# Eating Animals That Were 'Saved'. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467 "2017-08-23T15:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/41 "2017-08-24T09:33:43Z")
This is one of the times I think the old “Well you feed the full grown hog until it dies of old age then”-gambit is a valid reply. “Also, you supply enough land for it to be a happy free range hog.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/42 "2017-08-24T10:48:18Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > There is something screwed up about firemen risking their lives to save food. This. > [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > They were trying to save barn and other property. Except they weren’t able to save the barn. If my house was on fire and my wife and son and I were safely outside, I wouldn’t want, let alone expect, firefighters to try to go in and rescue any of our personal property from the blaze. Either they are able to put out the fire and keep the house from burning down, or they aren’t. Afterwards we see what’s salvageable from fire and water damage once the fire is out. > [@StGermain](#): > > And really, being burned alive is a horrible way to go. Better to get them out, if you can without too much danger, than let them suffer. There’s at least an argument for this. But (a) I have a hard time seeing how they could be too late to save the barn, yet in time to rescue animals from the barn with little risk, and (b) it would really have to be minimal risk, for the modest gain of saving some animals from an inhumane death only to turn around and kill them humanely. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/43 "2017-08-24T11:10:00Z")
Saving animals from a fire is a lot easier than it is for most property. Just make a hole big enough for them to get out of, and they’ll do the rest. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/44 "2017-08-24T16:59:01Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > When my children were small, we made a conscious effort to make them understand where food came from. They would stand on a field gate and shout “Mint Sauce” at the spring lambs. 🙂 I raised a batch of lambs for an [SCA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Creative_Anachronism) feast one year, and I had a polaroid of the little darlings so I could introduce people to their dinner =) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/45 "2017-08-24T17:19:19Z")
Hard to eat food when you have a personal connection to it. My mother would tell the story of how there was a duck that would run around in the living room of her house. She and her siblings would play with it. When the time came for the duck to be killed and cooked, she and her siblings had a hard time eating the meat… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/46 "2017-08-24T17:46:53Z")
What do people think the farmer was going to do? Raise them and milk them and make pig cheese? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/47 "2017-08-24T17:49:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Saving animals from a fire is a lot easier than it is for most property. Just make a hole big enough for them to get out of, and they’ll do the rest. Pigs, maybe. They’re pretty smart for livestock. But you could open the door in a burning barn and half the cows inside wouldn’t go outside. And sheep are dumber than cows. And chickens are dumber than sheep. And turkeys are dumber than chickens. It stops there though. Nothing is dumber than a turkey. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/48 "2017-08-24T17:53:06Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I have a hard time seeing how they could be too late to save the barn, yet in time to rescue animals from the barn with little risk Fire spreads. You can see a fire moving towards a building before the building is actually burning. You can get stuff out of the building but you’re not going to be able to move the building itself. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/49 "2017-08-24T17:54:26Z")
I guess my mother had it better than some farm kids. When it was time for the cows to go to slaughter, there was one that didn’t get loaded on the truck, because it was her cow. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/50 "2017-08-24T18:03:47Z")
This is all the fault of “Babe”. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/51 "2017-08-24T18:38:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I raised a batch of lambs for an [SCA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Creative_Anachronism) feast one year, and I had a polaroid of the little darlings so I could introduce people to their dinner =) Heh. That reminds me of the Portlandia bit where the waitress brings out a fact sheet for the chicken that they’ll be having for dinner. “His name was Colin, here are his papers.” “He looks like a happy little guy…did he have lots of friends?” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/52 "2017-08-24T18:51:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > What do people think the farmer was going to do? Raise them and milk them and make pig cheese? That would never work! Stools built that low to the ground are custom jobs. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/53 "2017-08-24T19:03:24Z")
Nobody has mentioned _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_ yet? “Would you like to meet the meat?” ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/54 "2017-08-24T19:34:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It stops there though. Nothing is dumber than a turkey. Wild turkey are some kind of idiot savants, though. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > This is all the fault of “Babe”. I’d like to remind you that the director of both Babe films is also the guy who made a movie series featuring torture, murder, and rape; people being kept as blood and milk puppets, a dwarf using a giant mentally challenged man as locomotion, hacksaw on ankle action, and horror of horrors, Mel Gibson. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/55 "2017-08-24T20:03:18Z")
If there had been no fire, the pigs would have been raised & sent to slaughter/made into sausages. Had the fire dept not gotten there so quickly, the pigs would probably have perished in the fire, but not cooked well enough to consume. IOW, she would have received no compensation for them. Since they saved her from significant financial loss, she make a ‘thank you’ donation to them in the form of edibles from one of the multiple pigs they saved. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/56 "2017-08-24T20:37:31Z")
I have a vegan friend who is freaking out all over Facebook about how AWFUL and SICK this is, and how it shows that animals are so much better than people. (Never mind that pigs would probably eat a firefighter quite happily if one happened to fall into their pen.) Vegans may be shortly joining Trump voters on my list of “people who may be perfectly likeable face to face, but should never be friended on social media.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/57 "2017-08-24T21:01:24Z")
Pigs don’t remain cute for long. Hogs are big and will go feral quickly in the woods. Feral hogs are a big problem in East Texas, Louisiana, and other states. Death by fire is a horrible way for any creature to die. I’m glad the firemen saved the farm animals from a painful and terrifying death. The pigs were always a farm product and intended for sale & public consumption. I would hope they were humanely killed by the butcher. I’m not sure what else could be done for them. They grow into huge animals quickly. Good luck making a pet out of one. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/58 "2017-08-24T21:04:33Z")
If I dropped a lunchbox with say, a PB&J sandwich, in it on the road in front of a car, then the car stopped, and I was able to retrieve the lunch before it got squashed, should I not eat the sandwich because it was “saved”? Silly. Nothing wrong was done here. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/59 "2017-08-24T21:22:16Z")
Any animal under human control deserves a humane life and a humane death. We owe them that. If it’s all just for sausage, that’s fine, but our obligations are even more important. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467/60 "2017-08-24T21:33:16Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > If my house was on fire and my wife and son and I were safely outside, I wouldn’t want, let alone expect, firefighters to try to go in and rescue any of our personal property from the blaze. Either they are able to put out the fire and keep the house from burning down, or they aren’t. Afterwards we see what’s salvageable from fire and water damage once the fire is out. Apparently people used to do things like this; there’s a scene in “To Kill A Mockingbird” where Atticus helps some neighbors remove furniture from their burning house. No, they don’t attempt to put out the fire; they throw furniture out the windows. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-animals-that-were-saved/794467.md?page=4)