Does anyone else eat fish and poultry but not bigger animals?

[WhatTheHalleBerry]

So in my youth I was vegetarian for a good few years, that was a long time ago. I've never felt comfortable with eating meat but struggled to be veggie long term.

For about 8 years I haven't eaten pork. I just don't like it, the taste or the thought of eating a pig. I've never eaten lamb or goat.

I did eat beef (though not mince because again, just don't like it, use quorn substitute)

But lately I've been in contact with baby and adult cows and I just can't eat beef anymore.

So I don't eat pork, lamb or goat and want to give up beef.

I just don't feel as strongly about fish and chickens (I don't like turkey or duck, I only eat chicken)

Does anyone else feel like this?

I do, bought from the farm I visit regularly. Milk, yogurt and butter all made on site. You can watch the cows get milked and see the whole process of the products being made and packed.

I could never be vegan.

I struggled being veggie.

I think it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Vegan vs carnivore diet.

Watch the David Attenborough documentary Ocean. Might change your mind about eating fish.

They have words for in-between diets so why not ?

I’m an omnivore but I can imagine that some meat avoiders don’t like the smell and texture of meat.

I grew up in a country where lots of seafood is eaten so don’t think that they are less sentient. I think that there was something in the news about octopus, lobster, crabs etc being considered sentient.

I don’t think it comes across as hypocritical for OP to pick and choose because they have said it’s also down to the taste of the meat, OP doesn’t believe it’s unethical to eat meat, she just has preferences like many of us do with certain types of food

She also said she feels less bad about eating fish or chicken, but as I said, it’s up to her what she eats.

I’m the same. Was veggie for years. Chicken and fish are a compromise to cook and eat with my (fussy) children and massively help with my anemia but I’ll probably stop in five years time when kids have flown the nest.

I’ve heard a lot of omnivores say that they don’t eat pork so I don’t think it’s unusual. Chicken is the national favourite meat so you’re not alone OP.

This is just being flexitarian is it not? I would say I'm the same because I predominantly eat vegetarian food but will occasionally have meat. I think everyone chooses what they're comfortable with and as long as you don't say "I'm vegetarian but I eat fish and/or chicken" then that's completely fine.

Out of all of the meat, I am most comfortable with eating beef because they have had a relatively long life and as a PP said, will feed a lot of people. They have a relatively quick death.

Poultry farming is shocking in terms of animal welfare and pigs are extremely intelligent animals and after seeing videos of them being gassed and how long they were still awake for then that really put me off eating pork.

Chickens have personalities and feelings too, and the poultry industry is, in my opinion the most cruel part of the food production industry. I don't eat chicken or commercially produced eggs. When my chickens stop laying for the winter, I stop eating eggs til Spring. Even the legislation for free range eggs is not what most people imagine. And the poultry meat industry is even worse.
If you don't eat red meat as a matter of preference for the taste, or for health reasons but aren't concerned about the ethics then fair enough, but anyone who thinks that birds are not sentient beings or that they don't suffer is kidding themselves.

Do you buy higher welfare - free range, organic etc? I find that upgrading my meat is easiest and cheapest with chicken.

Yeah, I agree this logic is odd. If i was only going to give up one thing it would be chicken. I try to only buy organic chicken given the awful conditions in many chicken farms. Larger animals are generally reared with much more space and better conditions.

Yes, that’s pretty much how I feel about meat. I can’t imagine eating pork, it’s vile. I don’t like lamb, and wouldn’t buy beef, but if I accidentally ate some I wouldn’t freak out. I’ve no idea why I don’t mind eating chickens, although I’m fussy about it being free range. Fish I have no issue with.

I eat fish but not meat (including chicken). Don’t really like other seafood and I wouldn’t eat lobster. I’ve had a few tries at being vegan and I didn’t feel healthy. I don’t like eating fake meat unless it’s the only option due to the ingredients, eggs don’t really like me. I’m aware of issues with dairy and feel a bit of a hypocrite eating that and fish but it suits my body so there’s a compromise.

Baby cows….. that would be calves.

I only eat chicken, turkey and fish. I hate the smell of pork and lamb (besides, I see cows and sheep in fields near me and couldn't bear to eat them). I don't eat bacon, ham, sausages, mince or burgers, either.

Chickens have a very short (and horrible) life, so I only have free-range ones.

Seems like a weird criteria to me, I'm pretty sure fish and chickens don't want to be eaten just as much as cows and sheep don't!
I went vegan nearly 8 yrs ago now. It just felt like abit of a dick move being shitty to animals when I had another choice.

XH classed chicken as half veg - it’s 1 life for not many meals; cows & pigs and sheep & goats still give up 1 life but feed so many more mouths.
you can eat or not eat whatever you want - why do you need anyone else to allow your choices?
personally, I couldn’t give up eating any meat products but each to their own and all that.

Oh, and I live in a rural area so see all the animals in the fields and farmyards daily - it reassures me that buying British meat from reputable sources (local butcher’s etc) ensures that the animals have the best lives they could have.

I wouldn't be reassured by free range labels. Whilst there are some genuinely high welfare farms where chickens live the kind of lives that most of us probably imagine free range to mean most of the meat or eggs labelled as free range doesn't come from chickens kept in conditions anything like that. If you look at the standards that qualify as free range it's not the kind of living arrangements that those words bring to mind, or lots of packaging etc suggests. The producers want us to think that the birds whose flesh or eggs we eat have lived happy lives wandering at will through lovely fields, but actually very few of them have. Free range chickens have slightly longer and less awful lives than barn reared but I certainly wouldn't call the standards outlined in this document or the equivalent one for egg layers "high welfare".
www.gov.uk/guidance/poultry-meat-marketing-standards

I’ve never eaten goat, didn’t eat much lamb or pig. I went vegetarian but then watched that documentary about the dairy industry so went vegan.
I can’t stop thinking about the fear and pain they must go through. I wouldn’t kill them myself and I wouldn’t want to go to a slaughter house and watch it being done. So it seems hypocritical to eat it.

Don’t even want to think about halal.😓

I was pescatarian for ages until I got pregnant a few years ago and started wanting to eat chicken and beef again. Like you I just can’t nor do I want to eat lamb or pork.
I think if I was around cows too I wouldn’t be able to eat them either as I already feel guilty enough eating any meat.

This is me. I could have written this my self. I can’t eat pigs or cows, I just can’t. But I can cope with eating chickens and eating fish doesn’t bother me. I did give chickens up for a while but I found finding
Things to eat was too hard especially when I’m cooking different meals for different people. I would like to give up chicken one day.

Interesting thread. I would eat fish, beef and chicken, but recently switched to a vegetarian diet. I don’t “officially” call myself a vegetarian because I would eat meat if served at a friends house for example. I mainly don’t eat meat for animal welfare reasons and I want to go mostly vegan for the same reason. Again, I would not refer to myself as a vegan as I think I would just be a best- efforts vegan if that makes sense.

Tuna can be 5m long and weigh a tonne, so no, I don’t feel any differently about eating some lamb or beef compared to fish. If anything, eating something small like chicken or rabbit is somehow more personal. It was killed just for me. At least a cow had fed hundreds in return for its death. That’s the way I look at it.