Should you feel guilty for eating meat?

[Kuroneko97]

If apples screamed in pain every time I started slicing their skin, I might feel a little bad. But then I'd forget about it when their screams died away, and I'd eat that fucking apple.

Hey, it's the apple's fault. He couldn't run away fast enough.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

If apples screamed in pain every time I started slicing their skin, I might feel a little bad. But then I'd forget about it when their screams died away, and I'd eat that fucking apple.

Hey, it's the apple's fault. He couldn't run away fast enough.

Not sure how to interpret what you went for there.

We have apple trees, as in we own them. We didn't put them there, the old folks say some students rented a room some thirty or fourty years back, and they had the bad, bad habit of spitting out the seeds in the back yard. So we got apple trees now.

I think it's wonderful to see apple trees just outside your home when you wake up and manage to catch the sunrise moment, with the light coming through the branches and leaves.

We free the trees from strangling, parasitic vines. We help them when insects of all sorts give them a hard time. We would be willing to help them if some other lowly critters or things were to try to infest them and do them harm. Right now, I'm looking at one of those trees, and it's only a month or two now before those apples turn golden and red and sweet. All in all, we spend an average ten hours working on/for those trees. We get free apples in return. I like that. And I like to have the children understand that throwing stuff away in nature is only OK when it's bits of nature, such as seeds or minimal amounts of waste. No plastic, no metal, no painted stuff. They seem to understand that very easily, as they really like apples.

We always leave some fruit to rot on the ground, as the ground seems to like it, and the wasps really go for it, leaving us mostly alone in return.

It's not about running away. Some of the animals that are to be hunted as long as they keep breeding merrily as they do are really, really quick and we wouldn't stand much of a chance in a hand-to-hooves/teeth combat. We have big brains to enable us to solve problems, not keep coming up with new ones.

 

[JWAN]

Nothing wrong with eating meat. I hunt and fish every opportunity I get so in a way I feel as if I have a deeper and more profound respect for the animals I hunt. Does that mean I am against buying it in the store? No. I often buy steaks from the store but I always have something I got as a side and for really special dinners I try to get local seasonings to go along with the wild game (morel mushrooms, watercress, wild rice etc.). I also make sure I can use everything I can off of the animals I kill. Very little goes to waste, the hides go to the local native tribes (Ho Chunk mainly) and they make them into gloves, bags, and traditional clothing and the extra meat either gets frozen or donated to food pantry's.

In what other country do the homeless have the opportunity to get prime cuts of venison and game birds like pheasant and grouse?

Its important to note that I only donate to food pantry's where people are actively trying to get jobs. Some people need help while others don't need another crutch to lean on (IMHO).

I would also like to point out that hunting has nothing to do with finding pleasure in killing. I still find that difficult. It has much more to do with providing low cost food along with wildlife management. Look up CWD in Wisconsin or watch the documentary "Pig Bomb" and you'll understand why its so important why hunting is so important in the U.S.

I also do a lot of volunteer work with the DNR in my state and with Pheasants Forever & Ducks Unlimited. They basically help set up habitats and educate people on how to responsibly harvest said animals.

Did you know that a percentage of every hunting gun purchase goes to set up wildlife preserves to help ensure a steady recharge of the population every year? That has done more to bring back the deer population in the state of Wisconsin in the last 3 years than PETA has done in 20.

Chronic Wasting Disease info
http://www.cwd-info.org/

Wild/Feral pigs
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/publ/wlnotebook/pig.htm|

I'm not saying that EVERYONE should hunt, or eat meat. That's as stupid as wanting to force everyone to eat vegetables. Nobody can win those arguments. Eating plants and or animals is an act of nature and a fact of life and chances are nobody is going to convince anybody else of their views because very few are willing to examine both sides of the argument. All I'm doing here is explaining why, and how I eat meat and why its so important to me, and my culture as a whole.

 

[Ashadowpie]

"most" of the way we kill our meat is humane so no, i dont feel bad when eating meat. i feel bad for the animals while their alive in those tiny hamster cages treated like shit. if i could afford organic free run meat, god damnit i would i get the eggs though

just think of it this way, go watch how animals kill for food, its certainly not a bullet to the temple for (cows) or a shock to the heart for (pigs), its painful and slow, most of them are alive while being eaten, not fun for the prey, we're nice the way we kill them in comparison. i do have one rule for me personally, i refuse to eat anything cute. im happy with only eating chicken, pork and very rarely beef, it gives me a tummy ache anyways.


Nature is cruel.

 

[Kittyhawk]

Answer to the question is no.

Chicken, pork, beef, horse meat or fish, its all good. Just don't kill it yourself, and try to sell it yourself, unless you own a farm or butchers. Lol.

Should you feel guilty for letting good meat go unused and rot? Yes, make sure you use it or lose it.

Do you know what happens when you don't milk a cow? If you do, that's a good reason to drink milk.

If we don't eat certain animals etc, the maggots and flies surely will. Just don't eat them all at once, that they go extinct.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

Should a bear feel guilty for eating my moms ex-boyfriend? I think your answer lies somewhere in that sentence.

 

[Rule Britannia]

I like eating meat and I don't think that will change, it might I don't know, but I always feel bad eating lamb :'(

 

[Kittyhawk]

Sure, nature is cruel, and so are many things in life. People are cruel to each other all the time, but still find time to help and stroke animals. If we applied that same kind of treatment to all people first, we probably wouldn't have any pointless wars, poverty and hunger.

Do you want to give up, because nature doesn't hide behind a flag of being humane.

Its funny, because when a dog or bear attacks someone, that's actually in their nature to do so. Funny thing is, our view would be they are dangerous and there's something wrong with them, and put them out of their misery.

Hurrah for being human, and destroying all we survey.

 

[Dascylus]

If we're not supposed to eat meat then why is the pig such a tasty animal?

For those of you who may notice how long my posts can get I assure that that is the long version...

Short answer... No.

(Mid Post edit... I seem to be going on a tangent again. I'll forgive you for not reading on from here)

I mean seriously, I've lived with vegetarians most of my life and there is no argument that has swayed me... EVER.
Their argument has persuaded me to choose my meat more carefully though. Finer cuts and better fed animals from local producers.

Try this one people, take a large roast chicken and place upon a plate, sit opposite a fellow meat eater and have an unspoken rule that you will divide it equally but if a breast/leg/wing is left too long then it is up for grabs. If anyone leaves the table they give up all rights to the flesh.
Now try with ribs, a pile of steaks or any other meat source. Try it with more friends...

Now try it with a pile of apples... Sure fruit is awesome too but it's just not the same.

We are all animals and we should remember it.

 

[jboking]

Oh please, are you actually trying to say that you can't state which life is more valuable than others? Bacteria are living, tiny organisms that you're killing probably millions of a day. I'm pretty sure that most people would make a distinction between that and an animal dying.

I'm not interested in 'most people', I'm interested in the moral argument at hand. We can't avoid killing Bacteria. We can avoid killing animals and plants. Also, a life is a life, no matter who is experiencing it.

Also, pain and suffering doesn't have solely to do with how painful your death is. Plenty of these animals are kept in confined areas and pumped with hormones for their entire lives. If you've ever owned a pet imagine them being in situations like that. Pigs are pretty intelligent animals, so you've got something around the same level of intelligence as a dog or cat being kept in conditions like that for their entire lives.

Alright, so if they enforced proper living conditions and a painless way to kill animals. If the FDA did regular inspections of farmlands and slaughterhouses, then it would be okay to kill millions of animals when we don't have to?

I eat meat. We raise and keep animals. We hunt. We kill animals for their meat. It's very natural, and the animals live good, comfy lives by all accounts.

In Vitro Meat is, in short, a horrible abomination. Well beyond the fact that it's a bit too costly, I think it's a complete and utter idiocy. It's a new dimension in overcomplicating things, and I have severe issues with it. I like Tofu or other "ersatz" sources of good nutrients, but In Vitro Meat is even more bollocks than, say, Quorn, which consumes way too much power to basically just grow mold in vats. With lifestock, you have living creatures around you that open your horizon to other ways of living, other ways of perceiving things. In the meat industry, I think it's important to have someone like Temple Grandin around, and people are becoming aware of how certain things are inacceptable and suck beyond all the nasty and gory descriptions.

I think what is most important in this chapter of your argument is this: In Vitro Meat is not, it's declared concept is that it would be this and that. I personally think it's a complete waste of everything, and an unnatural abomination.

You don't exactly explain why it is a horrible abomination to avoid killing millions of animals. You say it is too costly, but as technology advances, old technology becomes cheaper. Give it time. They've already shown that it can be done, all we need is to wait.

 

[jboking]

Not quite, though that would obviously be more ideal than a painful method of slaughter. It isn't just the killing floors that bother me, but the whole farming process from beginning (beginning with artificial insemination and the culling of male infants) to the end. In fairness to farmers, many already try to make the whole process as painless as possible. But even if we managed to create a perfectly painless method of farming, it doesn't solve another problem I haven't even brought up yet.

This essentially can be filed under the 'if we find a painless method' for me. It evolves into 'if we regulate farming more heavily,' but the end is ultimately the same.

The other (bigger?) problem comes with breeding animals to die in the first place. It is no less than ruthless exploitation, and anyone who eats meat is complicit in this exploitation. Had it been inflicted on humans, we'd immediately see how this is wrong. I don't place plants in the same strata as animals, but I do place animals in a similar strata to humans, or at least, similar enough to make me feel guilty about putting animals in that situation.

I can understand your personal guilt, and I share it too. I would even be willing to say that I feel worse about eating meat than I do about eating plants, due to the conditions they are put in prior to their deaths. I still feel bad about eating plants, though. I find it silly that we must consume life to continue it when the consuming of life isn't necessary (in this case).

This was a nice conversation. Thank you for it.

 

[Khazoth]

I sat down with my dog and had a long, hard discussion on the nature of humanity, and eating meat.


We came to the conclusion that no, we don't feel guilty. My dog then went off on this tangent about making a tennis ball made entirely out of sirloin and I had to cut her off. She's kindof derpy like that.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Eating meat is part of human evolution. I care more about the condition of stock yards and slaughter houses for both the animals and the workers. I also despise the jugernaut that is the meatpacking trust, but I don't think this is the place for a rant about how the meat in fast food resturants is cleaner than super market meat and that kind of stuff.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Oh please, are you actually trying to say that you can't state which life is more valuable than others? Bacteria are living, tiny organisms that you're killing probably millions of a day. I'm pretty sure that most people would make a distinction between that and an animal dying.

I'm not interested in 'most people', I'm interested in the moral argument at hand. We can't avoid killing Bacteria. We can avoid killing animals and plants. Also, a life is a life, no matter who is experiencing it.

Not true, you can make sure you don't use antibacterial hand soap, you can stay still and motionless for as long as possible. It would be completely possible for us to change society to minimize the death of bacteria. However that would be stupid because all life isn't equal.

For that matter, I don't know if life means what you seem to think it does. Life is a definition that people made up to classify objects in the world. The term applies to organisms that have the following qualities:
Homeostasis
Organization
Metabolism
Growth
Adaptation
Responds to stimuli
Reproduction

Life on its own is just a self replicating series of chemical reactions that have all of those qualities. Simple forms of life like bacteria are actually within our realm of understanding to see all of the reactions at work. If you believe that everything has souls then there's still no reason why beings we decide are living would be any more likely to have those than organisms just before the cutoff point like viruses or for that matter other inanimate objects.

What IS important, at least by my standards, are thinking organisms that are self aware. This usually requires a brain. Since plants don't have brains, and are not capable of being self aware by any indication I've seen, I do not give them a moment's consideration over the lives of humans and animals.

Also, pain and suffering doesn't have solely to do with how painful your death is. Plenty of these animals are kept in confined areas and pumped with hormones for their entire lives. If you've ever owned a pet imagine them being in situations like that. Pigs are pretty intelligent animals, so you've got something around the same level of intelligence as a dog or cat being kept in conditions like that for their entire lives.

Alright, so if they enforced proper living conditions and a painless way to kill animals. If the FDA did regular inspections of farmlands and slaughterhouses, then it would be okay to kill millions of animals when we don't have to?

Okay? Perhaps. Better? Certainly. Although, from what I hear deaths are already rather quick and painless, at least more so than most other causes of death they would have naturally.

And I agree that we don't need to kill millions of animals. I said as much in my earlier posts, there's no necessity for us to do it despite what many people are claiming in this thread. Saying so is a poor argument

 

[solemnwar]

I think I love you.

*blush* N'aaw, thank-you

 

[SteewpidZombie]

I grew up on a farm here in Canada, and eating meat is something I don't feel bad about. When we killed animals for food, we did it quickly and as painlessly as possible, it wasn't a matter of causing them pain or enjoyment of their torture but rather a job to be done for food.

I don't feel guilty about eating animals, and I don't feel guilty about butchering them. But I still despise anyone who would torture or abuse animals that live or grow-up in a slaughterhouse or breeding farm.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

You don't exactly explain why it is a horrible abomination to avoid killing millions of animals. You say it is too costly, but as technology advances, old technology becomes cheaper. Give it time. They've already shown that it can be done, all we need is to wait.

No, as I feel, perceive and think... let me rephrase that: No, since I consider the very concept to be inherently wrong, futile and misguided.

I want my meat coming from animals that led happy lives with as little stress as possible. I want my steak, my bacon, my grilled/chopped/minced/marinated meat to come from animals that lived, were born, pranced around, grew up in as normal an environment as possible.

If you think vat-grown food is the future, hey, presto, you're my futurist astronaut scientist of choice, and you'll certainly get my vote to be blown into space to found that new colony once we all realize that this planet, this solar system won't last forever, no matter what we do or don't do. See, not only our own personal insignificant lives come with an end, an expiry date beyond the flesh, also that blue marble we're stranded on, this very paradise we're allowed to inhabit comes with a very harsh ending; the moment the oceans start to boil we're pretty much all dead and gone anyway, no matter if we fought CO2 or other windmills. The moment the sun blows up, it will swallow us whole, with everything we've come up with in thousands of years of human ingenuity; it will destroy millions of years of evolution, and it will burn everything to a crisp, from maggot to cockroach to Rottweiler to human, only to leave this planet a bleak and desolate marble looking pretty much like that sorry sod of a moon we lug around to some extent.

If we, as bearers of exceptional brains, could stop our religious and political squabbles and niggles and nagging and mass-murdering, we could maybe find ways of really coming up with an Ark of sorts and populate other places, places that we, by the power of everything we've figured out so far, could make come to life and settle in it, starting anew as we're bound to do, allowing ourselves to come to terms that this solar system will end, like every other solar system before and after it.

But we limit ourselves to fighting ourselves, incessantly coming up with bullshit ideas of making all our lives harder, harsher and more useless. Currently, my bet is on not making it off this planet anyway, so I think it's of prime importance to live a decent life and make sense of everything life has got to offer, with causing as little tension within the species as possible; we seem to be a minority. Amoebas and ants seem to have more productive social ties and a better idea of what the purpose of a common effort is than us. I think that's sad, and growing mold or meat in vats is not part of any solution, it's ludicrous and mad.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Nope. We shouldn't. We have canines for a reason - eating meat. We're also omnivorous for a reason - eating produce AND meat.

Besides, unless I've sadistically killed the poor bunny rabbit by grinding its face against a stone then boiling it alive, I'd only feel guilty for a second because I love meat.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Nothing wrong with eating meat. I hunt and fish every opportunity I get so in a way I feel as if I have a deeper and more profound respect for the animals I hunt. Does that mean I am against buying it in the store? No. I often buy steaks from the store but I always have something I got as a side and for really special dinners I try to get local seasonings to go along with the wild game (morel mushrooms, watercress, wild rice etc.). I also make sure I can use everything I can off of the animals I kill. Very little goes to waste, the hides go to the local native tribes (Ho Chunk mainly) and they make them into gloves, bags, and traditional clothing and the extra meat either gets frozen or donated to food pantry's.

In what other country do the homeless have the opportunity to get prime cuts of venison and game birds like pheasant and grouse?

Its important to note that I only donate to food pantry's where people are actively trying to get jobs. Some people need help while others don't need another crutch to lean on (IMHO).

I would also like to point out that hunting has nothing to do with finding pleasure in killing. I still find that difficult. It has much more to do with providing low cost food along with wildlife management. Look up CWD in Wisconsin or watch the documentary "Pig Bomb" and you'll understand why its so important why hunting is so important in the U.S.

I also do a lot of volunteer work with the DNR in my state and with Pheasants Forever & Ducks Unlimited. They basically help set up habitats and educate people on how to responsibly harvest said animals.

Did you know that a percentage of every hunting gun purchase goes to set up wildlife preserves to help ensure a steady recharge of the population every year? That has done more to bring back the deer population in the state of Wisconsin in the last 3 years than PETA has done in 20.

Chronic Wasting Disease info
http://www.cwd-info.org/

Wild/Feral pigs
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/publ/wlnotebook/pig.htm|

I'm not saying that EVERYONE should hunt, or eat meat. That's as stupid as wanting to force everyone to eat vegetables. Nobody can win those arguments. Eating plants and or animals is an act of nature and a fact of life and chances are nobody is going to convince anybody else of their views because very few are willing to examine both sides of the argument. All I'm doing here is explaining why, and how I eat meat and why its so important to me, and my culture as a whole.

That's because PETA a terrible animal rights group. They do more euthanizing of animals than saving them.

 

[Adventurer2626]

Bottom line: Don't feel guilty about survival. If meat is the only way to get protein, etc. then go for it! As for should I will not tell you. You will tell you what you should do. That's the beauty of being a grown-up; you don't have to do what adults tell you to do anymore. Unless they have a badge. Or a loaded gun.

If you feel that killing and eating animals is wrong then boycott meat. If you really don't see the big deal then go enjoy that turkey sammich or cheeseburger. But I will not tell you what to believe, just what I believe. You get to decide. Life is a choose your own adventure.

Nutrition-wise if you wanna get around meat I'd find out what meat gives you and find out specifically which fruits/veggies/grains contain those nutrients. I don't yet trust our synthetic stuff just yet. Maybe for your children or grandchildren. Too many carcinogens in many processed foods for me *as I take a swig of diet soda* But seriously though. If you can avoid chemicals go for the fresh grown stuff. Just check for the worms and the expiration date. Non-preserved stuff doesn't last long.