Are You a Killer?

[SalixIncendium]

Clickbait title is clickbait. Well...sort of.

In a discussion yesterday afternoon, the topic shifted to how a family destitute was destitute to the point that the father had to hunt to put food on the table, which led to a discussion about hunting and consuming meat.

Someone brought up the popularity of hunting in the US (deer and bear primarily) which led to me talking about how all the males in my family but me were avid hunters.

It was at that point, some guy from the UK mentioned that it is quite uncommon in his country to hunt for food, and there is such a disconnect from where meat actually comes from that it's not even considered that it's an animal that was killed for food when buying chicken or another meat off the grocery shelf. Is that the case in your neck of the woods?

I once asked myself, "Would I continue to eat meat if I had to kill and butcher these animals myself?" The answer was a resounding no, which was a large consideration in my choice to become vegetarian.

If you are an omnivore (or a carnivore), would you continue to eat meat if buying it at the grocery wasn't an option (or it wasn't given to you if you don't buy your own food), and you had to kill and butcher the animal yourself? Would that be enough to make you a vegetarian? Why or why not?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I haven't hunted before, but I have fished which is pretty similar. I've also farmed, dispatched and processed my own meat when I was a kid. I'm a lot more comfortable working with the whole animal including things that normally get thrown out, like offal, feet, tongues etc.
If I hadn't gone more veggie persuasion I think I would have done more 4H patronage. Sponsored well tended local animals and used everything.

But when it came down to brass tax, I just don't need meat. And it seemed like an unnecessary indulgence that had a harmful quality.

 

[epronovost]

I have never hunted any wild animal, but I have slaughtered farm animals and eaten them afterward. I don't have any specific issue with that. Properly raised and slaughtered animals have a decent life and a quick and painless death and will serve in pretty much everything. There is practically nothing we don't use in slaughtered animals.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I haven't hunted before, but I have fished which is pretty similar.

Many make a clear distinction between killing a fish and killing a mammal. I think many that fish wouldn't as easily kill a mammal.

In the first minute of this song, Kurt sings a line that says, "It's okay to eat fish, 'cause they don't have any feelings." I think that there are many that think this way.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I have never hunted any wild animal, but I have slaughtered farm animals and eaten them afterward. I don't have any specific issue with that. Properly raised and slaughtered animals have a decent life and a quick and painless death and will serve in pretty much everything. There is practically nothing we don't use in slaughtered animals.

You personally took the animal's life and processed it?

 

[Secret Chief]

I didn't know hunting was such a big thing in the US.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I didn't know hunting was such a big thing in the US.

In certain circles it is. It's quite celebrated, actually. People take the whole week off work when gun season opens around Thanksgiving.

 

[epronovost]

You personally took the animal's life and processed it?

I killed the animal and helped with the processing, though I didn't do most of the processing. I also didn't cook the animal either.

There were actually two animals and they were ducks if that was you next question.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I killed the animal and helped with the processing, though I didn't do most of the processing. I also didn't cook the animal either.

So getting back to the question in the OP, if you had to handle the whole shebang on your own, would you still be a meat eater?

 

[Rye_P]

Work in a farm in the past, and I don't find it make any difference. Never slaughtered something big as cow and buffalo, but from poultry until small mammals like goat, I'm okay in doing it.

 

[Nimos]

If you are an omnivore (or a carnivore), would you continue to eat meat if buying it at the grocery wasn't an option (or it wasn't given to you if you don't buy your own food), and you had to kill and butcher the animal yourself? Would that be enough to make you a vegetarian? Why or why not?

I would still eat meat, the first couple of times when I had to butcher a large animal I would probably be a bit nervous. But I have no issues handling fish, and you can basically buy a "whole" chicken/turkey/duck in a supermarket already. I think the only issue and why I would "care" is because im not used to it. But if it was the way it was done and normal, I don't think I would mind to much to be honest.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Many make a clear distinction between killing a fish and killing a mammal. I think many that fish wouldn't as easily kill a mammal.

In the first minute of this song, Kurt sings a line that says, "It's okay to eat fish, 'cause they don't have any feelings." I think that there are many that think this way.

Personally I don't think I'd have a problem with it. I also cared for large reptiles for a good decade so I've personally dispatched mice, rats, chickens and rabbits for that, which is a lot more 'hands on.'

My biggest issue (aside from a general disinterest in meat) is with hunting culture which takes a lot of the toxicity that gun culture does. It's not a guarantee I'd have to deal with it but present enough to be disuading.

 

[Secret Chief]

In certain circles it is. It's quite celebrated, actually. People take the whole week off work when gun season opens around Thanksgiving.

Lovely.

 

[Rival]

Sure. Vegetarianism didn't work for me and I don't mind slaughter. I live in the countryside though and my dad worked on a pig farm, of which I saw a couple.

 

[Eddi]

If you are an omnivore (or a carnivore), would you continue to eat meat if buying it at the grocery wasn't an option (or it wasn't given to you if you don't buy your own food), and you had to kill and butcher the animal yourself? Would that be enough to make you a vegetarian? Why or why not?

I could not bring myself to slaughter an animal

Yet I can quite happily eat meat

However, lately I have started to regret doing so whenever I eat it

But I'm a glutton, basically a stomach on legs

So it would be hard for me to change my omnivorous habits

And I know that the moral thing to do is to become a vegan!

That I believe is what morality dictates!

I'm just too weak willed for that

Perhaps I need some self-discipline?

 

[epronovost]

So getting back to the question in the OP, if you had to handle the whole shebang on your own, would you still be a meat eater?

Well, yes, I was there fo the whole process. I just wasn't doing it all by myself (it's a lot of work to prepare an animal for cooking even one like as small as a duck).

 

[Shadow Wolf]

If you are an omnivore (or a carnivore), would you continue to eat meat if buying it at the grocery wasn't an option (or it wasn't given to you if you don't buy your own food), and you had to kill and butcher the animal yourself? Would that be enough to make you a vegetarian? Why or why not?

I have fished and filleted and ate the catch, but I've not hunted or farmed animals.
The guilt I sometimes have over the reality of something dying to feed me often has me thinking of going vegetarian. Except I don't like that many veggies (for the most part they are bitter and nasty, especiallyif they are green), and I love seafood so much mg love of it tends to over ride the guilt I'd have eating other animals.

 

[Sunstone]

In my neck of the woods, there were a small handful of families for whom the choice was either to hunt and fish, or go without meat. So far as I know, they all chose to hunt and fish. One family in particular was more or less locally famous for keeping an eye out for roadkill. They scavenged it.

I recall a story of someone whose car hit a deer. Somehow, they made it into town in their nearly totaled car, and reported the accident to the sheriff. He told them that he'd send a man out to drag the deer off the road -- if needed -- but he doubted that it would be needed since he was certain that the family would have scavenged the deer by the time a deputy could get to the scene.

 

[Sunstone]

I don't have an ideology about eating meat, but I seem to be gradually weaning myself of the practice -- without actually trying to do so. Each year for perhaps a decade now, I've eaten less and less meat. My tastes have been changing.

A few years ago, I gave up eating pork entirely after a friend told me -- only half-joking -- that pigs are smarter than about half the human population of North America.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I have fished and filleted and ate the catch, but I've not hunted or farmed animals.
The guilt I sometimes have over the reality of something dying to feed me often has me thinking of going vegetarian. Except I don't like that many veggies (for the most part they are bitter and nasty, especiallyif they are green), and I love seafood so much mg love of it tends to over ride the guilt I'd have eating other animals.

I'm a vegetarian that doesn't really like vegetables...unless they're heavily seasoned...which is why I like Indian food so much.