To ask if you had to kill the animal yourself, would you still eat meat?

[WhatDoYouThink2017]

To ask if you had to kill the animal yourself, would you still eat meat?

It seems that a lot of people say no, but that does confuse me, as if less people ate meat, there would be a less of a demand.

This isn’t me saying eating meat is wrong btw, I absolutely believe there is a food chain, but the food chain is slightly unfair. Animals are bred and kept in awful conditions for their meat, etc. which is where I believe it’s unfair. Other people seem to agree.

So, if you could humanely keep your own animals and kill them, would you? Or would you go without meat?

Yep. Wouldn't have a problem with it.

@Engineersthumb - "Nothing ethically wrong with eating meat. Humans are well adapted to doing so. The development of increased mental capacity in homosapean was largely due to the increase in protein from the consumption of cooked meat. I'd describe such a well established practice as natural!"

I really disagree with your first two sentences there (third sentence may be true but is only a theory, not proved - and irrelevant to the moral argument here). There is an awful lot of things humans used to do that were "natural" that are not now considered ethical.

Even aside from that, if you compare our hands, teeth, gut length, speed, strength, etc, there is no way we are physically designed to eat the meat we do today. The "meat" which early man ate was mainly insects by the way. Don't see many people eating insects because that is "natural"...

And there is absolutely zilch natural about factory farming and the damage animal agriculture does to the environment.

I guess I could learn to do it. I wouldn't like to kill an animal but the more I kill, the easier it would become I guess.
We have raised orphan lambs by hand (yes, with names) knowing full well where they were headed. They were very nice.

We grew up around farms and British farming has some of the strictest welfare rules of the civilised world. It's not perfect by any means at all but I am happy to say that animals who are in a bad state (injury included) are turned away from the abattoirs. Bad farmers can't make money off ill treated animals even if they're just going to end up dead anyway. So that's something I guess.

If we can't physically kill an animal, we should at least know how to butcher it. It doesn't come naturally in plastic wrappings, completely unrecognisable from what it really is. Some people are so wilfully ignorant to the realities of the meat trade they cannot equate their steak to a living, breathing cow. I appreciate my meat. An animal died for my meal and I'm thankful.

What the health and a few of the similar trashy type anti meat documentaries on Netflix have been fairly rounded criticised for being biased, factually and scientifically inaccurate and misleading. often by people as biased as the film
Makers themselves to be fair, but worth raising.

And there is absolutely zilch natural about factory farming and the damage animal agriculture does to the environment.

My late grandpa did some interesting research into how C19 hill farming (mostly sheep) destroyed the natural landscape of Scotland and in particular the forestry. There's a lot of work being done now to reintroduce native trees to prevent further soil erosion and slow down climate change.

It's fascinating how the industrial revolution both increased our production of greenhouse gases and reduced the earth's natural capacity to convert them back.

As Paul MacCartney said - if slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian

Bollocks. People who work in slaughterhouses are rarely vegetarian. Hunters, farmers, butchers, none of them likely to be vegetarian.

Even aside from that, if you compare our hands, teeth, gut length, speed, strength, etc, there is no way we are physically designed to eat the meat we do today. The "meat" which early man ate was mainly insects by the way. Don't see many people eating insects because that is "natural

More nonsense. We aren't "designed" at all, we evolved. And we evolved to eat meat and dairy (in some places) specifically.
Can we have a source please for the assertion about insects? Because I'm calling bollocks on that one as well.

And we evolved to eat meat and dairy (in some places) specifically

Well, we evolved to be able to eat meat and dairy. We’re also able to survive and thrive on a plant based diet alone.

I’m a vegan and don’t have an issue with people around me eating meat and consuming dairy but nobody ever needs to pretend it’s an evolutionary necessity.

I weighed up the cruelty/exploitation and, more importantly to me, the horrendous environmental impact of animal agriculture and decided it wasn’t worth the pay-off to consume meat and dairy. Other people come to the conclusion it is worth the impact. Each to their own but to say we evolved to eat meat and therefore should do so is disingenuousness. You consume it because you like it and consider the cost worthwhile, that’s it.

Wonder if Maccas hair colour is vegan?

I didn't say it was a "necessity", I was contradicting someone who said we were not "designed to eat meat".

Yes.

I have done.

Yes. I've killed plenty of fish to eat and wouldn't be opposed to hunting game to eat (would actually quite like to try hunting, my uncle hunts elk, but I think there's a lot of bureaucracy involved so hassle).

I'm not sure though that I could kill and eat an animal that I raised myself, I imagine I would get too attached.

Fair enough TwattyCatty but many people do spout that we’ve evolved to eat meat and so it logically follows that we should do so.

No. But I barely eat meat anyway & was veggie for years so I’d go back to it. I would have less of an issue killing fish.

DP grew up on a farm so would (and has), but I'm too sentimental I think

Yes. And probably even more than so than now as I would hate any of it wasted.

I grew up vegetarian. Lapsed at university. I see nothing wrong with eating meat but EVERYTHING wrong with the poor conditions they are raised and killed in. I prefer to bolster the market for humanely grown and killed meat. I'd never eat a £2.50 chicken. That is evil. They should cost more to raise!

Look what purposeful buying did to battery eggs. 95% on our shelves are now free range (although I recognise that is a loose description) but al positive movements

Yes. I have killed and eaten rabbits/chickens. I have even eaten my favourite cow called Rosie.

Doesn't bother me at all.

Yes. i have done so and I think maybe we should all do, as it makes you appreciate meat more.

I must admit I have never killed an animal or watched one be killed. But I do think that I could and would, for the purpose of eating it. I'm sure the first few times of doing it would be upsetting, but like most things you get used to it. Not so long ago in human history most people wouldn't blink twice at wringing a chicken's neck or slaughtering a pig.

Probably not, no. Honestly - I eat meat because I'm lazy and it's the easiest way to get protein etc which is palatable to my family.

I don't even bother with bones, large cuts of meat etc. If it wasn't easy to buy and use meat then I'd find the next easiest option which would fill me up sufficiently. I'd probably eat a lot more mushrooms and beans. No idea what DH and DS would eat as they aren't fans of either.

The main reason I don't eat a more vegan diet is that I'm used to eating meat, it's easy to get hold of and I know what to do with it.

Yes. i have done so and I think maybe we should all do, as it makes you appreciate meat more

I hate meat. I am vegan. I don't see how having to kill an animal would make me appreciate meat more.

FWIW I would rather starve than eat meat
(Remembers holidays in Corfu and western France in the 80s where I did actually starve)

Yes, I would. I watched my Grandma and my Mum doing it so I always knew where the delicious chicken or rabbit stew or roast duck came from. And the pork sausages, yum.
I saw those animals being well loved and cared for but it was always clear that they were food and no pets.

Frumpety versus Cow ? 100% the cow would win , same with a pig ( they can be very big and have teeth ) Sheep , possibly if someone else did the catching , Chicken , have done it a couple of times but for humane reasons as opposed to eating them . Could not kill a goat though .

If the law changed so you had to kill your meat , I would have to survive on lame sheep and roadkill , quite a lot of pheasant and deer in the verges round here .

Happily. I think it's important children are taught where food comes from too.

My dc know exactly where their food comes from. It comes from the earth and the trees, bushes and vines

They also know where meat comes from even though neither has ever eaten it