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thistlechaserIf I wasn't trying to lose weight along with this whole meatless thing, this would be a lot easier. I could happily live on pizza and peanut butter and pudding and popcorn. (Wow, lots of P-foods there.)
Oh the other hand, it's (mostly) easier to want to avoid meat than I had expected. The trick is to remember something-- or rather, to stop willfully forgetting something:
When I was a kid, I saw a special on TV. It was on some cable station (HBO?), so they could show anything, no worries about it being safe for kids. Though I don't have many memories of childhood, this one is way, way too vivid. It was a special about what meats other countries ate. They had a big section about Asian countries eating dogs and cats. They showed this on film, no cutting away or blurring or anything: They'd have a pole with a loop of rope at the end, and loop it around the cat's neck, then lift it up and push it into boiling water and hold it in there, supposedly until it boiled to death. (My stomach is tightening and my shoulders hurt and my eyes are hot, just writing this.) Because they had to do so many animals, usually the cat was not dead when they took it out of the water. Next they peeled the skin off. While the cat was still alive. These poor, poor cats were in piles, MOVING, skinless and white and wet and small and making little mewing sounds. (They didn't kill the cats before boiling because they said the fear made them taste better.) It makes me sick, even now. I mean, think about it. While I'm typing this up, that is still happening somewhere. Some poor cat, a loving animal that could make a wonderful pet if given the chance, is being *tortured*. That is so so so wrong. It makes me sick and I hate it and I wish every single person who ever did it or ate a cat was dead now. Honestly and seriously: I'd feel less bad if they were eating each other over there instead of eating cats.
Anyway. It's really easy to stop suppressing that memory and to stop applying how bad I feel about it to just household pets.
Hm. This was going to be a silly little post about... I don't know. Cheese and trying to plan more things to eat. Bah.
Oh, and I emailed my mother tonight to tell her about my plan. She hasn't written back yet, but she'll probably be surprised and/or happy. She always told me to eat more veggies.
Oh the other hand, it's (mostly) easier to want to avoid meat than I had expected. The trick is to remember something-- or rather, to stop willfully forgetting something:
When I was a kid, I saw a special on TV. It was on some cable station (HBO?), so they could show anything, no worries about it being safe for kids. Though I don't have many memories of childhood, this one is way, way too vivid. It was a special about what meats other countries ate. They had a big section about Asian countries eating dogs and cats. They showed this on film, no cutting away or blurring or anything: They'd have a pole with a loop of rope at the end, and loop it around the cat's neck, then lift it up and push it into boiling water and hold it in there, supposedly until it boiled to death. (My stomach is tightening and my shoulders hurt and my eyes are hot, just writing this.) Because they had to do so many animals, usually the cat was not dead when they took it out of the water. Next they peeled the skin off. While the cat was still alive. These poor, poor cats were in piles, MOVING, skinless and white and wet and small and making little mewing sounds. (They didn't kill the cats before boiling because they said the fear made them taste better.) It makes me sick, even now. I mean, think about it. While I'm typing this up, that is still happening somewhere. Some poor cat, a loving animal that could make a wonderful pet if given the chance, is being *tortured*. That is so so so wrong. It makes me sick and I hate it and I wish every single person who ever did it or ate a cat was dead now. Honestly and seriously: I'd feel less bad if they were eating each other over there instead of eating cats.
Anyway. It's really easy to stop suppressing that memory and to stop applying how bad I feel about it to just household pets.
Hm. This was going to be a silly little post about... I don't know. Cheese and trying to plan more things to eat. Bah.
Oh, and I emailed my mother tonight to tell her about my plan. She hasn't written back yet, but she'll probably be surprised and/or happy. She always told me to eat more veggies.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-12 11:03 pm (UTC)I would feel horrible thinking about that happening to any animal regardless of how cute it was or how I feel about my own kitty. I mean, people in India think people eating beef is terrible. Westerners think that eating a dog is terrible. It's all relative.
But then moral relativism tends to make me angry so I don't know why I'm being hypocritical and writing this. I'm also hypocritical in that I had some of Greg's steak tonight since I didn't feel like cooking anything for myself.
*stews in a big pot of self-hypocrisy and faint nausea, then has self for dinner*
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 04:38 am (UTC)tortureslaughter. I'll refuse to eat a hamburger or fried chicken when out with friends, because of concerns about how they were raised and killed. But then surprise people who don't understand my reasons when I sample cuy at a guinea pig show if itis from a breeder who made sure it had a happy life and a quick, painless death. Or tell my vets if our pet rabbit or chicken doesn't make it through surgery, to save the body in such a way the meat can be used. (and before anyone asks (or thinks of it but is afraid to), no, I've never eaten cat).no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 07:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 07:58 am (UTC)For a while I thought that as well, but I can't anymore. Cats and dogs can and do form bonds with humans. They become part of a family and are loyal and socially bonded with people. Do cows and chickens? If (somehow) you raised a cow in your house with your family, would you end up with something like a dog or a cat? That level of connection? I don't believe you would. That's the difference I see in this.
Dogs were domesticated to be with humans, to guard our flocks (not be our flocks) and to protect our families and to keep our homes safe. Do we repay this process by eating them? We shouldn't...
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 11:47 am (UTC)And, well, I do think humans can form deep attachments to animals not typically thought of as pets. Maybe the pet's devotion wouldn't be of the same sort you'd get from a dog, but I'm sure that the person would love it just as much.
Hell, I still want a pet giant millipede. *too tired, previous sentences might make no sense*
Um..!
Date: 2003-08-13 04:11 pm (UTC)Although it sounds like bonds would be easier to form with dogs and cats and stuff, what about all those horse fans out there? And the attachments some people have with those? I'm going to get some of those huge horse fans angry by saying this, but are a cow and a horse *really* that different? They're too big to live into the house, but if you really tried at it, you could probably tame and connect with a cow just as easily as a horse.
Then again, I don't *know* for a fact, but it sounds like it would make sense. You could probably connect rather easily with any domesticated animal... shoot, I might even go so far as to say even the non-mammals, like chickens or ducks or something. ... I mean, it might not be true, but it sounds like it could be!
And some of us don't think cats are worth the hassle of bonding with in the first place. >;)
(And *especially* not Kats!!)
Re: Um..!
Date: 2003-08-13 04:24 pm (UTC)I think horses are in-between. They're much, much smarter than cows, and more accepting and interacting with people. Not to mention, they're a whole lot more useful in non-food ways, and they're not a sensible food source (they take too long to grow to full size).