happy cows frolicking. (not.)

[aamcnamara]

There is no possible way I could be vegetarian. Not ever. Certainly not at college.

But I realized yesterday--(yes, it took me a while)--that I am not eating happy animals here. Which made me really sad. I am still dwelling on this, even though I know there is no way I can eat vegetarian and not be unhealthy.

See, I am okay with the idea of people eating animals. I am even okay with raising animals to be eaten. I am much less okay with raising animals inhumanely (and how weird is it that "inhumane" is our word for that concept?) to be eaten. If you are going to not care about them, not care about people, not care about the planet, it just doesn't make sense.

Gah.

Comments

[ph-unbalanced.livejournal.com]

Oh I *totally* get that. When I was growing up we had a farm with ~100 head of cattle, and I put in a lot of work out there on weekends. And, of course, hunting is an important part of the Texas lifestyle, so we did a lot of that, too. (Not that I ever actually managed to *shoot* anything, mind you.)

And for me, when you're that aware of the animals as *animals*, then killing them for meat isn't cruel. Animals kill and eat other animals -- it's just part of how things work. You can certainly *make* it cruel (and modern farming techniques often are) but I don't see the act as intrinsically cruel -- as long as you're mindful of where meat comes from.

I respect people who feel otherwise, of course.

Ironically, I rarely eat beef anymore. Most beef these days tastes like crap, compared to what I grew up eating.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Using animals as things is not cool.

I am not surprised. Growing/raising your own food always tastes better, for a number of reasons.