Good taste v suffering of animals

[Cheese Mechanic]

Foie gras is quite a simple debate.

Buy foie Gras, eat it.

Curiously enough, veal, pork chops, Prawns, etc etc, are a similar debate :-)

[bazking69]

Food is food, but every animal has the right to die humanely before being turned into a meal.

[Scraggles]

since animals are not human, why do they have a humane right to die before being eaten ?

nature programs often have a bird of prey tucking into a pigeon or something whilst still alive, lions seem to have no issues with eating their prey whilst it is still trying to get away

[neil_bolton]

Good, ethical and organic animal husbandry go directly hand in hand with taste.

No one should be ashamed of wanting to eat animals, for it's a natural thing for humans.

[Don]

bazking69 said:

Food is food, but every animal has the right to die humanely before being turned into a meal.

Animals do not have "rights". There is no "right" to die humanely for either us or them.

It is simply that we humans can and do feel compassion for other living creatures.

I would phrase it more as: No right-thinking, compassionate human being should countenance allowing a food animal to suffer unnecessarily on the way to becoming food.

[sleep envy]

Plotloss said:

For Lobster a knife through the head is the quickest way if it isn't to be presented whole for cracking at the table.

stick them in the freezer for 2 hours

anyone eaten moules?

[Murph7355]

sleep envy said:

...
anyone eaten moules?

They're pretty much a zero on the "cuddly scale", so no one gives a st generally (even vegetarians).

Other crustacea probably don't register much more than a 4 (crabs possibly being the highest), so you get some starting to worry.

Lambs. Now we're talking. They're right up there (min of an 8), so plenty of people feel a bit off eating them.

Cats and dogs? In this country they're definitely a 10 (or an 11) so you'll very rarely get anyone wanting to eat those!

Obviously the scale is country specific. So, for example, a horse might be a 7 or an 8 in this country. But a 1 in France. Dogs? 10 here, 0 in Korea.

[Cactussed]

Don said:

Animals do not have "rights". There is no "right" to die humanely for either us or them.
It is simply that we humans can and do feel compassion for other living creatures.
I would phrase it more as: No right-thinking, compassionate human being should countenance allowing a food animal to suffer unnecessarily on the way to becoming food.

I think Don has hit it on the head. These are animals we're talking about here. The fact that people are afforded the convenience buying things neatly packaged has, IMHO, led to people incorrectly transposing human values (which incidentally, are largely peculiar to Western society) onto livestock. Every sheep is a cute little toy which has rights. Rubbish. I very much doubt there are any Chinese forums with a similar topic being discussed.

My personal view is largely that voiced above, nothing should suffer needlesly however when you get down to the nitty gritty, it's simply food which involves slaughter and whilst not a prospect I'd relish, I'd be more than happy to butcher somehting if the alternative was starving.

[Don]

Murph7355 said:

sleep envy said:

...
anyone eaten moules?

They're pretty much a zero on the "cuddly scale", so no one gives a st generally (even vegetarians).

It's no coincidence that animal welfare, nature charities use cute animals in their logos.

Me, I'm a RSPB member: their stuff is filled with pictures of delightful little robins, blue-tits and majestic Eagles and cheeky puffins...but not dirty great vultures, for example.

[lockhart flawse]

You can get a pretty good idea about the way humans are treated in a country by the way they treat their animals. Human rights respected - animals tend to be well-treated. If animals are treated badly then I would suggest that you will usually find all sorts of human rights abuses going on.

The default setting for a lot, if not all, animals is fear - fear of a predator and I think that in order to exist without stress the pain receptors must be different to humans. I am not saying animals don't feel pain but they feel it differently somehow. I have not expressed this idea very well.....

L.F.

[mcflurry]

Plotloss said:

I'm half of the opinion that if you couldn't bring yourself to kill it, then you shouldn't be eating it.

We're way too removed from the means of food production.

Agreed - Well said

[Scraggles]

loved eating horse when in france, struggle to get it, especially as the locals seem to be horse riders

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hor... :>)

[Pothole]

Scraggles said:

loved eating horse when in france, struggle to get it, especially as the locals seem to be horse riders

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hor... :>)

I had Donkey salami in France, it was delicious. Never seen it here though.

[escargot]

Donkey saucisson is great, as is bull.

[neil_bolton]

I completely agree.

Chianti with fava beans anyone?

[Plotloss]

I have to admit I do draw the line at horse/donkey.

I couldn't kill one see...

Wont eat veal either.

Strangely however Foie Gras is a go'er.

Double standards? Me?

[shakotan]

Regularly had bbqs in China where we drove live prawns onto skewers before grilling them.

Also in congee hotpot restaurants, dropping live prawns into the hotpot bowl, they'd occasionally jump out, looking a bit pinky, before being returned.

[Don]

Plotloss said:

I have to admit I do draw the line at horse/donkey.

I couldn't kill one see...

Wont eat veal either.

Strangely however Foie Gras is a go'er.

Double standards? Me?

Sure British "Rose" Veal is on the menu? None of the "crating" business done here...

As to Dobbins and <shrek/>Donkaay</shrek> I wouldn't kill 'em because I haven't eaten any yet. If I try some and like it? Don't see the difference between them and a cow.

[Bill]

Scraggles said:

nature programs often have a bird of prey tucking into a pigeon or something whilst still alive, lions seem to have no issues with eating their prey whilst it is still trying to get away

Because we know better, and have access to facilities that allow for (relatively) painless slaughter.

[escargot]

shakotan said:

Regularly had bbqs in China where we drove live prawns onto skewers before grilling them.

Also in congee hotpot restaurants, dropping live prawns into the hotpot bowl, they'd occasionally jump out, looking a bit pinky, before being returned.

On a similar subject, when we went over to France recently myself and my brother-in-law were charged with dispatching a number of crayfish. The method was simply to twist the middle tail flap 180 degrees and pull the intestinal tract out whilst they were still alive.

That could (and probably would) be perceived as cruel but I can't say the crayfish reacted in any visibly uncomfortable way (ie flapping around etc), they just carried on trying to pinch us until they went in the pot.