# If you were hungry enough, would you eat your own pets? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705 "2005-08-12T07:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/21 "2005-08-12T13:21:38Z")
> [@SnotBunny](#): > > I would never eat my puppy! I guess I’m not as selfish as you are! I’d rather break my arm off from the shoulder and feed it to her for her to survive. She is too cute and too loyal and too my best buddy to kill her and eat her. FOR SOME ODD REASON. CAT KILLER! Good for you. You’re not selfish, but you’re dead. And your puppy is feeding on your flesh. ---
**Author:** ![SnootQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@SnootQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnootQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/22 "2005-08-12T13:31:13Z")
I don’t know how to be impressed in this subject. You’d let your dog die of hunger before you’d eat it? Is that good or bad??? ---
**Author:** ![SnootQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@SnootQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnootQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/23 "2005-08-12T13:34:08Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Good for you. You’re not selfish, but you’re dead. > > And your puppy is feeding on your flesh. No No No Mr. Trunk who said I’d be dead? Are you reading ghost stories? All my puppy would do is lick me to death. ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/24 "2005-08-12T13:54:34Z")
NOT RAW!..Not Raw… We’d cook ‘er up…bit O’ Broc-O-Li stuffing… She’d be delish …Smack…Smack…smack… ---
**Author:** ![SnootQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@SnootQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnootQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/25 "2005-08-12T14:06:32Z")
Nah… now you stop picking on the new people! NERD! Now my feelin’s are hurt! ---
**Author:** ![SnootQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@SnootQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnootQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/26 "2005-08-12T14:08:01Z")
I’ve actually been around a LONG time… just never paid enough to join to post… but I still I count!!! ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/27 "2005-08-12T14:11:59Z")
Looking around at my cats…I couldn’t eat them. I try to limit my intake of fatty foods. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/28 "2005-08-12T14:12:53Z")
Welcome to the boards, **SnotBunny**. As for the OP, I have a turtle. I might be able to make turtle soup, but he’s pretty small. I don’t think he’d feed me much. On the other hand, I do have lots of vegetables growing on my balcony - cucumbers, bell peppers, and radishes. I think I could eat those, and they’re like my \*other \* pets. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/29 "2005-08-12T14:14:45Z")
> [@SnotBunny](#): > > You’d let your dog die of hunger before you’d eat it? Is that good or bad??? I just don’t think I could kill him, it has nothing to do with good or bad. I suppose it’s bad, because I cannot end his suffering a little quicker. It’s also bad because they’ll be less of him to eat! ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/30 "2005-08-12T14:16:36Z")
I have no doubt that my cats would eat me, were the situation reversed, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. Sirius would probably be too fatty, and Khan too stringy. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/31 "2005-08-12T14:18:12Z")
My cats are bloddy useless as hunters. Kittens are taught to hunt by their mothers, and both of them were abandoned before Rodent 101 began. So I’d have to say I’d use one cat as bait to steal **romansperson** ’s useful dog and hunt with him. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/32 "2005-08-12T14:24:57Z")
> [@Snakescatlady](#): > > Looking around at my cats…I couldn’t eat them. I try to limit my intake of fatty foods. This is one of the funnier one-liners I’ve read all week. Well worth dropping into the potentially depressing thread for. My 23 pound tabby is on my chest now, as I lie on the couch using my laptop. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/33 "2005-08-12T14:27:42Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I’d really like to try dog some day. It tastse like a gamey, greasy, beef-pork hybrid. I don’t know the breed of dog I ate, I imagine their’s a difference between mastiffs and poodles. I’d rather starve than eat my Yellow Nape Amazon Cleo, but I’m pretty sure he’d have no qualms about eating me. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/34 "2005-08-12T14:31:52Z")
Christ, no. We’re in it together. My dogs share my fortune and misfortune. Perhaps if one of them died of other causes I might consider i, but I’d no more kill and eat them than I would my husband. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/35 "2005-08-12T14:56:50Z")
Nope. Once it was clear that the situation was dire, I’d probably give the cat a merciful death and tuck into the Cat Chow, though. (This critter wouldn’t last a week in the wild, trust me, so a quick death the most human option, I think.) But I think I’d have to bury the body. I’m sure I’d regret my decision once the Purina ran out, but . . . ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/36 "2005-08-12T15:20:24Z")
What if the situation was that you and your pet were stranded in a lifeboat? Eating your pet might mean that you get to live for a few extra days. If you get a chance, read [In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0141001828/qid=1123859473/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-7241915-4071358?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) It’s the true story of crew of a whaling ship that was set adrift in lifeboats after a whale sunk their ship. They were in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. When they ran out of food and began dying one-by-one, they resorted to canibalism to say alive. In one of the boats, the crew were so hungry that they decided to draw straws to determine which of them would be shot so that the others could eat him. The captain of the Essex was in that boat and his cousin drew the short straw. The captain shot his own cousin so that he could eat. Although right now I cannot fathom eating my pets, I have no doubt that if I were sufficiently hungry I would use them to keep me alive no matter what that meant. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/37 "2005-08-12T15:32:43Z")
Is starvation really a necessary element to this hypothetical? Because there were times… ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/38 "2005-08-12T15:34:48Z")
No . I really can’t imagine eating my pets , even tho I use it as a meaningless threat when they misbehave :" They eat dogs ancd cats in some civilizations , you know , and I have a BIG grill…" . They just grin at me . They know better . 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/39 "2005-08-12T15:36:19Z")
Of course I wouldn’t eat _my_ pets-I’d arrange a pet swap and eat \* your\* pets. No history = no guilt. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705/40 "2005-08-12T15:49:18Z")
I dont think I could kill my dogs for food, but if they had already died, and I was on my way to join them, I might nibble now and again. But it would really depend on the situation. If there was absolutly no hope of ever be rescued and eating them would only give me a few more days then probably not, but if I knew that there was hope and I was near death then probably. And might I add ewwwww [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-hungry-enough-would-you-eat-your-own-pets/316705.md?page=3)