a seance and find out what the chicken’s wishes are. 
[ouija board]B-W-A-K-B-W-A-K-B-W-A-K . . .[/ouija board]
Omnivore chipping in here… Yes I have had “greasy, greasy, next-day fried chicken leftovers”. KFC’s to be precise on many occasions. Like overlyverbose theorised, the breading does get kind of mushy.
That’s why I always remove the breading and skin and just eat the chicken straight from the fridge. It’s cold, firm, not greasy (almost all the grease is in the skin and breading), and makes a great breakfast. … Of course I also like cold pizza for breakfast too, so YMMV…
And to address the OP, I may not be a vegetarian, but my mother is (and has been for over 30 years), and she would have done exactly the same as you Rubystreak for exactly the same reasons.
When I was in high school two of my girlfriends worked at KFC - after having heard the stories, and seen the ‘chicken’, I just have a hard time considering it, ya know, food. The one girlfriend used to have boxes and boxes of the stuff in the fridge.
One day she and I and two of our guy friends cut class to sit around her kitchen hot-knifing hash. Eventually, we ran out of hash, but decided to hot-knife the KFC skin instead. It smelled EXACTLY the same….
WE DESCOVERED THE SECRET 11TH SPICE!
I dunno, maybe if the ‘food’ in the OP had been anything other than KFC I’d be able to muster up some guilt about turfing it, sadly, I cannot. I would recycle the box tho…