*Kill it*Cook it*Eat it

[dragonmist]

It comes down to one fact Maggie. Humans are Omnivores. Our teeth are those of omnivores, designed to eat all kinds of food.
Like it or not, animals that live on roots and seeds are prey animals. Carnivores are the predators. Omnivores, generally speaking, are more intelligent than either of the two other types. They have to be to avoid being Prey.
Cats and dogs are eaten in other countries. So are horses and donkeys. I don't like this much, but that's down to their customs. My ancestors used to eat dogs. A smart dog to a Navajo was one that stayed skinny. Fat puppies were a delicacy.
I haven't had a cat stolen for food, but did lose 4 when the skinners were around here. Some of the skinned bodies of dogs and cats were found.

[maggiethecat]

We evolved into omnivores, yes; but I am one of a growing number turning to vegetarianism, so perhaps we're a little further ahead than the rest of you on the evolutionary ladder?

[donkeyote]

I don't believe we really are omnivores. 99.9% of human beings cannot chase and catch a wild pig, sheep, rabbit, etc.etc. How exactly would you grab a hold of your 'prey' - with your hands, or your teeth?
Just watch REAL carnivores in action - they use either their teeth or their claws, or both, to bring down and kill their prey. If it's natural for humans to eat animals, why does it sound extremely unnatural when we think of a human doing the above? I would call a human who could catch a rabbit with their bare hands and kill him with their teeth - a nutcase. What would you call them?

We eat meat because most people simply refuse to question the way they've been brought up - that's why human cultures exist - because millions of people in successive generations have copied what everybody else said was 'normal'. As we can see, the world is far from a perfect place, and that's because of so many people continuing to do what they've been taught is 'right', even when it's obviously wrong.

[donkeyote]

I forgot to mention that meat eating animals are always extremely rare compared to their prey - if you look at the plains of Africa, there are probably a thousand wilderbeest for every lion there. That's why we have factory farming and all its evils - we need to produce huge numbers of animals to feed the huge numbers of humans that eat them. In nature, carnivores are a fraction of a percent of the total number of animals. Hence we aren't carnivores or omnivores. How would you kill a pig with your bare hands and teeth? How long do you think it would take? That's obviously not natural.

[damian_steele]

I don't believe we really are omnivores. 99.9% of human beings cannot chase and catch a wild pig, sheep, rabbit, etc.etc. How exactly would you grab a hold of your 'prey' - with your hands, or your teeth?
Just watch REAL carnivores in action - they use either their teeth or their claws, or both, to bring down and kill their prey. If it's natural for humans to eat animals, why does it sound extremely unnatural when we think of a human doing the above? I would call a human who could catch a rabbit with their bare hands and kill him with their teeth - a nutcase. What would you call them?

You have a very strange view of the world, Donkey.

Mankind has evolved beyond simply chasing animals with their bare hands. Thousands of years have gone by since those days. It is perfectly natural that man should use the tools around him, or those he can create, to make hunting more efficient. But before you suggest that the use of tools is unnatural, just look at the animals kingdom, there are numerous examples of animals using tools for various jobs.

[dragonmist]

Being an omnivore does not mean you have to kill animals. It just means we are equipped to eat "omni" or all foods. Herbivores eat vegetation, seeds, nuts and roots. Carnivores eat mainly meat, though do eat herbs and grasses. Cats, dogs, lions and tigers do this, or eat the partially digested stomach contents of herbivores. I prefer my meat cooked, but the Inuit eat raw seal meat. Japanese eat raw fish, and a lot of my customers when I put in a few years as a chef, liked their steak extremely rare, and lamb and duck still pink.
You don't have to catch animals with your bare hands either. At 7 years old I could kill a rabbit with a catapult and a large stone. As I got older I learnt how to kill birds and animals with a bow and arrows. I used to kill rats at the stables with a throwing knife. I learned to snare rabbits, and how to build a wedge trap for pheasants, baited with rum soaked raisins, and learnt to fish. My grandmother taught me how to prepare and cook the fish, birds and animals. I would never starve. I have swapped a bow and arrows for a high powered air rifle though.

[buttons-and-bows]

I havent eaten any animal at all for two weeks, and tonight i felt so ill i could of gone up the Orme and killed a sheep with my bare hands, but we had chicken instead, and no I am not being sarcastic but i am also not letting other peoples veiws make me ill.

[orcadianmedia]

i would decalere myself an omnivore but if i had a piece of meat in front of and it still had it head there is no way in this world that i would be able to eat it.
i have often thought about become a veggy but meat is full of protiens and vitamins that you cant get from vegatables. i love animals in all forms but when i got meat on my plate i dont consider where it came from and i guess that's the same for many if you stoped and thought about what you were about to eat you problay wouldn't eat the meat.

[dragonmist]

orcadianmedia, I am country born and bred so the animal/meat link is always in front of you. I would not want to eat meat from an animal that had been abused. I think that animals should be given as normal a life as possible. I hate the battery system, and deep litter houses. Keeping pigs in concrete pens with sow crates is appalling. The pork I buy is from pigs that live out in a large field with woodland and field shelters with ample bedding. The farmer used to run an intensive pig unit a long time ago. He said the sows had to be crated as they either rolled on the babies, or stress turned them into cannibals. He reckons keeping pigs free range is actually cheaper, and he does not have to routinely dose the pigs with anti-biotics. The pork has a wonderful flavour.
The only things I couldn't, and wouldn't eat are veal and suckling pigs. A butcher [not mine] had some in the window for spit roasting last year. That seemed awfully sad to me. They didn't have a life.

[damian_steele]

... if you stoped and thought about what you were about to eat you problay wouldn't eat the meat.

Or, as I try to encourage people, you'd have more consideration for the animal whose life was taken so that you may eat.