A reason to eat meat if there ever was one:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=40677
No. I would probably starve - the only food I can prepare comes in boxes or bags with instructions. I’m a big restaurant fan.
Not to mention that killing an animal myself does not appeal to me. But neither does delivering a baby or doing heart surgery.
I try not to eat anything smaller than a chicken or smarter than a cow.
Assuming I had raised the animal for that purpose and managed to keep that purpose in mind, I wouldn’t have to kill and prepare it myself.
Are geese tasty? I’ve never had one. If they are, I probably would (assuming it was legal, I knew how to use a shotgun, I wouldn’t have to prepare it myself, etc.). I have no problem killing birds; most of them are just rats with wings who eat my dog food. 
Cats, and dogs? Heck, I love beef, but I won’t eat tongue, brains, or liver. The last is 'cause it’s yucky, and the others because they are too weird looking. Lobster is another thing I won’t eat-- I can’t get past the big giant bug sitting there on my plate! (Yeah, I knowit’s an arthropod, but my eyes insist it’s a bug.)
Of course, if I were hungry enough, I’d start cooking up the neighbors, especially the loud ones. All bets are off given enough hunger. But basically, I don’t care to do any of the nasty stuff to get a meal. I much prefer the meat that comes in wrapped paper bundles than the kind that comes in its own skin.
I don’t ask other people to justify their dietary preferences, nor do I care to specify or justify my own, except to explicitly deny anthropophagy.
Did it all the time when I lived in Utah. Ahhh…I miss deer. I actually enjoyed that aspect of it. To me the smell of freshly gutted deer means prosperity, that we’ll eat. I know that sounds somewhat barbaric, but we didn’t have a lot of money, and it was hard to have full meals unless we killed the animals ourselves.
Rabbits are delicious. We used to raise them with the express purpose of eating them. Kitties and puppies? Probably, if it meant my survial. Monkeys? I’ll try anything once. Basically, I enjoy meat, and I’ll eat it no matter where it comes from. (Except Humans. I’m not a cannibal)
Again, did it all the time in Utah. To make it a bit easier (for you sappy types) don’t name the animal, and keep in mind, there will be hundreds more to come.
If it was geese hunting season. In which case, I would a liscense, so it wouldn’t be free.
I won’t kill a wild animal unless I have a liscense to do so, or it’s literally a life or death situation.
I’ve personally…with my own hands…killed, butchered and cooked chickens, sheep, and rabbits.
It is a little hard to do, especially mammals. Chickens are pretty easy to kill, they aren’t nearly as cute. But that sheep I killed was just asking for it. That thing was as mean as mean can be. Every time it charged me, I just told myself, “Wait until fall, wait until fall.”
Killing and butchering animals is a chore, but people would get used to it pretty easily. How many farm kids end up squeamish?
Somebody once said that one of civilizations greatest achievements was that the average person didn’t have to go out and butcher their own food. I can’t find the cite, but I’ll look for it.
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Been it, did it, read the book, and saw the movie.
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As a general rule I stick to the typical animals eaten in the United States and Canada. Pork, fish, beef, poultry as well as a few game animals such as elk or deer. I’d eat just about anything I could get my hands on if I was hungry enough.
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Yes.
That would be illegal so far as I know. But if I were starving I probably wouldn’t care.
Marc
I used to work for a Hunting, Fishing and Adventure travel agency. Once a year the staff would bring in some of the meat from their various hunts, and we’d have a wild game cook-out. I’ve eaten elk, duck, antelope, pheasant, reindeer, moose, bear, caribou, goose, deer, wild boar, and probably some others I can’t even remember. Even ostrich, which was horrible.
Would I shoot it and skin it (“dress it,” actually)? Sure.
Would I eat it if I raised it? A pig, yes. A Labrador, no.
I wouldn’t eat monkey, though, unless there was nothing else. They’re too close genetically.
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*Originally posted by Myron Van Horowitzski *
**Remember, it’s only a recent development in human history that such a large population can go through life without having any exposure to such a process.
It’s interesting to note that the rise of vegetarianism-for-ethical-reasons seems to go hand in hand with that. **
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While not a vegetarian myself, I share Annie-Xmas’ doubts that most modern Americans – who can’t even bear bones in their chicken breasts – could stomach slaughtering animals for food. It’s not pleasant, but I suppose most people could probably get used to it if their health depended on it. What most couldn’t get over, however, is seeing how factory-farmed animals are slaughtered. That’s really rough.
But what I find most interesting is MVH’s observation about the rise of vegetarianism-for-ethical-reasons. First, is it accurate? Aren’t there societies (e.g., the Jains of India) where vegetarianism is long-standing? Where I lived in subsaharan Africa, most people rarely ate meat, deriving most of their protein from beans. I imagine that’s been going on for quite a while. Indeed, isn’t most of the world’s population in the same category?
Second, can’t the same criticism be made of now-accepted moral advances such as the abolition of slavery? That is, isn’t it equally true that only when societies no longer needed slavery to support their economies did abolition-of-slavery-for-ethical-reasons arise? Aren’t many, if not all, moral advances premised on the majority realizing that they are no longer dependent on the previous practices? Look at the law of war (e.g., land mine ban), abolition of the death penalty (in the rest of the western world), and the save-the-rainforests movement.
Can’t Annie-Xmas make an argument that vegetarianism is the right moral path to follow now that we have the ability to do so and that your great-great-grandchildren will look at you the same way that you look at your ancestors who genuinely believed that the subservience of the black man was part of the way God set up the world to be?
Thanks to all the OMNIVORES for their answers. Actually, both omnivore and vegetarian are misnomers. Most omnivores won’t eat anything, as the above posts prove, and most vegetarians do not exist solely on vegetables.
I didn’t even question how many people would voluntarily eat worms and bugs. Read Stephen King’s story “The Survivor” for the best omnivore tale there is.
I wouldn’t hurt those wild geese cause it is illegal (they are supposedly an indangered species), they are mean and their poop is disgusting. The next time someone asks me why I don’t eat meat, I’m just going to say “Cause I ain’t eating anything that poops and pees.” That ought to end the argument.
Been there, done that.
No kitties or monkeys, to be sure. Bunnies definitely. Also squirrels, chipmunks, snakes, and moles. Never tried a puppy, but I’ve threatened our own with becoming the prime ingredient in tomorrow’s chili many a time.
I’d rather avoid the hassles of raising an animal for food. I’d rather hunt whatever there are plenty of, something small enough to be reasonable prey, and not too hard to hunt.
You betcha! Except I’d use a .22 because with a shotgun you get those damn pellets throughout the meat.
::salivating::
I have no problem killing and eating an animal. Spend a night cold and hungry in the woods and you’d be surprised at what you will contemplate holding over the fire.
In many of the meat-eating parts of the world people still kill and dress animals for consumption. It’s primarily in the “desensitized” U. S. of A. that such a discussion even has widespread participation. It’s turned the entire value system upside-down.
Steak is something that comes from the grocery story, shrimp comes from a restaurant, and hamburger is this mysterious stuff used by Wendy’s, allegedly McDonald’s, and other assorted fast food places. (How many people that have posted to this board have actually made ground beef?)
Here’s a leap that’ll certainly incur criticism:
It’s too bad that kids from “civilized” society are more and more removed from the slaughtering and butchering of animals. To many of them meat, poultry, and fish come from the store – they have no idea of the process of preparing a live animal for consumption. Consequently they don’t have a real understanding of death. (Movies certainly don’t count. Not when someone takes 6 rounds to the chest, which results in 6 red splotches on the guys white shirt and he comes back to start in the sequel.) Give these kids a greater understanding of butchering livestock and they may well be turned off enough to become vegetarians. So be it. But I’d be willing to bet that most of them would gain an understanding of death that would make them highly unlikely to commit child on child violence with guns and knives. IMHO.
**Annie-Xmas wrotes:
Would you eat meat if you had to take a live animal, kill it, skin it, and take the meat off yourself?**
I’ve hunted, killed, skinned and eaten an armadillo. Gamey meat. No real taste other than “red meat” taste.
**SouthernStyle wrote:
Give these kids a greater understanding of butchering livestock and they may well be turned off enough to become vegetarians. So be it. But I’d be willing to bet that most of them would gain an understanding of death that would
make them highly unlikely to commit child on child violence with guns and knives. IMHO.**
I agree whole-heartedly! Let’s start with field trips to the local slaughter house and show kids where their food comes from and what happens when an animal is killed. You gain a whole new respect for life.
If I had to kill the animal myself in order to have meat, probably not. However, this is more an issue of sloth rather than of morality. Stalking, chasing, and running down my dinner doesn’t sound like the most enjoyable way to spend my afternoon. Since I don’t have a particular preference for meat over vegetables, if the veggies were lying around while I had to go hunt for a slab of meat, I’d probably just throw the vegetables on the fire and be done with it. Now, if it’s a question of whether I’d prefer to forage for veggies and whatnot versus hunting for meat, I really wouldn’t know, since I’d end up doing whatever required the least amount of effort and I have no idea whether it’s more difficult to hunt or forage.
I wouldn’t hunt, kill, or eat anything that a typical American would consider to be a ‘pet’.
I’d eat an animal that I had raised. Again, the distinction between pets and sources of food must be made. I wouldn’t cook up the cat that I had raised, but I’d kill the chicken and fry it up.
No, I wouldn’t hunt the geese outside your home because:
- I don’t know how to properly fire a gun
- I don’t believe it’s legal to hunt geese at a public park
- The geese at the supermarket are already defeathered, gutted, and otherwise prepared for you to take home to cook
In answer to the first question, this is nice and succinct:
I wouldn’t eat pets, but animals raised at home - oh, yes. One of the best meals I ever had was eaten while visiting relatives in Italy. We had squab - these nice fat pigeons were waddling around the yard just hours before we ate them. Come to think of it, we had native (?) snails at that meal, too. And some of the most wonderful figs… (ok, not a meat, but so good). I’m drooling just thinking about it…
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Would you eat meat if you had to take a live animal, kill it, skin it, and take the meat off yourself?
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I’ve killed, butchered, and eaten deer, squirrels, rabbits, ducks, geese, pheasants, woodcock, quail, cranes,etc.
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What animals wouldn’t you eat? Bunnies, kitties, puppies, monkies, etc?
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I suppose I’d eat any of them if I was hungry enough. A family friend had spider monkey stew while on safari in South America and said it was pretty good.
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People raise their own vegetables. Would you eat an animal if you had raised it?
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Done it
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There’s always a bunch of geese in the park by my house this time of year. Would you go out there with a shotgun and get a free holiday meal?
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Nope, I’d go out there at night with an airgun and get a free holiday meal. (kidding, I wouldn’t break hunting laws)
I’m tired of us omnivores always expected to be on the defensive. Why don’t you veggies wrestle with some ethical questions?
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Would you eat plants if you had to take a live vegetable, kill it, skin it, and take the meat off yourself?
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What vegetables/fruits wouldn’t you eat? Cute little pea pods? Adorable little raspberries? Defenseless little baby carrots?
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Would you eat a vegetable or fruit if you had raised it yourself? Wouldn’t you consider your tomatoes to be pets, and part of your family?
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There’s a bunch of wild yams in the park by my house. Would you go out there with a trowel and get a free holiday meal?
Probably not, but due almost entirely to laziness factor. (That just screamed “far too much work.” If it weren’t for the geniuses who invented and marketed pre-cut salad in a bag, I wouldn’t eat salad either.)
Probably not anything I’d been culturally conditioned not to eat, (dogs, cats, rodents). Also, I’m a picky carnivore - so I wouldn’t eat anything that didn’t taste good.
Again, too much work. (I’d also not eat vegetables if the only way to get them were to raise my own.) But I wouldn’t mind eating a cow that someone else nearby raised, and I had seen grow up.
Geese are on the list of animals that simply don’t taste good - so no… but, the wild cows in the park would be goners…(if I could find someone to butcher them, and they weren’t protected or something.)
LOL at Panache45! 
My husband hunts, so we always have venison through the winter. I went with him once, and have seem him get a deer up close and personal, but wouldn’t go again. Not because of the “killing” aspect, but because of the “boredom” aspect.
[sarcasm]Nothing like sitting on a little platform up a tree for hours in the cold![/sarcasm]
I love Bambi burgers on the grill! Yum! Or Bambi stew! Bambi roasts!
We also have gone crabbing (we live by the Chesapeake Bay), and you have to cook crabs alive. You get a big pot, get some water heating up and drop the little crabbies in to steam alive. You just can’t cook them if they are already dead. Not a problem at all for me, but I know this totally grosses out some people.
When people mentioned how hungry they would have to be to eat a certain animal, what are we talking about here, the end of the world? Nuclear war? I guess if there was absolutely nothing else and you were that hungry, you could eat just about anything.
As for the pets issue, no I would not eat my pets, unless I was REALLY hungry.
Like Rysdad, I’ve eaten several different types of game; duck, pheasant, buffalo, moose, bear, and goose. I’ve also had shark.
Rabbits? Had it. It was okay, but I would probably only eat it if I was (again) REALLY hungry.
As for raising an animal and eating it, if I were raising it specifically to be eaten (like chicken or pigs), then no problem. You wouldn’t get attached to it like a dog or cat.
Monkeys? No, for the same resaon so many said, too close genetically.
As for shooting the geese in the park, well, sure it would be illegal, but I am sure you could find some wild geese and hunt. Would I shoot it? No, I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. I would send hubby to shoot one.
Side note…I would have been the first one voted off the island on “Survivor”, because I would NEVER have been able to eat that big yellow bug. No freaking way.