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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

I find it stupid when meat eaters refuse meat

87 replies

Ryoko · 29/01/2011 22:19

You have no problem eating a cow or a pig but god forbid if someone stuck a plate of rabbit or dog in front of you.

meat is meat, you wanna eat it don't be racist about what animal it comes from or screamish about the processes involved in it's production.

OP posts:

MadameDefarge · 29/01/2011 23:32

I personally yearn for fricasseed lhama, but sadly local prejudice means i shy away from enjoying foods so freely available elsewhere,

Undutchable · 29/01/2011 23:37

As a matter of fact, my grandfather was a butcher so am reasonably familiar. I also live in a farming town now.

I'm not sure the cause of animal husbandry would necessarily be improved simply if we all slaughtered our own meat, or indeed raised our own cattle. In many ways it would be quite the reverse I suspect.

I have a healthy interest in treatng animals humanely, but am happy to leave the production of my food to others, as I am happy to leave the production of most of the objects I use every day. That way it is done efficiently (well, at least it should be).

And there is much involved in the increased human population - do you mean of the planet, or the UK? Or Europe?

Undutchable · 29/01/2011 23:39

God I type slowly. That was aimed at motherjack.

Undutchable · 29/01/2011 23:40

Mmmmm llama.... I prefer mine gratinated.

ZuzuandZara · 29/01/2011 23:41

Tragicallyhip, why would it be illegal to eat dog?

HelenBa · 29/01/2011 23:44

Given a choice, people don't tend to eat meat from animals they consider companion animals (or vermin). There is some individual variation as to what counts as a companion depending on individual experience etc.

Really not new or surprising.

MotherJack · 30/01/2011 00:04

I think just where the sense of community has been lost Undutchable. I agree that the problem would not be solved if we all raised/slaughtered our own meat - "we" can't even keep companion animals in decent circumstances. There are too many of us to be a proper community any more - in most areas of the UK, anyway. There is no solution, obviously - it's just my blatherings

fivegomadindorset · 30/01/2011 00:39

I eat veal, it is lovely and produced by friends who conform to British welfare standrads, also eatm pheasant, rabbit, beef, lamb, pork about anyting but tripe but borad beans, never.

sparkle12mar08 · 30/01/2011 09:04

If it's me or the bunny, the bunny gets it...

Chandon · 30/01/2011 09:07

God another AGGRESSIVE vegetarian, they are RIFE.

Now here you can have your vegan

RumourOfAHurricane · 30/01/2011 09:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Bloodymary · 30/01/2011 10:25

What the OP said could be directed straight to me.
I eat cow, pig, chicken and fish. Absolutly nothing else.
I know its hypocritical, but there you go, it is my choice.

nannynobnobs · 30/01/2011 10:37

I was vegetarian for 18 years, until I started trying DH's meat (fnarr) because he was/is choosy about provenance and welfare standards. I have rabbits, but I'd be more than happy to try a bit of rabbit because I've never tried it. A rabbit shot in a field has undoubtedly had a better life than the pig your Asda smartprice bacon came from.
I still don't eat meat full time because I just don't like it enough and never cook or order it for myself. However I'd try most things that were put in front of me IF I knew that it had been humanely treated and dispatched. I'd not be wild about trying dog, for the same reason as other posters- animals that eat meat don't taste very nice by all accounts.

TragicallyHip · 30/01/2011 11:21

I don't know why. I just thought it was illegal to eat dog in the UK!

TrillianAstra · 30/01/2011 11:27

YABU - I'm not an 'all meat eater'. I just happen to eat some meats.

Do you complain when a vegetarian refuses certain vegetables?

clevercloggs · 30/01/2011 11:31

if i was hungry enough i would eat anything I dare say

Tokyotwist · 30/01/2011 11:32

I kind of get your point (kind of).

I get irritated when people get all moralistic about Koreans eating dogs or cats, but are quite happy to eat beef or pork themselves.

However, I eat meat but would not eat frog and have tried and failed to get past the mental block of eating snail [eughh]. So does that make me a hypocrite? Probably.

Takeresponsibility · 30/01/2011 11:42

I'll eat horse and cuy (guinea pig) but I will not eat a £2.99 supermarket chicken.

Get one from the local farm shop, £8-£10, can make a roast, stew and stock from it, freeze the offal until there is enough to make chicken liver pate and it actually works out cheaper than your £2.99 one.

I have done this for years whilst i was working full time, raising two children and doing an OU degree so it's not a matter of not having enough time to do it.

TrillianAstra · 30/01/2011 11:46

"I don't want to slaughter my own meat, neither do I want to fire my own bricks, mill my own flour or mine my own coal. I don't have a sheep from which I get wool to make my jumpers. In society we divide our work, employing specialist skills and economies of scale..."

I agree with Undutchable

Blatherskite · 30/01/2011 11:57

Have any of these people proclaiming practices in abbatoirs to be "horrific" ever been to one?

Or is your opinion based on TV/online videos designed to show the worst cases as 'normal'?

I've been a physically stood in an abbatoir while an animal was killed.

I'm a meat eater.

Do not believe everything you see dramatised on TV.

MotherJack · 30/01/2011 12:55

I don't think anyone doesn't Trillian

What I was attempting to say last night was hampered somewhat by the last glass of a bottle of wine We have just lost touch with the other skills and trades, which would have been carried out right next door to us in some instances and that includes knowing what killing another animal actually means.

Take your point Blather, but whilst I have not actually stood in an abbattoir, neither did I see that program that was on TV recently where they herded a load of people around an abbatoir. I've seen other programs and read a little bit about it and there are all manner of automated processes which are distressing. Horrific to me. I don't like it. And it makes me feel uncomfortable about eating meat if I think about it too much.

[buries head back in sand]

coldtits · 30/01/2011 13:01

We have an abbatoir down the road, I went to it to pick a set of lungs up[ wit my biology teacher. It's fine.

Mirage · 30/01/2011 13:43

I do wonder about those videos.A friend told me she went veggie after being shown a film at school.She came to our farm once and was absolutely gobsmacked.She was wandering around with her mouth wide open,saying 'But I thought all the animals were crammed into little cages on farms.I didn't think it was like this,they are all out in the fields.'

We weren't shown stuff like that at our school,possibly because it was a rural school with many children of farmers attending.It would have been a complete waste of time to try and show an 'evil farmer' film there,when most children lived on farms and knew that they weren't like that.
[Waves at Coldtits]

Blatherskite · 30/01/2011 13:53

It depends on what you read and from what source MotherJack. PETA are never going to write "It was OK actually".

It's never going to be 'nice' because at the end of the day, an animal is dying but it's not as bad as it's made out to be in a lot of places either.

AFAIK none of the automated processes happen prior to death (apart from maybe with Chickens) and the animals (in my experience) are dealt with in a calm and humane way. The hide pulling etc is done mechanically but once the animal is dead and therefore unaware - does it really matter?

TorcherQueenie · 30/01/2011 13:59

I agree with pretty much everything said above, Not all vegetarians eat all vegetables. My husband certainly didn't now hes come back over to the dark side though turns out he only didn't like his mothers cooking of meat.

We have rabbit, rose veal, partridge, pheasent and kangaroo all in our freezer all will be enjoyed thourghly. We've eaten Ostritch and Snake too and never turn our noses up at offal. I make my own Faggots and Liver pate.

However I wouldn't eat dog, simply because a) I couldn't seperate the food on my plate from my JRT and b) because I know how dog is reared to be eaten and think its disgusting and I would in no way support that same as I don't support cruelty to any of the various animals we eat.

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