# Is eating a kitten immoral or just bad manners? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 15, 2002, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957 "2002-08-15T03:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/1 "2002-08-15T03:27:37Z")
Yes. Is eating an OP immoral or just bad manners? ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/2 "2002-08-15T03:55:42Z")
It depends. Did you cook it on the barbecue? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/3 "2002-08-15T03:57:56Z")
At worst it’s bad manners, at best it’s high cusine. \ 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… \ ---
**Author:** ![mandielise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@mandielise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandielise)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/4 "2002-08-15T04:40:20Z")
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!). ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/5 "2002-08-15T05:04:10Z")
With regard to whether it’s bad manners, if it’s[not 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. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/6 "2002-08-15T07:06:39Z")
My breath smells like cat-food. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kakkerlak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@Kakkerlak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakkerlak)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/7 "2002-08-15T07:11:59Z")
[The Tick] Eating kittens is just plain wrong, and no one should do it ! [/The Tick] ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/8 "2002-08-15T07:31:40Z")
It’s definitely bad manners if it’s not _your_ kitten. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/9 "2002-08-15T07:57:54Z")
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 \ ---
**Author:** ![Zorro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ad7895/32.png) [@Zorro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zorro)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/10 "2002-08-15T11:19:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![SUPERKARLENE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@SUPERKARLENE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SUPERKARLENE)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/11 "2002-08-15T11:38:44Z")
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.) ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/12 "2002-08-15T11:39:01Z")
Eating a kitten is unthinkable. ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/13 "2002-08-15T11:45:02Z")
These are fun. Who else votes that OP-less posts are sometimes better than real ones? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/14 "2002-08-15T11:51:05Z")
Kittens? Nah. I prefer the euphemism. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gooti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gooti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooti)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/15 "2002-08-15T11:59:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/16 "2002-08-15T12:04:43Z")
Once again, we play the old “forgot to see who was logged in” game. The above post is mine. ---
**Author:** ![Clever\_Hans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Clever\_Hans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clever_Hans)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/17 "2002-08-15T14:15:31Z")
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.[/ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/18 "2002-08-15T14:49:07Z")
“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** ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/19 "2002-08-15T16:42:48Z")
Hmmm, [kitty](http://www.geocities.com/monroe1809/cat.htm), the _other_ white meat. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vampire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Space\_Vampire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vampire)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957/20 "2002-08-15T17:02:11Z")
I would eat dog, but I would never eat cat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-a-kitten-immoral-or-just-bad-manners/123957.md?page=2)