The animals I call pets are those that are stolen from their actual owners and then used for the meat, not those raised by the farms.
Stolen livestock is not morally good meat either. We used to hang cattle rustlers, albeit not for their affront to the sensibilities of the people who later ate their stolen goods.
I dunno-- Sue Coe’s Porkopolis is pretty horrific. I couldn’t finish it, and I made it through Maus. Link to a review of Porkopolis with no images.
Triggered, heh…
Dan
Just remember, if you can’t be a Champion, Scout for the Silver…
One of my favorite Dennis Eichhorn stories:
Reminds me of “Theatre of Blood” which has been on cable lately. One of the critics the Vincent Price kills has two prize poodles. VP dresses up as a fine chef with a full cooking staff to serve the critic a gourmet meal as thanks ( from a producer?). The meal seemed ok, until the critic pulled a white hair out of the dish. VP then waves to his assistants to roll in the dessert cart, which is a cake that has both dogs heads garnishing the top (ie- the main dish which he ate were his own dogs).
I’m also in the do not surprise me camp. I mean it’s one thing if you’re having meatloaf and the cook says “I’ve added some chutney… what do you think?”. When you are serving wild game or meats not generally sold at the supermarket, people should know before they ever set foot through the door.
The age of the goat will make a considerable difference in the dining experience. <
Then mine had probably died of overwork at an advanced age.
This was out in the mountains at the end of the trek, and Nepal is not exactly a culinary treasure at the best of times. But after three weeks of nonstop dal baht tarkari I was glad of the change.
My uncle used to present venison to my parents, which came from surplus wild deer culled on the farm. My parents got tired of it after some time, it was tough, dry and rather rank. But organic, of course.
Specifically as a nod to Titus Andronicus.
People mess with you when you’re a vegetarian and also when you keep kosher. I have people all the time telling me they’re going to serve me something with meat in it, and not tell me, and they’ll bet I’ll love it, or they’ll say something specifically not kosher, like bacon, or lobster.
Then, there are the people who just insist on talking about it in front of you. You’re sitting somewhere trying to eat a sandwich, and a couple of guys will come and sit across from you and start talking about how they love bacon, or pork sausage, and describe in great detail the taste and mouthfeel of it, and experience of preparing it, of making it, if they’ve done that, of butchering their own meat, if they’ve done that.
It’s almost always men. If it’s not just men, it’s men and women. It’s never just women.
I have lesbian friends who say they’ve had similar experiences where men talk about heterosexual experiences loudly in front of them, and describe particularly how they think they pleasure women. It’s always men. I don’t know any gay men who have had women do this to them, although I know a couple of gay men who have had straight men do this to them, but it’s really a thing men like to do to women.
I have no idea why this is, nor am I prepared to speculate.
My favorite is the one that alludes to The Merchant of Venice. “Leave it to him to rewrite Shakespeare.”
Where’d you get mutton? I’ve literally never seen it in the US. I’d like to try it. Not because I expect to like it, but just because I’m curious.
We kept pet rabbits for a while, and I don’t avoid eating rabbit. (Although I don’t care for it much, so I don’t eat it often.) I suppose they weren’t very engaging or satisfying pets. They didn’t crave our company the way a dog or a cat does. Maybe some rabbits do. We were keeping the school’s rabbits over the summer, and I suppose rabbits kept in a classroom don’t get all that close to any particular person.
I’ve done that. 
I guess I was talking with a guy. It wasn’t on purpose. We were at a long table, and he grew up on a farm, and I don’t remember how it came up, but we were talking about how he used to slaughter the cows, and how the different cows tasted different, and someone else at the table asked us to please PLEASE change the topic. I don’t remember if it was a vegetarian, I think it was just a squeamish person. A lot of meat-eaters don’t like to think about where meat comes from.
Because people are, by and large, assholes who can’t see past their own noses. They can’t imagine a world where different doesn’t mean worse.
I’ll admit that when I was younger I would often ask vegetarians or vegans why they made their choices because I’m nosy and like learning about why people think and act the way they do. I think it’s neat that there are so many paths (ethics, religion, taste buds, upbringing) that lead to the same or similar dietary outcomes.
I always tried to approach the topic respectfully, but these days I don’t bother because a person’s personal choices shouldn’t be topics of amusement for me. Not until I get to know them, at least.
I would definitely be expecting some sort of game meat from the warning, and thus my initial reaction to both of these would be to think of hunting and killing a horse or dog, and thus would likely be initially upset.
If they were actually raised for this meat, not cruelly killed, and we were in a place where these meats were legal, I guess it wouldn’t make me upset, but I find I’d definitely have more trouble keeping an appetite if I found out it was dog. I think it would instantly taste different, too. Only if it were really good would that not be the case.
I would not have that reaction to horse, and I do think it’s largely because I’ve barely ever been around horses of any kind. I’ve at least seen cows in passing, since I live near a cattle field and just pass by people raising them. I just have no personal relationship with them.
If I actually rode horses or took care of them, it might be different. And if I took care of cows, my response to dog might be different.
A total aside that occurred to me while writing this: if the aristocracy ate these meats during the Norman conquest, I bet we’d be talking about eating chien (pronounced CHEE-ehn or CHINE) and cheval (pronounced CHEH-vuhl).
No, I meant, “I have no idea why” men do this so much, but women hardly ever, and even then, only when a man initiates it.
I know why people do it: they’re bullying someone who is different. I just don’t don’t know why men do this thing, and women mostly don’t-- especially since talking and sideways approaches like this are more often what you see from women.
Hmm, maybe because eating meat is a bit of a “manly virtue” in our society? Maybe some dudes feel their manhood is being intrinsically threatened by the idea of somebody not eating meat?
It definitely sounds like a dominance contest behavior to me. Even I sometimes have to fight that tendency in myself (albeit not about food). I think it has to do with how men are socialized. We’re told to challenge, while women are socialized to keep the peace.
Speaking of which, I actually was wondering if the “jokes” @RivkahChaya mentions about sneaking her food she doesn’t eat are also gendered. My suspicion would be yes, but not quite as much, since I know women who will get passive aggressive about people not eating their food.
I suspect that is more about our cultural associations with food, where not eating the food served to you is seen as some sort of affront to the server.
On the island of Dominica, I was invited to a cook-up, their term for a party (like a barbecue). I politely explained I had other plans. There would be cat served, and no way I’d eat cat or dog.
The odd thing was that they kept cats as pets, but they were expendable pets. They’d name and care for them, but if a special occasion arose, they’d butcher, cook, and eat kitty.
Are you serious? This sounds like something out of a PETA workbook. Why on earth would a person serving, say horse meat, be put to jail?
Horse meat is an ordinary food item over most of the world where horses are kept - North America is the fringe party here. I have 10 kg of horse meat in my freezer right now. Excellent fare! I got it from a horse owning friend whose horse had to be put down due to injury, and the friend couldn’t bear the idea of 300 kilos of ecological, ethical, grass-fed meat going to waste (She could only keep a tiny portion of the meat herself). I have had other horse people tell me to eat horse meat, since it’s the only really happy meat around in the industrial context.
I’m surprised nobody said anything about my use of the word unbridled.
How was the horse killed? Typically euthanasia is performed via injection of a barbiturate, which would render the meat toxic/dangerous.