How do you think people would react to this?

[QueenOfIce]

Having a conversation with a vegan and we wondered If a butchers counter was set up with animals (that had died naturally) dead cats, dogs rabbits etc all skinned labelled like they do in butchers. Would people get the resemblance between those classed as pets and those in fields bred especially for food?

Not sure what you were trying to achieve. If I kept pigs as pets I wouldn't eat them but I would still eat bacon.

I used to keep rabbits but again wouldn't eat my pet rabbit but I have happily eaten rabbit in a meal.

Would you expect people to eat the cats? I find the carcases in butchers quite fascinating (and I'm a veggie). I remember seeing horses in a French market.

Why on earth would a butcher do that? you understand what a butcher is? And how they make their living?

No it was more of musing on an experiment to see if meat eaters were so horrified to see animals they Class as pets would they then consider stopping eating meat?

I'm a veggie, he's a full on vegan and as a lighthearted disclaimer it's none of my business who eats what, it was just a 'I wonder what would happen' type of conversation.

One question - what's it to you???

Is the thinking behind it that suddenly people who eat meat will understand that beef comes from a cow and lamb from a sheep and as they are animals like cats, dogs and horses they will suddenly stop?

If that is what you are hoping to achieve I don't think it will work. Definitely not on me as I would be thinking whoever thought that up was naive.

We are damned lucky to be able to be so prissy about food.

I'd happily eat any animal/bird as long as someone else did the prep. I'm the type to use tongs to avoid touching raw meat.

I've certainly eaten rabbit, pigeon, venison, horse, pig, chicken etc. And God knows what in sausages and pies.

You think people eat meat because they don’t understand that it was once an animal? Because they are very very stupid?

Just seen your last post. No I don't think it would stop people from eating meat bred for food. Every person I know understands fully where their meat comes from and yes when I see lambs in the field I do sometimes remind myself we haven't had lamb for dinner in a while

My mother ate her pet rabbit*.

Your thought experiment has no power here OP.

*In her defense she didn't know until half way through. She still finished it though.

As a meat eater I wouldn't be horrified no. Funnily enough I do understand that meat was once a living animal.

I would however think that the vegan "butchers" were a little bit hard of thinking if they believed meat eaters didn't know where meat came from.

I don't think that would work, no.

I remember stopping by a field of free range turkies on a cycle ride with my then 5 year old, and him being fascinated - as we left he said: They're so cool - we should keep one in the garden mummy! It's practical (that was one of his favourite "grown up" words at 5) too because we could eat it at Christmas!

We're not a farming family or anything, I think most people are not in any kind of denial about where food comes from!

I don't think he assumes people don't know where their meat comes from (although many don't) it was more about seeing it from the perspective of you wouldn't eat your pet so why eat any other animal.

I should have probably have had him post this!

I already 'get the resemblance', because I'm not wilfully stupid. And yet cat ownership has not stopped me eating rabbits, even though cat and rabbit carcasses are very alike.

I wouldn't eat cats, not because I class them as fundamentally different to other animals but because I bet carnivores taste absolutely revolting.

you wouldn't eat your pet so why eat any other animal.

Because one is your pet and the other is your food?

Even though our cat is hugely fat, still not sure he'd feed all my family in 1 meal.

Queen we keep fish. DD cried buckets when she thought her Beta, whom she spent all her pocket money nursing through a fungal infection, was swimming funny... (he's fine again now). She still happily eats fish, including whole whitebait, and whole baby octopus...

The fake butchers shop thing sounds a lot like a Damean Hurst Idea...

Apparently installing his cow and chicken in a steak restaurant didn't put diners off:

www.eater.com/2012/6/22/6571581/london-restaurant-installs-damien-hirsts-formaldehyde-preserved-cock

Installing a commercial abetoir might though! I think most people are ok with the idea of farm animals being killed for food but would rather imagine a small scale rural scene than a huge factory style abetoir.

It would be crazy if specifically cat ownership stopped people eating rabbits, given many cats will or would joyfully kill a rabbit themselves, given half a chance! Many, many cats are prolific killers and their owners get used to being presented with dead or half dead small animals.

99.9% of dog and cat owners are feeding their pets other animals, let alone themselves!

So what you are saying is that meat comes from actual animals?
Bloody hell, I had no idea

As a vegan you should worry more about the devestating environmental impact of soybean production.

As a Vegetarian your dh should be more concerned about how deplorably animals are treated in the dairy and egg industries.

An animal that results in a piece of free range beef is often treated far better than one that is literally milked to death; yet he still drinks milk. Dirty bugger.

Could he be in the same league as the mn chicken though pancake? You might find he satisfies a whole village

Er not my dh Duchy, no idea where you got that from!

I think I'd eat cat or dog tbh.
To me, meat is meat.
I know full well where it has come from.

I think people know that meat comes from animals. My dd is 3, she likes to watch the lambs in the field behind our house, she also likes to eat lamb. She knows that meat comes from animals. She also loves her pet cats. We have a rabbit as well, I have eaten rabbit. I used to have fish, I eat fish. People know that meat=dead animals. Humans have the capability of compartmentalising things in their minds. If I was starving I would probably eat anything available to me, just as I know that if I died my cats would gladly eat me.

Hopping

The fake butcher counter wouldn’t bother me- I already know where meat comes from.
Btw my cat frequently gifts us with dismembered rabbit, pigeons rodents and small birds - more gruesome than any butcher shop window- we are still happily omnivorous, just as nature intended.