I hear stories about cruelty to animals.
By marguicha
@marguicha (215805)
Chile
December 23, 2012 5:36am CST
I have seen a growing concern for edible animals in our culture. And, I want everyone to understand, I`m talking only about a culture that has always eaten meat. The people who will not eat meat because they will not torture animals are the same who do not much care about some insects and even fish. Many of them do not care specially about wild life, specially endangered species. I feel there`s something wrong in that argument. My stomach is built to eat all kinds of food and I need the aminoacids provided mainly by meat and dairy products.
On the other hand, how is it possible that those people will never talk about cruelty to plants when they eat our daily bread?
I eat all kinds of food (many of you know that I love to cook) but I thank those anomals and plants that provide me the food to keep me living. Only yesterday I went to pick up my basil. I am giving pesto as a present to one of my children. Before I cut the basil, I talked to the plants. I told them how beautiful they were andhow wonderful their smell and taste was. Then I cut them, all the time feeling grateful for having them. I was not cruel.
Once, here in mylot, a mylotter friend said that if animals had a name, they weren`t eatable. Otherwise, they could be eaten. I thought she made a good point there. What do you think? Am I cruel because I`m taking a nice roast beef to our Christmas diner? Are we cruel when we eat a stuffed turkey for some holidays? Share! Merry Christmas everyone.
1 person likes this
14 responses
@namiya (1713)
• Philippines
23 Dec 12
Hi Marguicha, Merry Christmas. Yes I've been reading your topics about food preparations and had not been amiss in presuming that you are a very good cook. I smiled upon reading your post on how you talk to your plants before cutting them for you reminded me of my landlady then who talks to her flowering plants while caring for them and true enough her plants continuously bear beautiful flowers particularly her orchids. Going back to your topic, no it's not cruelty for these animals were raised for food consumption. Cruelty is when you harm them for no valid reason or worst for some personal enjoyment as there are people who find fun in torturing a pet or any animal which I find difficult to understand and think as barbaric act.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
24 Dec 12
I wish you a merry Christmas. And let us hope that our offspring wiill have a planet to welcome them on future Christmas.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
I think that harming animals or plants for no valid reason is cruel. I hope that there will come a day when we get what we need and take care of our planet in a better way. Yet, eating what we need to keep alive, is reaonable.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
7 Jan 13
I supppose it would be nice if we could get nourishment from the air, but it doesn't quite work that way. Eating meat is part of the natural order of things, and with the exception of pet animals and endangered animals, I don't have a problem with it. I do have a problem with the way the animals are treated at some commercial meat farms.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
7 Jan 13
I totally agree with you. I`m sure that could be helped if there weren`t some people who want to get rich catering for others. Of course, we cannot all raise our own chicks as it was before. But I do wish something could be done.
@inedible (768)
• Singapore
24 Dec 12
Not at all. The animals are totally asking to be eaten by being so delicious. If they didn't want to be eaten, why would they taste so good?
Ah, but seriously though, the reason people don't talk about cruelty towards plants is because (despite what some scientists claim) plants don't feel pain or emotions the way humans do, while some animals do feel pain and other emotions. It's also why some people who don't eat higher animals are fine with eating lower species - It's because lower species have more primitive brains and are believed to not think the same way more complex animals do.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
24 Dec 12
I sometimes wonder how much "lower animals" understand. I read a story once in a scientific magazine. There was this lab that had two places with exactly the same amount of rabbits from the same mother and father. They were almost identical twins. They were put into two places and they paid two students to feed them. Funny enough, one set of rabbits grew better and had nicer fur thann the other. They asked the students about food and water and everything was the same. Finally they discovered the only one difference: one of the students liked rabbits and he petted them while he was feeding them. That does not mean that we should stop eating. But I guess we should thank for the food we eat and meanwhile care about the rest of the planet, be it plants, animals or soil.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
27 Dec 12
I wish our species had half the organization that bees and ants have. I wonder if that is another kind of "brain" that suits them better for their conservation.
@Leeper (79)
• South Africa
27 Dec 12
I do not think that eating animals is cruelty to animals...however, I did watch a documentary called 'Earthling' that did make me question the process of how the animals are killed for food. There seems to be quite a lot of cruelty in the process - not everywhere, but in many places. I think it is important that the animal is killed compassionately but maybe I am just being a hypocrite - since I eat meat nonetheless.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
27 Dec 12
I once saw a video about how chicken were killed to send to those big chain restaurants. It was terrible. I agree that there are different ways to do things and cruelty should not be one of them
@Mavic123456 (21898)
• Thailand
23 Dec 12
Really you do that? you talked to the plants. wow. you are such a compassion person. I just don't do it. I just eat regardless if it is a plant or an animal. LOL. Remember the Food Cycle we learned from Science when we were in grade school. It does exists and we have all these things on earth so we will survive. but of course as part of the food cycle, we tend to plant and take care of the animals.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
I don`t think it`s compassion, Mavic. I do eat veggies and I eat meat. But I also applaud their beauty. You would laugh the way I`m coaxing my tomatoes to grow
@Mavic123456 (21898)
• Thailand
26 Dec 12
I wouldn't laugh because I know that it is good way to Grow plants but appreciating them and telling them how beautiful they are
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
23 Dec 12
Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to you my dear friend. I really enjoyed visiting you in March. It was lovely of you to show me that huge supermarket near where you live. Amusingly I got on better buying vegan food with your guidance. It was so funny when I bought nuts covered in garlic.
I believe that everyone should have his or her personal choice when it comes to eating food. I have a vegan diet and that is mu choice. Meat eaters and vegetarians have their own choice too. I care very much about animals. I would not eat animals since they are my friend.
One lady ordered a meal in Slovenia. she was worried because the fish on her plate had a face. In my culture meat eaters eat pigs, cows and chickens. In France they eat snails and British people think yuck. Some people in Peru eat guinea pigs but in my home country guinea pigs are pets. It is all about culture.
Yes, meat has names like pork, beef and ham. It the real names were used some people would be put off. Though names like chicken and turkey are used. I am happy to be vegan.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
Hi Maxine,
I think that everyone can make their own choice although they don`t have to scorn other people for eating other kinds of food. It`s the same with religions and with just about everything else. When I talked about animal names, I was referring to pets, I meant, some people will eat rabbits, but not if the rabbit is a pet called "Bugs". I love animals and plants, but I will eat both.
@artemeis (4194)
• China
25 Dec 12
I don't find anything wrong and even a sin to eat meat. Even when we are preparing (subtly for killing the life) and cooking them for food.
In the first place, I don't think any meat we put on the table are from sick, diseased, ill or maimed animals, livestock or wildlife. So, whether it is a chicken, cow, deer, dog (no offense), duck, fish, pig, partridge, pigeon, rabbits, turkey or even wild boar and etc., I believe they are fit for consumption.
I don't talk to any plant or piece of meat like you but that does not make me a lesser conscientious person. On the other hand, I believe it would be a sin or insult to these lives when we do not do what is right starting with cooking it right for the taste buds on the table. To me, that will be pure wastage and disregard to the sacrificed life.
The other consideration would be the harm we do when we consider endangered species for food like the wildlife shark which Chinese are eating their dorsal fins for food. The mass hunting for it causes problems to the food cycle and mother nature at the end of the day. So, it would be inconsiderate if we continue with our habits for such animals for food.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
25 Dec 12
I talk to my plants, but when my awesome tomatoes are ripe, I eat them. I talk to a couple of dogs, but I understand that many people eat them. I know that many people have guinea pigs as pets, but I have eaten them and they are better than rabbits ( beautiful and yummy). Of course we must worry about endangered species and we must not kill for fun.
@savypat (20216)
• United States
23 Dec 12
I agree with you. The only thing I would add is that without the market for meat, beef cattle and turkeys would not be raised. There is no need for them other than as food. I start each day with a special thank you for the food I eat, as I say the thank you I try to visualize that food from conception, (seed) to my table and all the processes that brings it to me. Some how by visual involvement it makes the whole thing more real to me. Many may not know all that happens to get the food on their table, and it would help them if they did a little research on the Internet, they would understand for instance that bread starts way before the baker even starts his work. If nothing else they would see how many humans are involved in this process. In fact before the seed is ever planted for the wheat, years of research goes into making that seed. I feel it never hurts for me to become more aware of these things. I challenge my mind as I am always learning something new. Blessings and Happy Holidays.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
It would be nice if we were aware of a lot of things as eating goes. We probably would live better and longer lives and there would be enough food for everyone. My father, abiochemist, told me a long time ago, that I didn`t need more that two dices of meat a day to have the protein I needed. We don`t need a barbecue or a T bone steak. With veggies and grains it`s the same. I am proud now to be growing enough basil (in a little amount of soil) to make pesto for my daughters, a friend and for me to last the year around. I have saved a lot of water too, because I just water the roots.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
24 Dec 12
I think there is a huge difference in being cruel to animals and eating them to sustain ourselves. I have a great respect for the fact that these animals do supply life and if they have a name..no..it would be different. Like a lion...if it is raised by people and it recognizes us as part of their family, it has the intelligence to separate us from it's food supply. If it is in the wild and doesn't know us, we are prey. Kind of the same I guess.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
24 Dec 12
I agree with you. I love plants and animals, but I also eat both. I feel that I`m part of them, part of this world and we must accept what we are.
@TheKingMan (292)
• India
23 Dec 12
I think that if eating animals is a sin then eating plants should be a sin too. Plants and animals are alike. Isn't killing something that can't even cry or run more cruel than killing something that does express it's agony. The only morality about eating plants or animals is that only those plants or animals should be eaten which are abundant in nature. If the proportion shifts then we too should change our eating habits. We should never harm the species which might get extinct, endangered species. We should also try to give back nature the part we snatched from it.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
I totally agree with you. Overeating, whether it is animal or plants is not to be done. And endangered species should be taken care of. I`m sure that there are many ways of eating that will not mean hurting our planet.
@WakeUpKitty (8694)
• Netherlands
25 Dec 12
I only know nature people (and witches) who thank nature for their gift/food.
I don't agree with you you need meat to stay healthy and get everything you need. Especially not now all borders are open if it comes to food. I never ate a stuffed turkey so I don't know if you are cruel. But.. I don't see the difference between a stuffed turkey, chicken or wild life. These are all animals. Although I think the wild life at least was free during a part of the life and had a way better life. If you have to catch that it has a chance to escape, the other animals doesn't have that. I also do not think people are more torturing an animal nowadays as they did ages ago. I also can't say there is a more growing conern for edible animals, especially not if it comes to it world wide. I think this is luxury. As soon as a culture thinks she is higher developed as others they start talking about torturing animals etc.. no matter how much vets such a culture has and how much money owners do spend on the welfare of their animals (this includes farmers as well).
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
26 Dec 12
I was told about esencial aminoacids by my father, a scientist. You can have them all not eating meat if you are really careful in your vegetable mixtures. I don`t think that eating a stuffed turkey or not will help anyone learn about cruelty. That is personal.
@randomarts09 (1405)
• Indonesia
23 Dec 12
No I don't think it's cruel at all. I agree, because from what I understand, in Genesis, God just give the plants, seeds, and fruits for humans to eat however since humans fall in sin, then the soils have been cursed and God has given animals for us to eat too, since the nutrients in just plants, seeds, and fruits are already so depleted compared to before humans fall in sin and we need animals' meat to complete it. Even God has given it to us.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
I didn`t know that. But I do know that the ancient jewish people were shepheards andthat they ate meat. There are exceptions such as eating pork, but I believe that wise men set that rule as a helth measure for the population.
@rldchampions001 (156)
• Pakistan
23 Dec 12
I don't think eating meat is a sin. If eating meat is a sin then eating vegetables is also a sin too. Both are product of living things. The clothes, jackets, sweaters we wear are all made up of animal skins, then wearing them might be a bigger sin. We are not killing animals without any purpose. If we stop eating meat and vegetables then what's left to eat. We will die of hunger. Animals and plants are created by God for us to utilize them according to our needs.
@marguicha (215805)
• Chile
23 Dec 12
I think that the word to emphasize is "according to our need". We should eat to live and not live to eat. Overeating, no matter if it is animal or vegetable, is not right. We should use our legit share of the planet`s bounty and care for it.
