Is he friend or food? Or is he both?

[johnckirk]

"Do you know how to pluck a chicken?" said Miss Flitworth.
Bill looked from her to the hen.
BUT WE FEED THEM, he said helplessly.
"That's right. And then they feed us. This one's been off lay for months. That's how it goes in the chicken world."("Reaper Man", p130

Comments

[johnckirk]

Ah yes, I've heard of him (mainly in adverts for Channel 4 programs); I'll see whether I can get hold of his book at the library.

[shuripentu]

I think the main problem is that we're still killing animals for fundamentally selfish reasons

I think there's very little that people do with/for domesticated animals that isn't selfish. The very act of domesticating a species is selfish: it involves capturing some wild animals and selectively breeding them so that, over the generations, a subspecies is created that is more suited than its wild counterpart to human needs - whether it's food, labour, or just companionship

[totherme]

It's even more complicated than that. Dogs weren't domesticated by modern humans making rational selfish decisions. Since dogs were domesticated, both dogs and humans have evolved, arguably to take advantage of the partnership.

There is a plausible theory that suggests that we have such rich spoken languages because of dogs.

It seems to me that there are complex inter-woven symbiotic relationships all through nature. If you take any one species out of the food chain, it messes up a whole load of stuff. To suggest that the human species is somehow exempt from the food chain seems arrogant.

[baratron]

I don't currently have enough time or brain to reply to this in any detail, but the one thing I will say is that if you eat meat a few times a year, you WILL regret it. A person only needs to be vegetarian for a matter of weeks for their body to stop producing the enzymes necessary to digest meat. If a vegetarian lapses and starts to eat meat again, it will be several weeks before their body adjusts to the change. That means several weeks of abdominal discomfort, pain and diarrhoea and/or constipation. This isn't so much a problem if you plan to eat meat permanently, but it is a problem if you want to eat it just occasionally.

I also recommend Redwood's Organic Vegi Deli Bio Rashers as the closest thing to bacon without actually being from a pig.

[nou]

If a vegetarian lapses and starts to eat meat again, it will be several weeks before their body adjusts to the change. That means several weeks of abdominal discomfort, pain and diarrhoea and/or constipation.

FWIW, I didn't have this problem. I went directly to omnivore after several years as a vegan, and noticed no change at all in the behaviour of my innards. I was even specifically looking out for it, because I'd heard there was likely to be a problem. I may be a freak though.

[johnckirk]

Thanks, I was wondering how people like you and shuripentu got on. I've heard the theory that your body can't digest meat properly after you haven't eaten it for a while, but I didn't have any trouble when I ate chicken by mistake a while back, so I wasn't sure whether the quantity of meat is significant. I've heard of another lapsed vegetarian who couldn't resist a pork pie in the fridge when he got home from the pub one night, although in that situation he might expect to be ill the following day.

[shuripentu]

I've only just seen this thread now and thought I'd comment on it. I don't recall having any digestive trouble when I realised that I didn't have a problem with killing and eating animals per se, and promptly treated myself to a plateful of free-range reindeer. I suspect the whole thing about enzymes is yet another half-baked urban legend - veg*n and other alternative diets seem to collect these like trading cards.