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?

You think birds and fish don't feel pain or fear just because you don't find them as cute and cuddly as cows. Really?

I didn't say they don't feel those things. I said that the other animals act more like dogs, coming upto you for attention and affection. Ive never had that from a fish or chicken.

I grew up rurally and friends had chickens and ducks, the ducks always seemed quite friendly, would come up and let you stroke them and were predictable in how they behaved. The chickens were nervy, not sociable, loud and squawky and flapped manically if you went anywhere near them or would peck at you, they just didn’t seem to have much going for them whereas the ducks were calmer and just seemed much nicer. I think I would struggle to kill a duck because I have met ducks I liked before, I’ve never met a chicken I liked.

Have you ever met a chicken? A friend of a friend used to keep them and they were very affectionate and cuddly. Bigger fish i have come across have come for attention but i fear they just hoped i would feed them. Not sure 🤔

Well plenty people have posted on here how friendly chickens can be. I dont think you could look at a random duck or chicken and know how friendly it was, or what goes on in its head, or how happy it was to be alive. Bulls can be very angry and standoffish does that mean you would be happy to kill it? Based on the fact it wasn't being friendly and nice to you

Yes, I have, many times.

I'm not saying its completely logical or even moral. Its just how I personally feel.

I just don't feel the same guilt with chickens and fish as I always have with other animals.
I always ignored the guilt but I just feel I don't want to eat cows anymore. But don't feel the same need to give up chickens/fish.

I don't think it's hypocritical to only eat the meat you like or find acceptable OP and completely agree that it is better for most of us to eat less meat, for all kinds of reasons, even if we don't become vegetarian or vegan. I just don't think your arguments in favour of eating chicken as opposed to other meat are very logical.
I eat other meats. Not often, but my youngest is allergic to the majority of non meat protein sources so when he is at home there's not a lot of option. But I don't eat chicken because I think it is the cruelest part of the mainstream meat production industry by a long way. If someone was looking to reduce their meat consumption fir ethical reasons I'd encourage them to stop chicken first, not last.
Also because I love my chickens and know that they are indeed sentient beings with emotions and personalities if given the chance to demonstrate that, the thought of others like them being maltreated is horrific to me. That is probably a bit illogical too but I think most dog owners would feel the same if they knew that there were puppies being bred in huge numbers, kept in totally unsuitable conditions and killed for cheap food, often in particularly unpleasant ways, when they were only a few months old.
What we eat is a personal choice and of course we do all need to eat. There isn't any way of mass producing food that doesn't involve some kind of cruelty or have some kind of environmental impact so none of us is perfect. But you can get other meat that has come from animals that have lived in good conditions and then slaughtered in better - well, less bad - ways. That's very difficult with chicken. They are viewed as "lesser" than other animals and that's reflected in the whole industry. The egg industry is not much better, though layers do get 18-24 months of life before vast numbers of perfectly healthy birds are slaughtered as they're then considered insufficiently productive. But they're "only" birds so that's ok...

It is a bit illogical. We are talking about farmed animals like chickens, sheep, cows etc. So to say you feel guilty about cows being killed for food but not chickens is a bit of a skewed logic. I could understand a meat eater not being comfortable with pet animals being killed for food but it is a bit weird to take farmed animals and divide the guilt up.

Yes, my chickens are nervous of strangers too. They recognise "their" humans and are wary of others. My daughter's dog is similar but I wouldn't see that as a good reason to eat him.

I’m not saying my reasoning is logical! I’m just saying I only eat animals I feel I could kill, I am pretty sure I could kill a chicken. No, I don’t think I could kill a bull because I have met cows and calves who I liked. It’s not about the individual, it’s about my feeling towards the species as a whole; I wouldn’t kill any animal based on its individual behaviour at the time, it’s more about whether I feel sad when I think about that animal having to die for my meal. I don’t feel sad when I think about a chicken dying, I would feel sad about a duck or a cow. Most meat eaters in the UK would eat a pig but wouldn’t eat a dog or cat, it’s not logically about how friendly or intelligent those animals are it’s about how they feel about one species over another. I guess I attach more emotions onto ducks than I do chickens.

I grew up very rurally and have spent a lot of time on farms and with animals, personally I’ve never liked any chickens. Their eyes are beady, their beaks too pointy, they’re unpredictable and I just dislike them. I’m sure there are people with pet snakes or tarantulas who say they’re friendly but to someone who dislikes those animals it’s not likely to change their minds. Personally I don’t like chickens and don’t feel anything positive towards them, which is not how I feel towards most mammals and some other birds like ducks. That’s why I feel I could kill one guilt free.

It’s not about the individual animal though, it’s about the species as a whole. I wouldn’t eat someone’s pet chicken! But the idea of eating a chicken on a farm that’s being raised for meat isn’t upsetting to me and if I was on said farm and asked to kill the chicken I feel I could, I have never killed a chicken but I have plucked and prepared one after it was killed by someone else and never felt sad about it despite it very much looking like a dead chicken. I think I would feel sad if I was presented with a dead duck to pluck, I think I could only eat a duck if I disassociated from the fact it was once a living duck and I just don’t feel like that about chickens. I’m not saying it’s logical but it’s how I feel, I just can’t find it in me to care about chickens and even spending time with them hasn’t changed my mind on that.

Right so you could kill a chicken because its eyes are beady and its beak too pointy 😆

And you couldn't kill a bull because you have met some cows you did like.

Okkaayy

I absolutely love pork. It's probably my favourite meat. But I don't eat minced beef or much beef really, mainly due to cost but also it's a bit too heavy for me.

Lamb can be good when it's tender and has lots of spices or flavourings. Like Turkish, Pakistani or Greek type food? I'm not good at cooking it personally.
I hate British style roast lamb with mint sauce. The smell to me is like old socks?! Then with toothpaste added...yuk!

I guess I don't think of how emotionally attached I am to the species of animal I'm eating. As I don't really have contact with livestock or see them at all. If I did I might feel different.

I didn’t say it made sense! I’m sure there are lots of people who could kill some animal species (whether wasps, fish, spiders, rats, chickens etc) but couldn’t kill others. Most people will kill some species when it suits them and draw the line somewhere, it’s not necessarilly logical. Chickens are unpleasant to me, I don’t like them and see them in a negative light, I can’t find a way to feel any affection towards them and I suppose it is feeling some affection or care towards a species which is typically what makes me want to save/ protect it. I can feel protective over cows but can’t feel that way about chickens, although saying that I don’t think I could kill a chick so I suppose it’s adult chickens I dislike not baby ones!

Well just watch plenty YouTube videos on affectionate chickens 😆

I never deliberately kill any living thing as there is no point (cruel) unless you intend to eat it. I eat meat. I dont own my own farm so I buy it from a supermarket. I have no issue eating meat. A life being ended for no purpose is what I dont agree with. I always put spiders, flies etc outside. I feel bad if I accidentally step on a snail outside and hear the crunch!

I cant look at one farmed animal and feel guilty enough to stop eating it over another as they are all living the same life with their destinies decided for them.

Whether any of us could or would kill any individual animal is a moot point really as actually very few of us will ever do that.
I don't think not liking any particular type of creature justifies cruelty. I am really scared of snakes and if a venomous one was a threat to me I probably would kill it if I couldn't escape. But I would see widespread cruelty to snakes as abhorrent regardless of my personal feelings about the species.
If eating chicken involved everyone owning a few and personally killing one when they needed to eat I would have far less objections. But obviously it doesn't work that way, and most of us will pick up a cellophane covered package in the supermarket without giving much thought to how it got there.
There is a lot of information available on line if anyone wants to look, but as a taster here's a paragraph from the RSPCA website (hardly a radical band of animal rights activists) about their concerns regarding chicken slaughter.
"Stunning of poultry
There are complex problems surrounding the stunning of poultry. We're particularly concerned about the use of electric water bath systems, as these involve the painful shackling of birds while they're conscious. The way they're designed can result in some birds missing the water bath stunner or receiving painful pre-stun shocks as they enter the stunner.
This system can also mean there's not enough electrical current flowing through the bird's body to ensure they’re unconscious. The system can also be designed so that birds passing through an automatic neck cutter only receive a single cut to the neck, which reduces the rate of blood loss.
The water bath system can also result in birds accidentally missing the automatic neck cutter. If these birds aren't noticed by the slaughter person, they may still be alive when entering the scalding tank – a tank of boiling water that helps to loosen the feathers prior to plucking.
We're also concerned about some gas-killing systems, as these can mean that conscious birds may be exposed to highly aversive levels of carbon dioxide gas."
But hey, they're only birds.

I have recently gone veggie. I can no longer reconcile myself to something having to die to feed me.

I can't see the difference between a cow or a chicken or a fish. Having kept chickens - they are the best pets. Smart and affectionate.

Would you eat any farmed animal then? There are countries where they farm guinea pigs, horses, turtles, frogs, camels, crocodiles, even cats and dogs. Would you genuinely be happy to eat them all if you were travelling the world and in a country where that was a usual cuisine? I’m not saying it’s wrong if that is the case, but I do think the stance of not eating some species isn’t uncommon, at least here in the UK. I think there are people who wouldn’t want to eat kangaroo or horse or a guinea pig for example and certainly who wouldn’t want to eat a cat/ dog regardless of whether it was raised on a farm. I guess it’s more unusual to draw the line between common UK farm animals but a lot of people would draw the line somewhere.

If Britain went down the route of farming different animals than we currently do then yes I would eat them if I liked the taste. Provided they were raised with the same standards as other farmed animals. Although I do realise the processes involved doesnt stop suffering all together, but at the end of the day a living thing is being killed so it's never going to be nice.

Fair enough, I definitely respect that view. I can absolutely see the logic of not caring what animal you're eating so long as it tastes nice and was farmed and killed within the expected guidelines. I think I subconsciously anthropomorphise a lot of animals and attach emotions and personalities onto them which may or may not be there but that’s a large part of why I wouldn’t eat them regardless of how they’re farmed. I don’t do that with fish or chickens, I have eaten insects when travelling and think I would eat snake for the same reasons. I appreciate your view is far more logical than mine!

It's not a case of not caring. If the animals could die naturally and then be eaten that would be great but it doesnt work like that. Although I have eaten road kill before and would do again.

I understand that if an animal is considered cute through human eyes or if its considered intelligent then eating it feels more difficult, but for me I put that aside because I'm a meat eater and all animals deserve respect doesnt matter if I like them or think they are better looking than another species. It's being killed to be eaten by another animal. To me that's just life.

Whether you're doing it for flavour, ethics, religion whatever, surely what you prepare and eat is up to you?

I've been called a flexitarian the last year or so. It's traditionally been more a taste thing for me than anything ethical. Though the older I get the more I hear about the intelligence of animals like pigs and cephalopods and it's certainly making me feel glad that they're not something I'm personally eating (not a fan of red meat in general). But if I allow myself to dwell on it too long Im not sure I'd let myself eat anything 😂 as someone said, chickens are treated dismally so there goes eggs, cows also so there goes milk. Milk substitutes seem to be horrific for the planet and they're ultra processed which apparently also isn't great. Everyone is up in arms about UPF's so id imagine not many meat substitutes are going to be up there on the list of healthy foods. It's a minefield.

Been considering getting chickens for the garden, at least then I'd know the eggs come from a happy source!

I also struggle with what to eat as I would like to eat a more vegan diet, but I also want to get all my nutrients and put something together fairly quickly.

I cheat and take a multivitamin! As for quick meals you just learn to make vegan options pretty quickly.

I am wondering though....I find alot of people dull, unintelligent and seriously doubt their sentience. Does this mean they are ok to eat (assuming I murder them humanely?).😂

Just the thought that a living creature suffered and died so I can have a sandwich just puts me right off. My brain won't unsee that perspective now.
Doesn't mean I'm super militant about it though, or even a 'good' vegan.
I get cravings all the time for eggs, real cheese, sardines on toast, ham sandwiches.....god, im making myself drool! 😁