Animals..friend or food? Perhaps both!

I agree that people had the right to choose what they eat, I also think discriminating people for their eating habit shows intolerance.

But there are people who liked to personally see the animal they eat killed in front of them. Personally I find that a bit morbid.

Originally Posted by paintgun

i will eat anything considered delicacies, ate bat, snake, turtles and sea turtles
but cats and dogs, please no

I think Westerners are hypocrites, people don't eat cats and dogs because they're so called "friends". Does that mean they also shouldn't eat their working cows and horses? But in reality, cows and horses are consumed to this day, in fact horse meat is still a delicacy in Europe.

What I found most interesting is that Orientals get mocked for eating dogs, in fact, dogs were consumed in Europe up until the beginning of 20th century. There were butcher shops that only sell dog meats in Paris until the 20s and 30s.

And for cats, who de hell in the world would eat cats???? I have never heard of Chinese eating cats.

Here's some pics of Europeans consuming dog meat.

Grande_Boucherie_Canine_a_Paris.jpg

Originally Posted by Equation

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/d...201/1-2160.jpg

Anybody know what kind of weapon the guy on the left of the pics is yielding?

---------- Post added at 01:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

So is dog meat legal or not in all parts of China (just curious)?

dog meat is legal. As an overseas Chinese born in China, I remember when I was younger, I have seen a commercial brochure advertising a franchised modern dog farms. They raise dogs the same way chickens and cattle are raised in America.

Speaking of which, a memory just rushed back into my mind. I remember before coming to Canada, I was about 8 or 9 years old, once I was reading a children's magazine. It was composed of articles all written by kids of that age group from around China. There was one story that got my attention without leaving my impression, but now thinking about it, it really struck me. It was about a boy that lived in rural China. His family had few chicken and this boy was the one responsible for feeding them. Over time he grew very attached to those chickens. One day he came home and saw a cooked whole rooster on the dining table. He was emotionally struck and later wrote this whole essay on how his heart was broken and how he cried a river.

Now thinking about it, it's kind of funny. Technically, you can grow attached to any creatures and could be against eating it. No offense to vegans, but I personally think they're hypocrites and are anti-human-nature. They're living against their instincts. Those people that are against eat certain animals are also hypocrites and are semi-abnormal (against human nature).

If you can eat a whole chicken or turkey or cow or pig, then why not eat a whole dog. Technically, if you live on the farm, you can easily grow very attached to those animals too. If Gordon Ramsay's kids can raise turkeys and pigs and eat it the next day, then why can't we do it.

Of course it is not right to snatch a random dog off the street, simply for hygienic reasons (unlawful merchants do it because it requires no investments, simply easy money, more you catch the more you make). But if it is raised from a standardized modern dog farms (surprisingly there are lots of those in China and especially in South Korea), then what's the harm? What's the difference between that dog and a cow? I'm sure it is definitely cleaner than a chicken raised from America, you'll understand if you ever watched "Food Inc". Plus, you never met the dog or grew attached to it.

I just find it really funny how people can deny their own past and bashing others for something normal.

Originally Posted by CottageLV

Speaking of which, a memory just rushed back into my mind. I remember before coming to Canada, I was about 8 or 9 years old, once I was reading a children's magazine. It was composed of articles all written by kids of that age group from around China. There was one story that got my attention without leaving my impression, but now thinking about it, it really struck me. It was about a boy that lived in rural China. His family had few chicken and this boy was the one responsible for feeding them. Over time he grew very attached to those chickens. One day he came home and saw a cooked whole rooster on the dining table. He was emotionally struck and later wrote this whole essay on how his heart was broken and how he cried a river.

You raise a good point, you can get attached to anything. Refusing to eat meat should be a personal choice, not one that is forced on other people. Likewise, deciding which animals are acceptable to eat and which are not should also be a personal choice.

Delete me!

Originally Posted by CottageLV

I think Westerners are hypocrites, people don't eat cats and dogs because they're so called "friends". Does that mean they also shouldn't eat their working cows and horses? But in reality, cows and horses are consumed to this day, in fact horse meat is still a delicacy in Europe.

What I found most interesting is that Orientals get mocked for eating dogs, in fact, dogs were consumed in Europe up until the beginning of 20th century. There were butcher shops that only sell dog meats in Paris until the 20s and 30s.

well to make it short, eating animals other people considers or have as pets might get them offended, it's just a normative thing, making it a law would be stupid for some, but like i said the other far end of the opinion is no good as well

the more people in China have cats and dogs for pets, the less will find their meats tasty, perhaps...

Originally Posted by paintgun

well to make it short, eating animals other people considers or have as pets might get them offended, it's just a normative thing, making it a law would be stupid for some, but like i said the other far end of the opinion is no good as well

the more people in China have cats and dogs for pets, the less will find their meats tasty, perhaps...

people in the american sub-urbs don't eat the chickens and the pigs they raise? technically, they're both pets and food source.

Originally Posted by CottageLV

people in the american sub-urbs don't eat the chickens and the pigs they raise? technically, they're both pets and food source.

is that supposed to be rhetorical?
yes and no

Originally Posted by solarz

You raise a good point, you can get attached to anything. Refusing to eat meat should be a personal choice, not one that is forced on other people. Likewise, deciding which animals are acceptable to eat and which are not should also be a personal choice.

Agreed! We human evolved to what we are today because we eat meat. Our eyes are placed in front of our faces, instead of one the sides like horses. This is a key characteristic of a meat-eater. Since we have to catch other animals that tend to want to escape from us, being able to judge distance and direction is key to catch the animals. Thus all predators have their eyes in front of their faces so that the eye sights from the two eyes cross. In order to catch big games, our ancestors had to emphasize organization and communication, which allows those with bigger brain to survive and thrive. So eating meat is important to human evolution and why we are who we are today.

About being attached to animals, I still remember one incident that happened to me almost 10 years ago. I was a graduate student at the time and was using mice for my experiments. Typically, I would use anesthetics to put them to sleep before experiments. Normally, I would dilute the anesthetics 1:1000 and then mix them to get the final solution. One day, I injected the final anesthetics solution into 4 mice and they went ballistic. They started jumping up and down and scream like crazy. And they died after about 5 minutes. I then realized that I forgot to dilute the anesthetics and simply took the original highly concentrated anesthetics solution. I felt sick and my legs were numb that entire afternoon. I was using mice all the time and never realized I was that attached to these little mice.

A couple years later, I was doing research on hearing and had to use outer hair cells extracted from guinea pig's ears. In order to extract these cells, I had to first chop off the head of the guinea pig and split the head open from the back and extract the cochlea. The first time I did this procedure, I saw the guinea pig's mouth still moving and eyes still blinking when I picked up its head after the head was chopped off. I was having nightmares of this for days...

vesicles, some saying goes like this, if you feel sorry for animals, then you are a kind person at heart

Originally Posted by paintgun

vesicles, some saying goes like this, if you feel sorry for animals, then you are a kind person at heart

Thanks! As a matter of fact, I felt a little sick even when I was writing the previous post... I use animals for research because I have no other choice. It's either curing diseases and helping people, or these poor animals...

Originally Posted by vesicles

Agreed! We human evolved to what we are today because we eat meat. Our eyes are placed in front of our faces, instead of one the sides like horses. This is a key characteristic of a meat-eater.

Ummmh By thesame token , theres a fair amount meat eating wildlife that dont. . Look at birds. Reptiles,/Snakes Sharks that feed on Vegetation/plankton and Predator Sharks, their eyes are on the side.

Horses and Cows are grazers feeding a few inches off the ground , with their head bent downwards, they would not be able to see if they were being stalked, thats also why their eyes are on the side.

Asians also get condemned for eating sharkfin, not because of the rarity of sharks, but the wasteful manner that its obtained.

You mean the foreign fisherman and how they obtain it so they can make money. The Chinese don't waste which is also the subject of ridicule for eating the parts of animals the critics don't eat. Which is also why the tiny population of the West eats more meat in their diet thus kills more animals for food than the rest of the world combined.

If the Chinese adopted the critics' eating habits, would China be then blamed for the greenhouse gases that are expelled from steer and have been a significant contributor to global warming?

Originally Posted by paintgun

vesicles, some saying goes like this, if you feel sorry for animals, then you are a kind person at heart

A little off topic , but IMO that kindness is misplaced. Over hear one can be jailed for not putting an animal out of its misery because of some injury or cancer and yet one can face imprisonment for practising euphanasia.

On another note has anyone watched a program called animalpharm where animals are genetically modified for human needs, either for consumption or medical reasons? There was one program where they had cows which carried human DNA so they could be farmed for their blood.