To think if you had to kill the animal yourself you wouldn’t eat meat

[Starchime22]

First off I’m not vegetarian, although I’m starting to lean that way, (as in, I eat fish, and occasionally meat if I’m in a restaurant, but never buy or cook meat myself) so it’s not my intention to criticise or goad omnivores.

But I’ve been thinking about how I’d have no problem killing a fish to eat, (and have) but definitely couldn’t kill a cow or a pig, and probably not a chicken. I’m not sure how many people could, really.

Is it right to eat something you couldn’t bear to kill yourself? Or watch being killed? I’m not saying it isn’t, just interested in what people think.

I couldn't build a house, but it doesn't mean I'm not happy to live in one that someone else built.

We all use things that other people build / make / prepare for us. That's how our society works. I grew up in the country and know perfectly well how to kill animals for food and prepare meat (not as big as pigs and cows, I grant you). I would do it if I had to. As it is, I can buy it in the butcher's, as someone has kindly done it for me.

I couldn't stitch my own wounds, unblock my own toilet or loads of other things. People are suited to different jobs and I don't think that anyone who eats meat should have to kill the animal first.I happen to be able to slaughter a sheep, for example and I can cut up the carcass in about half an hour. That is a whole different thing to being able to kill a bullock and I wouldn't even attempt that.

I don't think it's a good idea to know nothing about the process though. It's certainly true that I am more careful than a lot of people about the meat I do buy and want to know about what it has eaten and how it was raised and slaughtered.

I

TheImprobableGirl I can't wait to make the move permanently, we are just there on the school holidays for now. It's the type of place where you leave your doors unlocked, and you come home and find your neighbour has left some fresh fruit or vegetables or a homemade pie on your kitchen bench while you were out. Everything is grown locally, very little meat or produce is allowed to be imported, everyone raises some kind of livestock and has fruit trees and a vege patch, so you end up swapping for whatever you need (I get my car serviced for free in exchange for the mechanic being allowed to use my back paddock to run some sheep).

If we had to hunt and gather our own food still then most of us would be killing animals to eat and not thinking twice about it. It’s only when humans became farmers, and then fast forward to when farming turned into a profit thing at the expense of animals, that it became ‘wrong’. I wouldn’t kill an animal I didn’t eat and I wish we still had to do it instead of the weird world we live in now, but... girls gotta eat her steak, yknow

I’d kill an animal and eat it. Grew up helping family catch animals and prep dead animals for dinner. The dh has had many a dead lamp/pig/goat in the back of his car we have preppered in the kitchen. We know farmers and raw feed our dogs while also growing our own fruit/veg and have chickens for eggs.

DH fishes quite a lot, and I'm not at all bothered about killing or gutting fish.
Im too squeamish to eat meat though, and haven't since I was a child. My friend has a small farm and is very matter of fact about how they are for eating, although she says she sometimes gets attached to certain animals every now and again and keeps those. Apparently once you've given them a name that's that.

My BIL in DH’s home country slaughters and butchers their own sheep. I let the DH watch so they understood where their food comes from. They still eat meat.

I could do it if I really had too.. but I don’t.. so il enjoy my meat with no slaughter on my hands

But yes I could kill and animal for meat if needed.

Unless I was starving to death, I couldn't kill an animal; hypocritical, I know.

I eat red meat occasionally, chicken more often.

I wouldn't kill them myself. If I had to I would become a vegetarian.

I don't feel like a hypocrite.

I'd be fine with killing and eating an animal.

I have killed animals so that I could eat them. Given the choice I would rather that over buying meat in a supermarket, it’s not practical though so I work hard to ensure the majority of the meat I eat is ethically sourced and slaughtered. Although that’s also not very practical at times! I don’t understand the mentality of being able to tuck into a steak but not be prepared to be a part of where it came from. If you feel that strongly about the animal you’re eating, you shouldn’t be eating it! But I do empathise to a certain extent.

I kill our chickens, (broomstick method) when necessary, I am a vegetarian. Not sure I agree with the argument, as Schlim says, other people are trained to specialise in different areas....

This is what made me turn veggie. I couldn't ever kill an animal and I thought I was a hypocrite so I stopped eating meat

Grew up on a farm, raised and then ate my pet lambs, visited abbatoirs and chicken processors in my first job, would keep, kill and cook my own livestock now, if I was confident I could dispatch humanely and butcher cleanly. And not live in suburbia.
I have a lot of respect for my farmer DB who weeps when he sees his cattle going to be culled because of bastard badgers infecting his herd with TB.

I couldn't. But that is why I'm a vegetarian. However, if my kids were starving I could, easily.

I would, and I get the underlying reason that we are disconnected, but we are so disconnected from so many things now.

You wouldn't eat half the stuff you do if you had to produce it yourself, if its coming from a vegan/vegetarian angle then its a different argument what with us being naturally omnivores etc

It's not hypocritical though.

I would wear nothing more than a basic sack dress if I had to cut it out and sew it myself.

I wouldn't have central heating if I had to install it and maintain it myself.

I would never go abroad if I had to row across the channel myself.

I would eat pretty crappy bread if I had to bake it myself.

My hair would look dreadful if I had to cut it myself.

It isn't hypocritical to outsource jobs that you can't do or don't want to do yourself.

I think I'd definitely think more carefully about eating meat though, in the sense that I'd use every bit of the animal for food. I'd waste nothing.

Gah Midnite I am astoundingly jealous - I wish you all the best!

Farmers daughter here.
I have killed,cooked and eaten.
Growing up on a farm,it's a way of life.

In Uganda for Easter the villagers slaughter a cow in the village square and hand out chunks to all the families. Better than chocolate bunnies that would melt in 35 Centigrade heat.

@AdidasGirl
It's a way of life
It doesn't have to be. There are other sources of food that don't involve the slaughter of animals! They taste just as good too :)

@Curiousmoi I didn't say it's a way of life for everyone.
I said "Growing up on a farm,It's a way of life"
And yes I do realise there are different types of farming.
But for me,on our farm,It's a way of life.

We regularly eat meals made from meat or fish that DH or I have killed

I am happier eating something I know had a good life and a clean death than factory farmed supermarket meat
I'd be amazed if everyone didn't think the same