eat your aunt

[Guest guest]

>The closer the human contact in

>love and compassion between the substance i will take, in all its chain

>from birth to death, the better the food will taste to my mouth.

 

 

another question for whom it may concern:

if you see no difference between plants and animals, or between humans and

animals, have you considered eating your dying aunt, or your children or

parents or loved ones? if you are close to her then she should make an

extra tasty meal.

 

Matt

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

dear Zenbob,

 

thanks for your in-depth reply. i didn't know that you raised your own

animals for meat. i think that is much more compassionate than buying your

meat at a supermarket, as the conditions in which commercially raised

animals live are very often incredibly horrible. which kinds of animals do

you raise?

 

 

i didn't become a vegetarian because of my great compassion for animals and

all living beings, or because i was concerned with karma or doing what was

right or moral, i became a vegetarian because i because disgusted with

eating meat. i was working part time for an old very lady who had a very

small farm. she had a shed in which she kept about 15 hens for eggs and one

rooster. the shed was wooded and the floor was dirt, and rats had begun to

find their way into the shed. i'd seen them scurrying in the shadows often,

but one morning when i came into the shed there were two dead hens, their

carcasses half eaten by the rats. their bellys had been eaten out, along

with their eyes, and their guts were spilled all over the floor. it was

quite disgusting. after that i didn't feel like eating chicken. i

continued to eat ground beef for a while, when my mom would cook it, but

soon i had become a vegetarian, not eating meat at all, not out of

compassion or because of morality, but just cause i thought eating meat was

gross. i'm not a full vegan yet, (i still like ice cream), but i consume

very little dairy, and never eat plain eggs, (i do eat things that contain

eggs though, like cookies or cake). i've done some research into veganism

though, and will probably one day become a full vegan.

 

here's some of what i learned in my research:

 

over 90% of farmed animals in the US are raised in intensive confinement,

since crowding them is essential for low-cost meat. many of the animals die

due to overcrowding and unnatural conditions, but since so many animals are

kept in such tiny spaces, the return of production is higher than if they

were kept in large open natural spaces. they spend all their lives on

concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors, and receive no bedding because

straw interferes with waste disposal. since they have to room to roam

about, they must live in their own and other animals' waste. (sorry if you

already know all of this, i just thought that others might not be aware of

some of this; i wasn't until i did some research). many cattle are branded

numerous times, (causing third degree burns), castrated, and dehorned, all

without anesthesia. by nature, pigs are inquisitive and would normally

spend half their time rooting. the boredom and frustration of confinement

causes fighting and tail biting. the industry's response is the cut off

the piglet's tails and castrate them, (making them less aggresive), without

anesthesia.

 

to maximize production, six-tenths of a square foot per bird is considered

appropriate living space for chickens. because they naturally explore their

environment by pecking, chickens often attack each other in factory farms.

to combat this, the workers cut off up to two thirds of their beaks without

anesthesia. cutting delicate tissues with a hot knife causes pain that

persits for weeks or even months. some birds cannot eat after debeaking and

starve to death. in 1933, the average hen laid 70 eggs a year; today it is

275. because they have been manipulated to lay such large eggs, their

uteruses sometimes prolapse (become expelled with the egg). the hen cannot

escape severe pain except by dying. egg laying hatcheries don't have any

use for male chicks, so they are "trashed" and die from suffocation in

plastic bags, decapitation, gassing, and crushing.

there are a number of different methods used to kill the animals which will

be used as meat. one is cutting their throats and letting them bleed to

death. another is using eletrical currents to shock the birds to produce

unconsciousness and cardiac arrest. 120mA is the amount of current to

produce cardiac arrest in chickens, however, the current is normally

decreased, since that amount tends to damage the birds' carcasses. poorly

stunned birds suffer intollerable pain. millions of birds do not bleed to

death before they reach the scalding tank and are boiled alive.

 

the above wasn't meant to condem or judge anyone on this list who buys their

meat from a supermarket, but rather to inform of what one is supporting, if

one buys meat from a supermarket. perhaps all the carnivors could buy their

meat from Zenbob, who gives his animals plentiful pasture and lovely grazing

conditions and a natural life, before he eats them

 

>Of course, Matt, we also have not touched on the subject of leather

>furniture, purses, shoes, belts, etc., as well as the tallow products

>derived

>from animals that are used in a vast variety of products we take for

>granted.

> Be honest...(I know this is a trick or tricky question) have you never

>admired the leather seats of a fine automobile...or sat on high quality

>leather furniture and felt completely at ease?

 

perhaps, when i was younger and uninformed of what "leather" really was, i

probably did admire fine leather seats. now though, (i'm 20), i don't

admire leather products at all, i just think they're kind of gross and weird

and primitave. i wouldn't say that i feel "vast grief" though. i think

that a lot of people don't really "get" what leather is, or what "meat" is.

a lot of people don't see a hamburger as the ground up flesh of a cow, but

just as a "hamburger". i remember reading a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip

where calvin asked his parents were at the dinner table eating hamburgers.

calvin asked his mom, after taking a mouth full of hamburger, if they were

made of people from hamburg. she replied "no, of course not! they're made

of cows." and after she said that calvin was disgusted and couldn't finish

the burger.

 

take care,

matt L

[Guest guest]

Matt Lillie wrote:

>

> "Matt Lillie" <everythingisgreen

>

> >The closer the human contact in

> >love and compassion between the substance i will take, in all its chain

> >from birth to death, the better the food will taste to my mouth.

>

> another question for whom it may concern:

> if you see no difference between plants and animals, or between humans and

> animals, have you considered eating your dying aunt, or your children or

> parents or loved ones? if you are close to her then she should make an

> extra tasty meal.

>

> Matt

 

I must admit Matt that i am not evolved enough as an organism to find

cancer cells as tasty as fresh meat. There is still a limit to the

deepness of my love, there lies my life i guess.

 

Antoine

[Guest guest]

On 11/30/99 at 11:29 AM Antoine wrote:

 

[...]

>I must admit Matt that i am not evolved enough as an organism to find

>cancer cells as tasty as fresh meat. There is still a limit to the

>deepness of my love, there lies my life i guess.

>

>Antoine

 

What a pity... From a "health" perspective, cancerous tissue is the

"better" alternative, since its protein content is higher than in ordinary

meat and the fat content is less. In principle, large scale cultivation of

cancerous tissue from cell cultures could be the "solution" for "a daily

steak for everyone" without killing animals. Of course it would be called

something like "bio-engineered health meat" so it could be eaten with love

 

Jan

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/28/99 7:06:14 PM Pacific Standard Time,

everythingisgreen writes:

 

<< another question for whom it may concern:

if you see no difference between plants and animals, or between humans and

animals, have you considered eating your dying aunt, or your children or

parents or loved ones? if you are close to her then she should make an

extra tasty meal.

>>

Dear Matt:

 

Oddly, in some ancient societies, this was held to be a very sacred meal, and

in the most extreme case of extreme survival, I would prefer being consumed

by a loved one, as opposed to a stranger, given that such a meal, grisly as

it might seem to most "civilized" folk, would at least insure their survival.

 

Before screaming that you would never consider such a meal, or such a grim

arrangement, you might consider the testimony of real people who have faced

starvation and certain death, who have in fact admitted to eating the flesh

of their dead companions. The movie and book, "Survive" detail the account

of a soccer team trapped in the Andes after an air crash left them stranded

with no food available except their doomed fellow travelers.

 

If partaken with respect and love, even this, though extreme, can be

understood in a spiritual context.

 

It is just another way of "serving our fellow man."

 

Blessings

Love,

 

Zenbob

 

PS, Cannibals all report that human flesh tastes exactly like pork, hence,

human flesh was called "Long Pig," by those who considered it a lean

alternative to overly rich red meat diets...the other "light meat."