Do you find eating mutilated animals to be disgusting?

[Robert_Sock]

I can see how a person could have a profound experience washing a chicken (or washing a cat for that matter, though that would be a different kind of “profound”).

Let me theorize:

a person has never really looked intently at chicken meat before and certainly not as a whole chicken. they are washing the chicken and start to see for the first time how the parts are joined, the symmetry of the rib cage, how the skin attaches, how the limbs bend and realize that this was a living animal, and that it has a “design” it’s not some haphazard lump of meat. An animal used these parts in its own life. The chicken legs we eat helped the chicken walk. And when you consider it a chicken really is a miraculous thing - and that makes us even more so.

It still doesn’t put me off chicken though.

 

[LightBound]

What if beings from another planet decided to eat humans?

Oh, to have extra time on my hands to come up with this kind of fantasy…

 

[Robert_Sock]

‘I think therefore I am.’ But for me it;s::all I hear are voices, therefore ‘I’ (the self) may not really exist.

I strongly feel I’m in communion with God. My LOVE for God is beyond description.

 

[triumphguy]

‘I think therefore I am.’ But for me it;s::all I hear are voices, therefore ‘I’ (the self) may not really exist.

I strongly feel I’m in communion with God. My LOVE for God is beyond description.

You exist Robert - we hear your voice - and you are loved by God.

 

[Robert_Sock]

You exist Robert - we hear your voice - and you are loved by God.

With over 7 billion other people on the face of the Earth, I feel like my ‘self’ is such a small fragment of something much larger. .

 

[triumphguy]

With over 7 billion other people on the face of the Earth, I feel like my ‘self’ is such a small fragment of something much larger. .

Nope - you are an individual.

 

[vera_dicere]

Do you find eating dogs the way they do in China to be gross? If yes, then why not with other animals. I think we grow so accustomed to eating butchered animals that it seems the normal thing to do.

Well, for the most part, the chickens et al are dead when they’re “mutliated”. I’m more grossed out if I find an abnormality in the animal. The other day I had a roast chicken in one of those pre-prepared bags, and its leg was a bit odd. I took it out of the bag and found the thigh bone was shortened quite significantly abnormal in appearance, I figured it might have been broken in processing but it had nto been. I still ate it. Tasted fine.

As for China, I think we need to be cautious of judging other cultures, especially cultures not so rich as ours. We’re too gosh darn snobby in the West about what we put in our gobs. I bet if any of us had a family, starving, living in poverty we’d be less choosey about what kind of protein we put on our plate.

I love my meat, but that doesn’t mean I support brutality towards the animals while they’re living.

Once dead, I don’t really care how they’re chopped up. [Well, as long as its done in a clean environment, and safely for the workers].

And to be really crass, once in our stomachs, everything we eat is “mutilated”.

 

[ValPal]

Do you find eating dogs the way they do in China to be gross? If yes, then why not with other animals. I think we grow so accustomed to eating butchered animals that it seems the normal thing to do.

If you think eating dogs is gross, you haven’t experienced the finest of Asian cuisine. When we went to Guangzhou, I wouldn’t even let my wife read the menu. Snakes, camel hooves, sea slugs, water beetles, various larva of different sizes, jelly fish, etc. And unlike in the U.S., they often don’t remove any parts; you get the head, legs, claws, and all.

As far as “eating mutilated animals” goes, to me it’s more of a necessary evil.

 

[Robert_Sock]

As far as “eating mutilated animals” goes, to me it’s more of a necessary evil.

I agree!.

 

[Lost_Sheep]

Look up above you for photos of UN-mutilated pigs. But it always becomes mutilated as we cut into it and eat it!

Precisely my point. Unless you are into swallowing whole mice, I don’t see how you can eat an animal without mutilating it.

 

[meltzerboy]

When one eats one’s veggies, one needs to realize that one is eating a great number of bugs as well. They’re not so much “mutilated” as they are “boiled to death” or “killed by toxins”. But sometimes they’re alive when one eats them. It’s not too appetizing to look up the government “acceptable levels” of bugs, worms, bug parts, etc. in the food we eat.

I have been around cattle all my life. I realize this identifies me as barbaric, but sometimes when working with cattle on a hot day, I can smell that distinctive smell of beef. When they get heated in the hot sun, they smell just like a rare steak. Makes me hungry. I will say to my credit that I have not bitten a chunk out of one of them on the hoof, though.

Since bugs and worms are not kosher, vegetables must be inspected and cleaned of all such creatures, as much as possible. It is not only meat that is koshered according to (Orthodox) Jewish practices.

 

[migueltojose]

I agree!.

There is a lot of history (evolution? gasp!) at work here. Cultures that consumed the most protein were the strongest and smartest (and most successful). Meat provides a lot of protein. We crave animal fat (that’s where the flavor comes from). Lewis and Clark’s party averaged 7-10 lbs of meat per day and they averaged about 5’6" and 140 lbs. Demand for calories and protein were obviously high for hard working people.

Obviously we’re not where we were then but there’s a lot of history as to why we eat what we eat and how we do it.

Some of us (and a lot of the rest of the world) seem to want to apologize for being strong, explorers, conquerors, colonizers, etc. That’s where the missionaries came from.

Anyway I’m proud of the heritage of western civilization and hope we remain the leaders of mankind because we are stronger and smarter. (And the Catholic Church and Christianity were a big part of it.

So let’s all throw a big old fat turkey in the oven and give thanks.

 

[Tietjen]

Do you find eating dogs the way they do in China to be gross? If yes, then why not with other animals. I think we grow so accustomed to eating butchered animals that it seems the normal thing to do.

I’m not opposed to trying dog. I’ve lived all over the world and eaten many things that ppl here in the states might find “gross.” Even here in the US there are things eaten in the southern states (where I currently live) that ppl in the northern states might find non-appetizing. While I certainly have no issue with the idea of domesticated animals (dogs, cats, etc) it doesn’t mean that I see them (as a rule) unedible. I have a pet cat, yet… I have eaten cat. Does that mean that my pet is at risk? No… so long as the stores stay well stocked, she’s safe.

I know that some will take offense to this and I say it tongue and cheek; but I simply will never hold to the idea that an animal is equal to a human or even close. God didn’t put them here for me to simply pet though. As I said, I have no problem with domesticated pets and yes, I am attached to the cat. But I recognize that I am an omnivore and I like being so.

 

[Tietjen]

What if beings from another planet decided to eat humans?

When that starts to happen, I’ll deal with it. Until then…

 

[thewanderer]

I can see how a person could have a profound experience washing a chicken (or washing a cat for that matter, though that would be a different kind of “profound”).

Let me theorize:

a person has never really looked intently at chicken meat before and certainly not as a whole chicken. they are washing the chicken and start to see for the first time how the parts are joined, the symmetry of the rib cage, how the skin attaches, how the limbs bend and realize that this was a living animal, and that it has a “design” it’s not some haphazard lump of meat. An animal used these parts in its own life. The chicken legs we eat helped the chicken walk. And when you consider it a chicken really is a miraculous thing - and that makes us even more so.

It still doesn’t put me off chicken though.

 

[vsedriver]

Do you find eating dogs the way they do in China to be gross? If yes, then why not with other animals. I think we grow so accustomed to eating butchered animals that it seems the normal thing to do.

it’s a little hard to eat unbutchered animals… they tend not to stay on the plate.

 

[vsedriver]

Um, dog as a food item isn’t limited to China.

I think Native American’s dined on dog.

 

[RPRPsych]

I think Native American’s dined on dog.

Well, in my part of the world, you can order goat brains, livers, kidneys, and even chopped-up and fried goat’s heads as delicacies in many restaurants. I’ve been to “meat markets” which look more like anatomy lessons, where even lungs, spleens and pancreases are sold separately.

I don’t care much for the head, but the rest are definitely on my to-do list!

 

[Robert_Sock]

[snip]
Anyway I’m proud of the heritage of western civilization and hope we remain the leaders of mankind because we are stronger and smarter. (And the Catholic Church and Christianity were a big part of it.

So let’s all throw a big old fat turkey in the oven and give thanks.

Watch out for pride!

 

[mkrol]

Do you find eating dogs the way they do in China to be gross? If yes, then why not with other animals. I think we grow so accustomed to eating butchered animals that it seems the normal thing to do.

I think you’ll find that many carnivorous land mammals prefer not to eat other carnivorous mammals. That’s why you might see a wolf kill a coyote, but leave the carcass uneaten. It’s awfully inefficient in terms of energy. It’s not a cast-iron law of nature, though, but I do believe there might be a natural element to this aversion, which isn’t confined solely to the west. The desire for nourishment and protein in particular, though, will make people eat anything that moves if no other adequate sources are available. And that can quickly become ingrained in culture.

I can sympathise with feeling a bit grossed out by touching raw meat - I did too when I was a little kid living in the city. But given that I now live in the countryside, I’m quite used to butchering my own poultry, having done it hundreds of times. I generally kill to eat, but sometimes a sick bird needs to be culled so it doesn’t suffer.

Regardless of the reason I kill, I can’t imagine it being preferable for the animal inevitably to die in old age from disease than from one fell swoop of the axe. Sure, gutting the bird to leave just the edible bits is a bit icky, but who eats wheat with the straw?

I don’t see why it should be okay for other carnivores to kill and eat and for humans not to. Personally, I strongly crave meat if I don’t eat it for a couple of days, and find dairy and eggs only a partial substitute, so that natural predisposition helped me to get over the “ick” factor of slaughtering, gutting and butchering animals, but to each their own.