The hypocrisy of meat eaters

[Hrafn]

The Danes have succeeded once again in riling the world up. A Danish radio host killed a bunny rabbit during a live broadcast, and then brought it home and ate it (which is clearly worse than going to the grocery store and buying the carcass of a pig that has been killed behind closed doors ). This has sparked outrage among the populace both in Denmark and abroad, and they have even started a petition to get this radio host fired.
About a year ago, Denmark angered the world when the Copenhagen Zoo culled a giraffe and fed it to the lions (which is clearly worse than slaughtering a cow to feed those same lions ). Even worse, they publically dissected the giraffe and allowed school children to watch it. Oh, won't someone please think of the children!?

What annoys me about these controversies is that the vast majority of those protesting are not vegetarians, and don't spend as much energy (actually, no energy at all) protesting the slaughter of billions of pigs, cows, chickens and fish.
As someone who has been a strict vegan for 4 years, I didn't get at all worked up about either the giraffe or the rabbit. To me, both of these cases illustrate the hypocrisy of a society that wants to gorge on meat but doesn't want to be reminded that meat comes from dead animals. I see the same kind of hypocrisy in anti-whaling and anti-hunting campaigns.

Be a vegetarian, or shut the fuck up!

[Siggon Kristov]

I understand when someone protests against killing endangered species, but meat-eaters protesting against other animals being killed for food is silly. I remember when something about the possibility of tiger farming came up on reddit, and there was this idiot there that said that tigers don't belong on farms, and I asked if he thought other animals belonged on farms and he said yes. He was a hypocrite.

For anyone seriously consider becoming a vegetarian, a nice substitute for meat is lentils/dal. I ate that for a week and had no craving for meat, because it satisfies the same taste. Additionally, it's high in protein.

[Aquinas]

As one of the millions and millions of hypocritical meat-eaters who feel squirmish about killing animals ...

To be fair, it sounds like this baby rabbit died in a rather unpleasant and undignified way, being hit over the head with a bicycle pump...live on radio too. If the rabbit had been dispatched in a quick, painless and dignified way, I'd have no problem in principle with eating it. Not that I normally eat rabbit, mind you - I think I've only had it once or twice.

That said, I would not be able to persuade myself to eat squirrel because I am soft on squirrels and love to feed them monkey nuts at my local park. Eating squirrels is not on.

I decided last year to stop eating meat that comes from pigs, because my mother has a pet pig and I've become convinced pigs are intelligent animals...too intelligent to be eaten, really...eating a pig would be a bit like eating a horse or a dog or a cat for me. I would object to eating tigers (which Siggon mentioned) for the same reason.

I also generally avoid eating chicken, not because I object to chickens being eaten, but because I deplore the way there are farmed. That said, if I went to somebody's house and they were cooking chicken for dinner, I might eat it, so I'm not 100% rigid on that rule...but even so, it's very, very rare for me touch chicken now, and I don't buy it for myself.

Things like fish, beef & lamb I have no problem with.

There is a stall near where I live that sells kangaroo burgers. Somehow that feels just *wrong* but I can't quite describe why.

[MichaelReilly]

Be a vegetarian, or shut the fuck up!

From a total, unashamed carnivore, this. This 100%.

It is complete hypocrisy, and I remember saying that at the time of the outrage with the giraffe thing.

Why is it acceptable to eat a pig and not eat a dog? Why is eating dog so unimaginable and so vile? It's an animal in the same guise as a cow or pig or sheep. It really is double standards.

[CanadianEh]

I keep a very regulated diet as well, I have been off Gluten & Wheat for 3 years, I severley regulate my sugar intake (And I don't even have Diabetes or anything) and I prefer veggie burgers and vegetables over meat. I do enjoy meat and fish fairly often though. Anyways my point is, I still get very appalled when hearing things like this and I don't think it's hypocritical.

[Kubrick]

Why no gluten? Afraid your phallus will fly off, to quote South Park?

[MichaelReilly]

I keep a very regulated diet as well, I have been off Gluten & Wheat for 3 years, I severley regulate my sugar intake (And I don't even have Diabetes or anything) and I prefer veggie burgers and vegetables over meat. I do enjoy meat and fish fairly often though. Anyways my point is, I still get very appealed when hearing things like this and I don't think it's hypocritical.

Me and you are very different people.

[CanadianEh]

Oh sorry, I meant appalled not appealed, and I'm off Gluten because of the bad things and affects I have heard it has on your body, I feel much healthier as well off of it. Lots of people are, it's really hurting the Canadian wheat industry.

[Aquinas]

Talking of animals, and I know this is going off the point...but Hrafn, I love the blue jay in your avatar. Those birds are beautiful. Very occasionally, if I'm lucky, I spot them when I'm out feeding the squirrels.

I'm off Gluten because of the bad things and affects I have heard it has on your body, I feel much healthier as well off of it. Lots of people are, it's really hurting the Canadian wheat industry.

That's interesting, I've heard a few other people talking about this too. May I ask, what benefits have you experienced since cutting out gluten?

EDIT: Ooohh look, 2300 posts, can I really have posted that many...?!

[CanadianEh]

I feel like I have better digestion and better bowel movements (If that's not too gross to talk about, lol). I also lost 15 pounds and for a pre-teen (which is what I was at the time) that's pretty crazy, thankfully I started to gain weight afterwards because of puberty and what not, but others who are older say they have kept it off. There are many other theories as well like, how gluten makes you hungrier and what not.