Do you eat meat?

[nanoboy]

We are all on this website because we love animals, yet some of us eat meat - myself included.

Do you eat meat? Why, or why not?

I eat it because I grew up eating it at home, and I am addicted. My wife is vegetarian, so I have been gradually decreasing my meat intake, but like smoking, it is a hard habit to break.

 

[JBZvolunteer]

I eat meat because, it is part of human nature, I grew up with it, and it taste good. Also, relating to the whole love of the animals thing is that you can still love animals and eat meat, the greatest example of this is farmers themselves.

 

[zooman64]

I eat beef mince in all its many forms - cottage pie, lasagne, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese - but almost no other meat. Indeed, I can't stand the smell of roast chicken. I think I like mince because I get the taste without having to chew it. Does that sound too weird? If I'm invited to dinner, and I find I've been served chicken or slices of meat, out of politeness I won't object to my host but what I will do is to cut it up quite finely and cover it with a copious quantity of whatever sauce is available, and then try to swallow the pieces without chewing. But mince is perfectly acceptable, thank you.

 

[tschandler71]

I eat beef mince in all its many forms - cottage pie, lasagne, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese - but almost no other meat. Indeed, I can't stand the smell of roast chicken. I think I like mince because I get the taste without having to chew it. Does that sound too weird? If I'm invited to dinner, and I find I've been served chicken or slices of meat, out of politeness I won't object to my host but what I will do is to cut it up quite finely and cover it with a copious quantity of whatever sauce is available, and then try to swallow the pieces without chewing. But mince is perfectly acceptable, thank you.

We might need to confiscate the "man" in your title.

 

[JBZvolunteer]

We might need to confiscate the "man" in your title.

Beef and potatoes Bro!!

 

[Stefka]

We might need to confiscate the "man" in your title.

What for? Everybody has a different taste You know, there are people who don´t like to eat ICE-CREAM!

To add to the topic - I am vegetarian but I don´t really feel the need to explain it to others or force them to stop eating meat as well. And I could never become a vegan, I love eggs and cheese too much.

You can love animals and still eat meat - the only difference is that animal lovers care about the origin of their food. (eg. free range meat and eggs, organic milk, sustainably caught fish etc.)

And that´s good enough for me.

 

[Pootle]

I eat beef mince in all its many forms - cottage pie, lasagne, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese - but almost no other meat. Indeed, I can't stand the smell of roast chicken. I think I like mince because I get the taste without having to chew it. Does that sound too weird? If I'm invited to dinner, and I find I've been served chicken or slices of meat, out of politeness I won't object to my host but what I will do is to cut it up quite finely and cover it with a copious quantity of whatever sauce is available, and then try to swallow the pieces without chewing. But mince is perfectly acceptable, thank you.

Interestingly enough I have a friend who is just like you with his meat eating habits, he only eats mince too, he just cannot stomach the idea of chewing a piece of meat let alone biting it from the bone.

As for me I will eat any meat on offer just about, I avoid intensively farmed animals and go for out door reared meat, especially in the case of cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys which is my main meat intake. I am not too bothered whether something is organic or not as I am a bit sceptical about the whole organic food affair.

My favourite - a piece of steak or roast beef dripping with blood

 

[nanoboy]

I love meat too. As I said in my first post, it's an addiction.

Here's a question for you: would you eat meat if you had to kill the animal yourself?

 

[Dassie rat]

I do eat meat, but I work with several vegetarians and have vegetarian friends and I haven't got a problem with that, nor do I have to eat meat at every meal. I understand that there is a problem with the economics of using land for meat production, while a vegetarian diet would be more economical.

I disagree with the idea that if people stopped eating meat, farmers would still have fields full of livestock, which would live out their full lives. I believe that it would be more likely that this would not be economical, unless farmers were heavily subsidised or had to charge people who wanted to see the animals. I also wonder how much of the countryside would remain, as many property developers would see fields without livestock as wasted land.

While this may have strayed away from a zoo theme, I also accept that closing down zoos and releasing all the zoo animals into the wild is not realistic in most cases, despite what anti-zoo protesters might think. Many animals would be killed and I doubt if much of the land currently occupied by zoos would become wildlife habitats.

 

[Ned]

The discussion so far has been very polite and I don’t want to change that; I don’t want to try persuading others to my way of thinking so here is how I justify eating meat to myself:
• Everything dies and is consumed; the important thing for me is how it dies and its quality of life when alive.
• To take life you must first create it; today I watch two lambs chasing each other, leaping in the air and kicking their back legs out. I like to think they were enjoying themselves and while they face a short life, they at least had some life which they wouldn’t have had if they weren’t bred for the meat industry.
• Drinking milk, eating cheese or wearing wool, but not eating meat, leads to a shorter life for some farm animals. Male cattle and sheep don’t produce milk so are killed at birth. I imagine a similar thing happens in the wool industry as you don’t need many males unless you are raising them for meat.
• I don’t like arable landscapes; a selfish reason perhaps but true.
• Animals are killed to produce most food stuff; I once spent three months working for a pest control company who had a lot of contracts with big food companies. I spent my days visiting pie factories, bakeries, breweries, jam and pickle factories, mills, cereal factories and others. While there I was involved in shooting pigeons and rabbits, trapping mice and squirrels, poisoning rats and spraying insects. In fact if you think about the amount of pest control used in make a loaf of bread, from growing the wheat to storing the flour and baking the loaf you realise there is a lot of death. I know most people won’t value the life of say, a flour beetle, as much as a cow but life is still extinguished to create non-meat products, just by having a beer you will have contributed to an industry that kills animals.
At the other end of the digestive system, I also used to go to sewage works to kill rabbits and rats.
As I say, I’m not out to convert anyone. I know there is nothing that would convince me to be a vegetarian and equally there are vegetarians who are never going to change to eating meat.

 

[Arizona Docent]

I eat sustainably-harvested fish and any form of turkey (since, as far as I know, even farmed turkeys are not raised in small metal cages like chicken). That is about it, unless someplace serves free-range chicken or I suppose ostrich if it was available someplace (which I never see).

I think ostrich would be an excellent alternative to beef, because they are humanely raised, they take up much less land than cattle, and one ostrich can produce several chicks at a time (as opposed to beef or lamb, which is one offspring at a time).

As for not eating any other meat, it is a combination of environmental and humane and health reasons. Factory chicken for humane reasons (they spend their entire lives crammed several into a tiny metal cage), pork for humane and health reasons (I mean look at a piece of bacon - you can see with your naked eye that there is more fat than meat), beef and lamb for environmental reasons (how much land was used and how many predators were shot to raise that animal?), shrimp for environmental reasons (coastal forests are denuded for shrimp farms with a lifespan of roughly 7 years).

This topic is related to zoos because zoo food service in the United States is overall very poor and zoos pay little attention to these issues. (Aquarium cafes do a better job by promoting and serving sustainable seafood). I have only seen one zoo in the country that lists its chicken as free-range: the Houston Zoo. From my limited experience at zoos in England and France, their zoos have superior food offering compared to U.S. zoos.

 

[Arizona Docent]

P.S. - I did not vote in the poll because there is no third option listed for people like me who eat only select types of meat. Anwering yes would seem to imply that you eat all meat without limitation.

 

[tschandler71]

Chickens you eat for meat aren't raised in little cages. I guarantee I am the only one on Zoochat who has ever been inside a poultry house or involved in production agriculture.

"Free range" is a marketing term for inner city people who have never seen a chicken.

 

[Arizona Docent]

Well you are correct - I am a city guy and have never worked in agriculture. I would certainly be interested in learning more about this. However, if caged chickens do not exist, then can you explain where photos like this come from? (I mean that as a sincere question, not as an insult).

 

[tschandler71]

That is not a poultry house in the United States. Not for production of broilers (meat) chickens. Americans are sorely misinformed about their own farming industries. Free range and Organic are marketing terms that is all. All designed to gouge the urban consumer.

 

[JBZvolunteer]

tschandler you bring up a good point that would make a great other thread. Growing up in the rural area of michigan's upper peninsula it saddens me when volunteering at a zoo in michigan's second largest city now how many inner city kids that come can't tell the difference from a calf and a goat.

 

[grafxman]

Let's bet on that

I guarantee I am the only one on Zoochat who has ever been inside a poultry house or involved in production agriculture.

How much does your wallet support your statement? grafxman=killer, butcherer and devourer of hundreds of chickens, pigs and cows.


Flickr: grafxmangrafxman's Photostream

 

[Mr T]

I guarantee I am the only one on Zoochat who has ever been inside a poultry house or involved in production agriculture.

How on Earth can you make this statement???? You have no idea (nor do I) of the background of every zoochatter on this site. I have been in a farms hen shed many times (I have family friends who are farmers) So I am one person to prove you wrong and I am sure there are many more on here who could do the same.

 

[tschandler71]

well considering no one else called Docent out on his very incorrect picture what was I to expect. I know people know nothing about production agriculture when they start talking urban buzzwords like free range.

 

[Stefka]

well considering no one else called Docent out on his very incorrect picture what was I to expect. I know people know nothing about production agriculture when they start talking urban buzzwords like free range.

So what´s the reality then? Could you please explain it a little bit more for us, urban consumers?

I don´t know about US, but as for laying hens, there are three types of farming methods allowed in Ireland and it´s marked on the pack.

Quoting from fsai.ie :

Commission Directive 2002/4/EC sets out rules on the registration of establishments keeping laying hens. It also requires the use of the following codes for the farming methods defined in Commission Regulation (EC) No 589/2008

1 = 'Free range eggs'
2 = 'Barn eggs'
3 = 'Eggs from caged hens'

So, there obviously are caged hens. And because it´s marked on the label, every reasonable customer will go for the free range ones. Especially when you can buy them in almost every shop. Is there something I´m missing?