Mmmmm, meaty

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Eruviel Greenleaf
Jerseydevil, you are right, that is ironic...

I am vegetarian, not because I think eating meat isn't natural for humans, I know it is, but because I don't agree with they way we treat the animals we are eat. It is cruel, unethical and immoral to treat animals the way we do. I would eat meat if, say, the human population was much smaller, and the animal was hunted (nicely) or treated very well while it's still alive. I like eating some meats for the taste, but I don't agree with the way animals are treated. Also, I chose not to for health reasons, but I don't drink, (excessively, or often, anyway) smoke, or do drugs, so I am not guilty of that irony. And I do eat fish, and on very rare occasion, chicken, but for the most part I have tried to give meat up.

My reasons are pretty similar to yours. I gave it up partially for health reasons ( I don't smoke, drink, do drugs), but mainly because I think that the way they do it is inethical, and because I find the flavour of meat nauseating. However, there is NO WAY that I would eat chicken, because they are more cruely treated than large mammals like cows. Chickens are kept cooped up in those tiny little cages, at least cows and sheep have SOME freedom.

[jerseydevil]

It could be worse. We could be like other animals and attack our food and tear it apart while it is alive.

I feel sorry for animals when I see them - but my grandmother was a butcher. It just doesn't really bother me that much.

Some people might be interested in seeing the movies Soylent Green. Just to warn you - there may be some spoilers in the reviews.

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
It could be worse. We could be like other animals and attack our food and tear it apart while it is alive.

Yeah, but they don't quite kill on the same scale as we do. And they hunt directly to feed themselves. There is something grotesque (for me) about how we mass-butcher, and that the reality is, that some of those animals that were killed so horribly (they can smell the blood before they go into the works; a lion hunting a gazelle though, is a different story), and in vain, because not all the meat they gave to us (macabre ) is going to be bought.

[Starr Polish]

But if there is plenty of prey in the animal kingdom, and a single predator (say, a jaguar) brings down an entire animal...they can't eat that entire animal. And since a jaguar is a solitary animal, it can go to waste, even though they do drag it up trees 'for later'.

Humans aren't the only animals that waste resources.

::shrug:: If you don't want to eat meat, hey, cool, just stay healthy.

My stepbrother tried to be a vegetarian. He made it a month before he started dreaming about meat.

[Arathorn]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Some people might be interested in seeing the movies Soylent Green. Just to warn you - there may be some spoilers in the reviews.

I'm gonna look for a DVD version of it.
"Mmmmmmm. Soylent Green...." - Homer Simpson

[jerseydevil]

Actually it's not out on DVD yet. As soon as it gets released I'll be one of the first that gets it. I don't buy videos anymore - so I don't have. It better be released on DVD soon.

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Starr Polish
But if there is plenty of prey in the animal kingdom, and a single predator (say, a jaguar) brings down an entire animal...they can't eat that entire animal. And since a jaguar is a solitary animal, it can go to waste, even though they do drag it up trees 'for later'.

Be it as it may, there are also scavengers to tidy up anything left behind by a lone predator.

[Eruviel Greenleaf]

Not much is wasted in the natural world.

BoP, you are right, chickens are treated horribly. I still eat it occasionally because I really like it. . .the taste, that is.

[Arathorn]

That's why I even eat the ligaments, feet, neck. I savor every edible piece; considering all that that poor chicken had to go through.

I will not take it's death lightly.

Oh and, JD, please do tell me if you see the DVD come out. I'll be ading that to my Social Sci Fi collection along with Logan's Run, Gattaca, Island of Dr. Moreau and others.

[Earniel]

Originally posted by Starr Polish
But if there is plenty of prey in the animal kingdom, and a single predator (say, a jaguar) brings down an entire animal...they can't eat that entire animal. And since a jaguar is a solitary animal, it can go to waste, even though they do drag it up trees 'for later'.Humans aren't the only animals that waste resources.

True but a jaguar doesn't throw it's prey away the next day. he might eat some of it the other day,while most humans refuse to eat something when the (what's it called?) shelf life expires. We humans waste MUCH and often still edible food. We had a few years ago a dioxinecrisis here in Belgium. A lot of chickenfood was infected with poisonous dioxine, ergo so were a lot of chickens. There was a ban on chickens for months. No chicken was allowed to be slaughtered. (allright that was a weird sentence) When the ban was lifted massive amounts of chickens were slaughtered and dumped on the trash heap. They had been raised long after the dioxinechickens, the were dioxine free, they were edible. You know why they were treated that way? Because they had 'grown too fat for consumption'! It was a mayor and utter DISGRACE.

[BeardofPants]

The same can be said of Mad Cows disease, which is, by and large, a man-made (or created) disease. Many cattle were slaughtered just for being in the same area (county) as an infected animal! The numbers, in their thousands, of the recent MCD crisis in England, and Britain are horrifying!

[Earniel]

I agree BoP. Who is so insane to feed herbivores other herbivores? Because that's what started CJD in the first place. The same with the foot and mouth disease. All that often uninfected cattel was slaughtered for so called 'health reasons' but then the carcasses were left lying in open air for several days. How healthy is that? Not to mention the inhumane ways they used to dispose of the animals. Just disgusting.

[Darth Tater]

We're gonna eat the dead flesh anyway, does how it's killed really matter? Is there a better way to kill a chicken then chopping of its head and watching it run around and look stoopid? I agree the treatment of some of these animals while alive isn't great, but they just wanna be efficient, and if that's really what bothers you, well, buy organic!

[Arathorn]

*Puts on selfish cap* I would like to encourage people to go vegetarian or vegan. It would lower demand for the meat and lower prices so us remaining meat eaters can get cheaper meat, even in the short run.

[Darth Tater]

Um no. Less demand means higher prices so they can stay in business.

[Arathorn]

In the long run, that is.

[Twilight]

Tater is right. You need something to create a temporary meat surplus. People going vegetarian would create that. In a little bit, less meat will be produced, and it will be sold for more. We don't want that to happen. We want people to go veggie for about a month or so, then go back to meat so the demand is still there in the long run.

[Earniel]

Originally posted by Darth Tater
I agree the treatment of some of these animals while alive isn't great, but they just wanna be efficient, and if that's really what bothers you, well, buy organic!

Needing 5 to 6 bullets to kill one cow isn't exactly what I call efficient. Efficient means quick and clean.

Originally posted by Darth Tater
We're gonna eat the dead flesh anyway, does how it's killed really matter? [/B]

You prefer living flesh then? You're weird

Originally posted by Twilight
We want people to go veggie for about a month or so, then go back to meat so the demand is still there in the long run.[/B]

I doubt that would help. After the month as people go back to meat, the demand in meat will be higher than the offer. Therefore prices will rise and more animals will be killed to respond to that higher demand. When the offer rises due to this new inflow of meat the prices will drop again, most of the time to their previuos level. And then you are back in square one. You should find a way to change not the number of people who eat meat (unless permanently) but the kind of meat they want.

[Twilight]

That is why you have to stock up on the meat while it is cheap. That way you don't have to buy it when the price jumps up once the demand rises. Then you start purchasing meat as normal once the regular price comes back again.

[Arian]

Twilight you finally agreed with Tater for once about meat. Well serious I couldn't live without meat.