Damn It
I don't think I've ever turned down a Starlite cheeseburger before. Then I read this.
It all started Saturday night, when my brother was flippping through channels. He stopped at a program about the treatment of pigs. It was the most horrible thing I've ever watched in my life. I was half in the bag, so I didn't really dwell on it after he changed the channel. The next day, I had a big fat cheeseburger (with bacon, naturally) from Convention Grill. It was freakin' delicious.
When I got back to Crapids, I decided to look at the goveg.com website to get some ideas for some vegetarian dishes, since we eat meat at least 6 days out of the week. Instead, I ended up reading page after page about the horrendous conditions in stockyards and slaughterhouses. The worst part was reading about how happy the pigs were to get in open air and sunlight that they bucked and jumped and ran around like happy dogs. And that when cows solve a problem (yes, people give cows problems to solve), they are visibly pleased with themselves.
It's not so much killing an animal and eating it that bothers me so much. If I knew that a cow had a happy life rather than one on a concrete floor in a 4x6 cage that ends in a 110 degree ride to a painful and terrifying death, I might not have as much of a problem enjoying a nice Steak de Burgo. Josh did some searching on the internet and found "cruelty-free" places to buy meat, where the animals live normal lives on lots of land and get to graze, roam around, raise their young, etc. That doesn't bother me as much. I used to be against hunting. Now I'm starting to think that hunting is one of the only humane ways of getting meat.
I don't know what's going on with me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew all of this before but didn't care. I wonder if it's the same reason that St. Jude's Children's Hospital with all the little bald cancer kids makes me bawl for a solid ten minutes after it's over. Whatever this is could be a total phase, but for now it's annoying. I don't enjoy caring. It makes things less fun and less delicious.
It all started Saturday night, when my brother was flippping through channels. He stopped at a program about the treatment of pigs. It was the most horrible thing I've ever watched in my life. I was half in the bag, so I didn't really dwell on it after he changed the channel. The next day, I had a big fat cheeseburger (with bacon, naturally) from Convention Grill. It was freakin' delicious.
When I got back to Crapids, I decided to look at the goveg.com website to get some ideas for some vegetarian dishes, since we eat meat at least 6 days out of the week. Instead, I ended up reading page after page about the horrendous conditions in stockyards and slaughterhouses. The worst part was reading about how happy the pigs were to get in open air and sunlight that they bucked and jumped and ran around like happy dogs. And that when cows solve a problem (yes, people give cows problems to solve), they are visibly pleased with themselves.
It's not so much killing an animal and eating it that bothers me so much. If I knew that a cow had a happy life rather than one on a concrete floor in a 4x6 cage that ends in a 110 degree ride to a painful and terrifying death, I might not have as much of a problem enjoying a nice Steak de Burgo. Josh did some searching on the internet and found "cruelty-free" places to buy meat, where the animals live normal lives on lots of land and get to graze, roam around, raise their young, etc. That doesn't bother me as much. I used to be against hunting. Now I'm starting to think that hunting is one of the only humane ways of getting meat.
I don't know what's going on with me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew all of this before but didn't care. I wonder if it's the same reason that St. Jude's Children's Hospital with all the little bald cancer kids makes me bawl for a solid ten minutes after it's over. Whatever this is could be a total phase, but for now it's annoying. I don't enjoy caring. It makes things less fun and less delicious.
posted by Molly at 4:01 PM
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