Meat eaters should have to kill for their food.

[Hugga_Bear]

I've killed to eat and I maintain that I will only eat what I would willingly kill. I do think people need to be aware of that and deal with it properly but going out to kill your own food is a ridiculous concept and extremely unwieldy, if everyone had to grow their own food (logical extrapolation) we'd all run out of room very quickly.

That said, I eat relatively small amounts of meat, as much as I like it I oppose eating it all the time on the grounds that it's economically and environmentally unsound. We simply don't have the space to keep up our current pace of eating meat. We need to cut down and dedicate more space to growing veg for us and move animals to locations where they can deal but the land isn't suitable for crops. We're running alarmingly low on space for food now.

 

[tobi the good boy]

I would be more than willing to slaughter my animals to acquire my delicious Meat. However, the process from carcass to tummy takes too long that way.

This being said, I have killed animals on my uncles property for dinner, so I'm assuming I've met your perquisite?

 

[henrycoll]

I think the OP has a sort of point. I for one am a ravenous meat eater and will eat any and all meat given to me - which is sort of a good thing . There is a restauraunt in central London called 'St John' which focuses on 'nose-to-tail-eating'. I must say that spleen might now be one of my favorite organs!

I honestly believe that if we are to kill animals for food - which we should unless we all want to be B12 and Folate deficient, and as a result be anemia and have babies with open spinal cords ;-) - we should be prepared to eat all of it. We have canine teeth after all, and their not for holding onto moving veg!

It irritates me that people (some of who I know!) will say:
Person: 'I dont like meat on the bone, its too fiddly'
Me: 'MAN UP AND LEARN TO EAT, we are blessed by being able to pick things up! My cat can manage it so so can you!'


I really look forward to not living in a rented flat so I can have chickens and a small heard of sheep/goats so I can raise, kill and eat my own!

 

[Instinct Blues]

Yes it sucks how animals are treated on the farms I've seen more than my fair share of images of slaughterhouses and farm animals shoved in cramped cages. The thing is thats not enough for me to stop eating meat because I think its delicious. I appreciate that an animal had to die for me to be able to eat, but do I have to kill one myself to really grasp that I don't think so. I don't see the appeal in being a vegetarian or a vegan unless you are really hardcore about animal abuse. I'm sorry it sucks that the animals live terrible lives and then die, but there are HUMANS who live terrible lives and then die without being to the benefit of anyone. You'll be hard pressed to get me to pay attention to animal rights when theres humans who are still having their rights violated. Maybe when we sort that out I'll start to care about the farm animals.

 

[Beryl77]

I'm sorry but your idea is way to impractical, you didn't think it through at all. Like many have pointed it out, by your logic vegetarians should grow their own food. If we would really do that then why stop at the food, everything that we own and use needs a lot of work to make, for example everyone should build their own house, car, computer etc. I think you know what I'm getting at, something like that would never work in our society. Even when the humans were still hunters a few thousand years ago, not everyone had to hunt, some went hunting others did other jobs. Our society only works because of our organisation. Someone does something for the other people and the others do something for him. He works in a car factory and helps building the cars and someone else hunts the food for him. He can't do everything on his own.

Also, in our society we're free to do whatever we want to, as long as we don't break the law. You can't force someone to kill something and tell him that otherwise he can't eat what he wants to. There just are some people who don't want to kill an animal but still want to eat meat.

 

[Linda Bridget]

When I told a doctor that I wanted to kill cats they put me on medication.

 

[Balgus]

absolutely agree though they should be made to prepare the meat themselves as well, i eat meat but it kind of sickens me to think of the industrial scale as to ow our meat is produced i mean.... where does all the blood go ?

 

[Aeonknight]

The entire point of paying money for food @ the store is to avoid having to do all the work involved in getting meat. Money in exchange for goods/services.

 

[Rpground]

i dont know how to kill anything without it being painful. when i camp,i camp by a lake,and fish the only way i know how to reliably kill the things without em getting away is so smash their head in with a rock...and it always doesnt work...considering i camp survivalist style this is a given seeing as a i cant stand to stab a living think. its a blunt object,im squeamish of living blood (IE flowing out of the creature while its still alive and squirming)...so i dont have to worry...


but this is just ridiculous,im not gonna turn your line against you to prove my point. im just gonna point out the one thing wrong with you statement. everyone would be vegan cause your forcing children to murder animals just to eat them...they see that shit and little timmy will be screwed mentally for the rest of his life!

all that i think would be fair is that how we "manufacture" these animals now adays were giving these animals a happy and healthy life till we take their meat. either way their end will come,might be nice if their last moments were nice,like good food. maybe it gets to do whatever,i dont know. but i know that animals treated this way taste better and they were happier before...you know...so its win win really,sure a little more expensive but its really worth it.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I'd kill my own meat if I had too. I expect vegetarians and vegans to grow their own food and harvest it themselves too though. I'd need to get a bigger freeze though, that much cow meat would go bad real quick. I'd also need training on how to slaughter a cow too. If everyone else was doing it I'm sure it wouldn't be that weird and everyone would be fine with it. Ahh cultural customs you make so many weird things normal.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Meh...

If you lack the imagination to foresee that having a society that is more comfortable and experienced in taking life could have a host of negative effects, you probably aren't the right person to be up on the soapbox.

Our sensitivity on the whole is afforded to us by our assigning the dirty jobs to a few, allowing the rest of us to be innocent of it. I'm not a soldier, but I could be. I don't work in a slaughterhouse, but I could if it was absolutely required of me...we all could. If you believe otherwise, you're underestimating your potential, and denying what we are as a species.

Killing animals is a pretty common gateway to killing humans for alot of our most notorious serial-killers...

...What the hell do I know, eh?

 

[Doclector]

I think Sam Neill knows more than some random person who's too afraid to eat meat.

I don't think I can watch jurassic park anymore...

I could do that once. I'm perfectly fine with it. When a hunter kills, they should always at least make use of what they kill, and I mean completely, the meat as food, the skin can be used as materials, even the bones can be fashioned into something useful. To not make use of everything disrespects the animal, it's why I don't see the problem with mechanically reclaimed meat. Sure we need to fix what goes in with it, but imagine how many more animals would have to die if we let that meat just go to waste, huh?

Y'know another thing that gets me on a slightly related note? How nature documentaries paint the hunting animals as evil and the prey as good. The hunter is only trying to eat, and the prey? Well, that's the way of the wild. They simply didn't run fast enough.

At least a damn tiger doesn't kill a deer simply to hang it's head on a wall...

 

[Arqus_Zed]

We own some chickens and rabbits - and yes, we eat said chickens and rabbits (well, I eat the chickens, I don't really fancy rabbit meat).

But to your whole question of "Should meat eaters kill their own food" is say: no. That would pretty much set certain aspects of our society back a couple of thousands of years. The whole thing about buying stuff, is derived from trading stuff, which humans have done ever since we found out that some people are better at doing certain tasks than other people.

I will say, however, that I do not agree with the way certain animals are killed. About a year ago I had to edit a couple of montages of secret footage shot in a slaughterhouse. They didn't follow regulations and instead of instantly killing the animals (cows, in this case) with a blow to the head, they just slowly decapitated them where they stood, still alive. Not a pretty sight, not according to regulations and NOT how it should be done. We are omnivores and are supposed to consume a small amount of meat on a regular basis, but we've evolved to a state where we no longer have to chase after our meat, bite it in the neck and eat its intestines while it's still warm.

(Also, off topic, I never really understood vegetarians, even less vegans. Many of them I personally know say they do it because they respect nature, but nature made them omnivores, so isn't NOT eating meat and/or fish kind of disrespecting nature?)

 

[siNwrath]

WARNING: This is pretty much gonna be one of those self righteous, one sided, poorly written rants that have been done before, so feel free to ignore this and move on.

Let me start by saying that I was raised a vegetarian and have been a vegan for a few years, but what confuses a lot of people is that I'm not really anti-hunting. In fact, I respect those who hunt and kill animals for food far more than the average McDonald's customer. The reason for this is because the hunter at least understands the implications of his meal.

Many pro-meat advocates say that humans are omnivores and eating animals is part of the "circle of life", and I agree with this to an extent. The problem with this is that in the industrial age, we don't raise or prey on animals as much as we manufacture them. I know a lot of (usually female) people who say they'd never kill a chicken or a cow, yet they eat meat regularly. This is because they don't think of their burgers or chicken sandwiches as animals that were killed; instead, they think of them as delicious, cheap food that might have involved an animal at some point, "but it's already dead, so it's best not to think about it."

While it's not practical in modern times to slaughter your evening meal every day, everyone who eats meat should kill for their food at least once. If you can bring yourself to kill for food, then you have a stronger will than I do, and I have (almost) no problem with you eating meat. If you refuse to kill a cow, but demand 1$ Jr. Double Cheeseburgers, you're a hypocrite in denial, and I have no respect for you.

TL;DR: An animal was killed for you to have that sandwich, learn what it means to kill an animal.

EDIT: Just to clarify on a few things:

I said meat eaters should kill an animal at least once. That's my personal opinion; you can do whatever you want, not trying to force you to do anything.

The straw argument of "You should make an x before you use one." is ridiculous. We're talking about a process that involves the voluntary killing of something else, it's a bit different from wood carving/computer assembly ect... As far the "you should grow a plant before you eat one" argument goes: plants lack a nervous system and brain, so it's not really harming a plant to farm one, but for the record, I do have a decently sized vegetable garden in my backyard if it's any consolation.

It is true that every purchasing decision we make has implications we never see. Someone buys a pair of Nike sneakers, and they might have been made at a sweat shop that uses child labor; they just don't know or don't think about it. As a society, we need to learn more about the source of every product we buy, and make well informed purchasing decisions accordingly. I'm just arguing about the meat industry at the moment.

At the very least, you can learn about how animals are killed in factories via internet. It's not pretty, to say the least.

I've thought about this a lot, and frankly thinking about a chicken being murdered does not make it any less delicious. And I would kill for my food, but its pretty impractical.

I love that you reason away the murder and dismembering of vegetation as somehow morally superior to us omnivores. I also love that you suggest that we kill our food at least once, while most of us live in cities far removed from anywhere that would allow us to do so, let alone having the skills to catch prey in the wild. Because y'know we're more focused on petty things like IDK Science or furthering humanity, or jerking off or some such.

You seem to function on the basis that its somehow unnatural to eat meat, and that farming (or as you put it "manufacturing") is somehow wrong. You don't think for a second that a pig or a cow in a similar situation wouldn't do the same thing?

Actually, Human's can be pretty good to their prey. Compare our methods of killing to say the Komodo Dragon who waits for you to die a slow and agonising death by infection, or Snakes and Spiders who either eat their prey alive or bathe them in acid and drink them later. Most animals grow for the throat, not to cut the jugular or any major blood vessel, least not to let them bleed out, but to starve them of oxygen. Hold your breath for as long as you can. Imagine that, but with razor sharp teeth clenched around your neck. Pleasant? I thought not.

Yes, there is room for improvement. The point is, lets deal with some real issues like: free ranged vs caged or the little farmer being screwed over by the big corporation.

 

[ramboondiea]

so if i want a steak, i have to go and kill a cow? that seems awfully wasteful, i mean i like steak, but i cant eat a cows worth, so the rest of that cows is going to waste, because others cant eat it, they didnt kill it. the

the kill what you eat mentality is flawed as one animal doesnt equal one meal for one person, the eat what you kill method will only lead to more dead animals

 

[Communist partisan]

I would like that, but I don't know if it's sure to give a crazed murderous sociopath reason to start killing living things.

 

[DonMartin]

I agree with you to some extent, OP. I myself hunt and dont waste anything. But just eating elk, deer, duck and hare grows tiresome. And it isnt easy to live on what you sell from the hunt, even if it is for a high price. So naturally, I buy meat. Pig and cow, the cheapest two. But also chicken and turkey. I cant survive in the city by just going hunting whenever I feel peckish. I have to work for a living, and with the money I get, I buy food. Not just meats, but vegetables, rice, bread, everything I need to survive.

As far as Im considered, we are equal to all animals. We are animals. And as such, we are not above not eating them, as they do with others. And as for the argument that "Cows dont eat animals, why do we eat cows?" Well, that's just the circle of life. Some predators have no one but their own species to fight. You dont see anyone eat a lion, do you?

As for hunting for fun, Im not really sure what I think. It is silly, but if it is to keep the numbers of the species youre hunting or the species that species feeds on, I suppose it's okay. Still dont like the idea all that much.

And finally, as for those videos online where you see how animals are slaughtered? That's just the way it is. It's not more glorious when I gut a fish on the rocks with a knife. It's no more glorious when I skin an animal. But what I can agree on here is one thing: atleast I do it when theyve already passed on. Skinning or slaughtering a live animal is cruel, horrible and immoral. We are to show respect for our prey, and for our animal brothers. Pretty much all ancient hunter-gatherers had this down. I dont think theres any good reason for us not to.

 

[-Dragmire-]

The only animal I've killed and eaten was fish, if that counts.

This may reflect badly on me but the largest turnoff on killing an animal for me is not the act itself, but the mess I have to deal with associated with the act.

I should point out that I feel there is a world of difference between killing animals for food and killing animals most other reasons. I would have trouble killing an animal for sport.

edit: also as a side note, most people have not needed to kill their own for a very long time. That's how trade started, the existence of a meat dealer in a food market has been around for at least a couple thousand years, it's not a recent development. We're just so used to it now, that people don't consider where their ready made/prepared food came from. It's not 'right' or 'wrong', that's just the way it is.

 

[Spudgun Man]

No problem, just hand me that rake and stand well back, or bask in the glory of the meat dandruff and blood shower that you've now inflicted indirectly upon the animal of my choice 'cause I got a bit hungry.