When did this realization hit me? Well first I mad point of trying not to eat meat when I did not know where it came from. Luckily we have many farms around this area that raise their animals humanely and never abuse them (as with most slaughter houses). So I felt fine eating meat on occasion. Then one morning (about three days ago) I was making scrambled eggs from my daughter and then the light went on - this is an embryo (or one day could have been). Then I asked myself would I eat a human embryo? The thought sounded gross and made my stomach turn a little.
Tonight I made tacos and as I was cooking the meat I again started to think - I am cooking the decaying flesh of a cow. Yes I said decaying because once things die they start to decay. Then the smell hit me and again my stomach turned a little. I then added the taco spices and the smell went away, but the thought was still there. I did eat it but not with the same enjoyment that I used to have.
Then more realizations hit me. This was a sentient creature (Sentience is the ability to feel or
perceive subjectively.) (wikipedia) At one time this piece of meat that I am eating could feel. What right do I have to take part in the death of this animal? I then started to associate all the meats that I used to eat and (finally) connect them to the animal. It may sound stupid but I would not make the connection in my mind's eye that the ham for Chirstmas was once a pig. That the hamburger, the steak, the roast, was once a cow.This was very disturbing to me. It was disturbing that I could so easily disconnect from reality and think that what I was eating did not have any affect on the other creature in this world. That there are so many people out there that probably have the same disconnect. If they watched the video Meet Your Meat and not feel completely disgusted and have the light go on for them as well I would be surprised.
A vegitarian. This is more and more what I become.
1 comment:
As much as it seems as though I don’t think about what goes in my mouth I do. So I’ve had thoughts like that too. Actually – you probably read about the pig farm abuse reported by PETA in the news a couple days ago. Horrid.
Something that tempers those thoughts is when I get to experience nature. I was out in the Boundary Waters last week camping in the woods with my buddy Jason. I caught a couple nice little fish I had planned on eating. I don’t usually get to actually dispatch with my food, killing an animal to eat it, but I do like to fish and eat ‘em. So first I make my fishing purposeful. I eat what I catch. I don’t catch to release, I don’t want to disturb them for sport. When I do need to clean them . . . this sounds corny, but I think about how thankful I am that I have it – thank the fish – thank God – I dunno. Then I dispatch it quickly and then when it’s dead I fillet it.
Okay, not exactly what happens in a slaughter house, but bear with me.
2 fish I caught had bad experiences. One I caught in the evening and was saving for the following day. It was alive in water by the shoreline. Something grabbed it and brought it to shore. It couldn’t release it from the line, so it abandoned it. The fish died on shore, wasted. The second I caught in the afternoon and had planned on eating for lunch. Again, I had it secured in the water. After I left a raven came down and ate the guts and then started pecking around the gills. Eaten alive. I could salvage some of it for lunch believe it or not.
Anyway, small examples of how cruel nature is. We have the ability to be better than that, and should. However, nature is no less cruel. Sometimes I wonder how being vegetarian is less cruel. Sure plants are different, but don’t they have the spark of life somewhere? We eat them raw, is that spark gone before or after we sink our teeth into that carrot? In 50 years are we going to learn that it hurts when we cut them? I dunno.
So I guess I try to be the best steward I can of what I consume. Support local farmers. Know where my food comes from.
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