Something to think about: Eating Animals

[Undead Angel Cat]

Some people who are animal lovers go to the extremes of going vegetarian or even vegan which is the greater extreme of not eating animals or animal products such as meat and dairy.
I'm just wondering since we're all furry afficionados here, how anyone else feels about vegetarians and vegans.
Personally, I feel bad about the way they treat cows.  Sure it could be worse, but I don't really like the idea that they impregnate the cow, just so it can produce milk, only to take away the calf soon after it's born. And then if it's a boy calf, or if in the case that a calf is born sterile (like for example...when twin cows are born, which isn't very often...if it's a boy and a girl cow born together..chances are those cows are both going to be born sterile) they're basically sold for beef or veal.
Of course it would seem the cows don't really care anyway, and some of them are very stupid and stubborn.
I also don't care much for pigs myself.
But if anyone told me to eat a cat I'd have to kill them. Cats are sacred to me. It'd be like going to India and telling everyone to eat cows. :p Although nothing in my religion says anything about eating cats, I wouldn't want to eat a cat because I love them so much, I see them more as a companion animal.
Here's my beef with it. :p (haha, cute pun eh?) If it's bred for food, eat it. If it's bred for a companion (dog or cat) don't eat it.
Although I am curious about eating horse meat.
I feel bad about eating cows though, and if I didn't like meat so much I'd consider going vegan. But I like milk and I like beef. xx
But, I've decided I'm not going to eat veal. I'm sorry but it's just cruel to eat a calf that hasn't had a chance to live yet.
I don't think it's right to eat young animals personally. Although I'll also eat eggs..but technically the eggs that a chicken lays havn't been fertilized anyway...
And milk well...it's not actually killing the cow...
The scriptures also say you can eat animals and in the Old Testament before Christ died to pay the full atonement for our sins, animals were used as sacrifices symbolic to the ultimate sacrifice that would be made.
So I dunno. I love animals, but I don't go to the vegetarian and/or vegan extreme. I played with the idea of going on an organic diet though (which would prolly mean I'd have to kick the soda habit but :p ) buuuut...
I dunno. I like meat. I feel bad for the animal. But then again I also believe the animal goes to a better place.
What're your thoughts on this?

[ephemral]

I'm not for abuse, but I am for eating meat. I try not to think about wether or not something raised for food lived a good life or not.
If I did how in the world could I eat a hot dog?  :snicker:

[WovenSky]

Eh,  I don't really care about eating meat I can't live on vegtables i'd turn feral and kill my cat......

[Rhakshi]

hmmm cats are sacred. But eating things like cows does not bother me that much, but right now there starting to learn how to clone meat. Weird... Yet cool.

[Undead Angel Cat]

Cloning meat huh? Heh. I wonder if that's safe...or effective anyway...I mean...I don't really like the idea of tampering with the natural forces around us.
It just seems...oddly wrong to me.
Or maybe I've just been watching too much sci-fi. :p
Then again I'm not sure what the church's official stance on cloning is...personally I believe all living beings have a soul of some sorts. But of course, it was created in the wisdom of God. I don't feel that we're ready to take upon that role yet as we aren't perfect yet.
And yes, cats are sacred. And anyone who hurted a cat I would have to hurt them back.
...Unless it was Buddy but he's a demon. :p
In any case I'm not up for animal abuse either. They seem to treat the farm animals pretty well, although they don't give cows as great of hay as they do horses. The big reason for that being that the bacteria in their rumen breaks down all the bad stuff, whereas horses can't eat all the stuff that cows can because horses are monogastic and don't have the special bacteria that can break things down. So cows can actually eat stuff that other animals cannot.
Of course, they belong to the ruminants!
But at the same time it would make more sense to feed cows quality food to make quality milk wouldn't it? :p
Far as venison is concerned, I think the reason deer meat tastes weird is because they eat all kinds of wild stuff. And they're ruminants too.
Oh I don't know. I think it bothers me to a certain degree but as I said before, not enough to not eat meat.
And as long as we aren't eating cats. :p
I also don't really believe that whole chinese eat cats deal. If they do, they probably do that in china. The chinese food here's been americanized anyway.
It's chicken darn it! I refuse to believe otherwise!

[WingedZephyr]

As for me, I eat meat, but also don't support abuse. And cows are in fact one of the stupidest animals (I'm not saying that to be mean - that's what my biology teacher told  me and I figure she would know). So, basically, the animal doesn't really know what's going on anyway. Again, not that that means it's okay to treat them cruelly. Sure, cows should at least be able to live their lives, so I'm not too fond of the veal idea either.

But, reality is, the animals raised for food are going to be killed anyway. It's not like every time I pass on a hamburger I can say "oh, I saved a cow today!"

Besides... salad = hamburger? I don't think so.  

Let's just all eat noodles!  :razz:

[Rhakshi]

heh, cloning sounds okay to me. Since I go to church, and they'd probably be more concerned with cloning humans. But that just raises to many questions.

[WingedZephyr]

The church is pretty much against any cloning, human cloning is generally just talked about more, since everyone is awed by the idea of another one of him/her walking around. Churches don't like the idea of people trying to "play God," so they want scientists to keep their paws off any and all fetuses. Personally, I think cloning for medical purposes is okay and will probably be acceptable as years pass, but I don't think people cloning will ever happen (at least not commonly). As for the animals, who knows. Cloning them wouldn't be all that different or a whole lot, if at all, better or "nicer" for the animals. They're still born, they still live, they're still killed, and we still eat them.

[Rhakshi]

actually no, not to my beliefs we don't. And I think cloning meat would be awesome, as they are apparently doing already.

[Goblin Cat 😸]

Personally when I get out on my own I plan to at the very leat be a vegitarian. Chickens, cows, and pigs are treated horribly, and I'd prefer not to eat them. But I actually have to since I live in a 'meat and potatoes' kind of residency with my parents.  :squish:

[airraiser]

I eat meat, and enjoy eating it. Though personaly I think it would be better if we killed them the way every animal does. But hey that's me. I personaly would prefer to hunt my own stuff, but then again I don't have the heart to kill it. Dude I avoid mice in the road when I can. But I did have a converstaion like this last night at work. I was complaining about the new way to kill a Lobster. Yea eletrocution is SOOOO much better *eyes the creepy people who clame they are more civilized for doing this* Anyway one of my coe workers brought up an interesting point.

Out in the wild would a wolf taking down a deer think HUMMM is there a more humaine way of killing this deer then ripping it's throat out? My guess is no. If there was a higher up preditor then us who used humans as a food source, would they think of killing us humainly? Probully not. IMO that's what went wrong with the human race, they forget that we too are Animals. We too are part of the food chain, but sadly most people think that they are some supreme being higher up then our feral friends.

Oh BTW about Lobsters, you should never eat a lobster if it's predead, cause you dun know how long it's been dead and sitting there. Besides I live in Maine, grew up here. No people from England are going to tell me how to cook a lobster. (Yes I got seriously pissed when reading this artical, more civilied then people in france *Snarles* )

[WynterPayne]

I dont mind eating meat.... actually theres alot of vegetarians / vegans that still eat meat, and dont know about it....

Marshmellows, Jello, Jelatin, pudding.... are all flesh based products..

[Rhakshi]

yes this is very true.

[Link4009]

I know I may seem cruel, but Steak is too damn tasty to give up x3


As for the Vegans/Vegetarians I don't care if they don't eat meat, as long as their not sending me Slaughterhouse videos to try and get me to stop eating meat.

[Azura Brightwater]

I eat meat and I quite enjoy it. I don't think I could ever be a vegetarian and I could certainly never be a vegan. Still, I think that killing animals for food should be made as painless as possible for the animals we are killing. In my opinion making animals suffer unnecessarily is immoral.

There are choices we can make as consumers for better treatment of animals on farms and such. One example is I buy eggs that a from free range farms. They are a bit more expensive but the pay off is that they are also lower in fat and cholesterol than regular eggs and buying them does support more humane methods of farming. I haven't seen any "free range" milk or meat where I shop but  I'm willing to pay a little extra if it means I can be reasonably assured that the animals providing my food are being treated as decently as possible.

If I ever had to become vegetarian all I can say is it's a good thing there's pasta to fall back on.