I double-dare anyone...
Posted by hotcooknmama on Apr 03, 2010 · Member since Sep 2009 · 848 posts
... to watch this video and maintain that it's ok to shoot one of these, but not the other; that one is 'meat,' and the other is not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnZSTkycovg
(This was apparently originally posted on youtube in 12/09, but I saw it on CNN today... so it was new to me! hope it's ok to post here.) :)
Haha thats adorable
That is sweet. I live in major deer-hunting territory here. I never really understood it even in my prevegan days. At least they knowwhere their food is coming from, but . . .
All my brothers-in-law & cousins are big hunters... kill all kinds of mammals quite joyfully, but love dogs & (some of them) cats... treat THOSE mammals as family members, while enthusiastically butchering their cousins... ??? The neuroanatomy/ behavior/ physiology is SO similar, it's like a (particularly ugly) joke to say there's any actual reason that (x) species of (bird/ mammal) is for killing/ eating, and the other isn't... Melanie Joy writes about this social cognitive dissonance (http://supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=1464), as does J.S. Foer in 'Eating Animals'... it's just such a TOTALLY weird & arbitrary distinction...
People who think it's odd for veg*ns not to eat cows or pigs or chickens would be revolted and appalled, if they went to a restaurant and were offered dog or horse or parrot... news flash: IT'S THE SAME THING!!!
The argument for killing deer is usually that if humans don't shoot 'em, they'll overpopulate & starve... Ya, and humans -- as we all know -- are *really* experts on preventing overpopulation! ha! And the whole REASON they'll overpopulate is that folks with that same mentality (recreational or profit-motive hunters!) have systematically killed off all the deer's natural predators... which we're seeing played out AGAIN with the newly barely-un-endangered US gray wolves, in Montana & Idaho-- to protect sport-hunter tourism! So, yeeaaahhh: some WEAK logic, there!!!! Furthermore, if you're really concerned with population control, you'd shoot the mommies -- shooting bucks doesn't limit reproduction/ overpopulation (I'm certainly not advocating this! just saying, this argument is SUCH bunk). So, yeah... if people shoot deer, it's 'cause they enjoy blowing the hell out of living things, and would go to jail (or at least be lightly fined -- if they're in an ag state where livestock producers have lobbied heavily against anti-cruelty laws! a-holes!) if they shot a non-wild mammal... That's what it comes down to; let's not sugarcoat it. Hunters hunt deer because they like to kill stuff; other arguments are smoke & mirrors. Call it what it is.
Sorry; climbing down now; soap box stowed under seat til next time!
HCM, I remember watching a travel documentary in school where the presenter went somewhere in LA (Peru I think) and was given guinea pig to eat. Everyone was grossed out to the max. "Oh, man, guinea pigs are PETS!" Not, I guess, where they run wild.
But then everybody went to lunch and ate pieces of large mammals. Maybe size matters? Like you can only eat something that's heavier than you are? Is it morality on a per-serving basis?
I think it's more than just a size factor; maybe the phenomenon is rooted in humans' unparalleled ability to compartmentalize, and rationalize behavior. That and the tendency to conform to social expectations, in order to belong to the broader group.
In some places it's normal to eat horses & donkeys... Most Westerners would be grossed out if their favorite buffet were found to contain flesh from these animals... & that's different from eating cows, how exactly?!
I enjoyed that immensely! I grew up in an area where the public schools gave students the first day of hunting season off. Thanks to the internet, stuff like this can reach all manner of podunk places and change minds.
That is megasweet, just how playful they are! Precious.
They are so adorable. I'm like lbarte, could never understand the whole thrill in hunting something to kill it even when I was't vegan...