Would you eat an animal you just saw alive?

United States
March 20, 2013 11:30pm CST
I was watching Girls tonight. it's not a show i usually watch because i don't care for it but my sister was watching it while i was in the family room so i watched as i was online.In the show and a girl bring's her friend to her parent's house and her friend goes outside with her friend's mother.Then the mother give's the friend a rabbit to pet from a big pen full of rabbit's.Later she is served rabbit and ask's if it was the rabbit she was holding and the mother says "yes we have rabbit every night" and she tell's the mother she isn't going to eat that.The friend got angry that she wouldn't eat it. I was wondering what other people seem to think about it and was looking on the IMDB board's for the show.Almost everyone on that site says they would eat their pet rabbit or wouldn't have a problem eating a pet.Someone said they would never eat a pet and was argued with and called "weak and a hypocrite" I know some people raise animal's to eat but i could never do that.I rarely eat any meat because i have stomach problems occasionally i can eat chicken depending on how it is cooked.I have pet chicken's, ducks and rabbit's and i would never eat them if they were killed.i think it is different when you have animal for a pet and you are holding it, looking into it's eyes and share compassion with it than when you go to the store and buy meat.when you buy meat from the store you know you are getting an animal but you never touched that animal or shared a connection with it.You never had to look into it's eyes, show it that you care about it or give it a name. I know a lot of people feel differently about this but what do you think?
1 person likes this
10 responses
• United States
21 Mar 13
Of coarse we have! We hunt, fish, trap as well as butcher what we catch. This is a normal way of life and those who have been sanitized to real life by only shopping in food stores are naive. They eat what was once a live animal just as we do. Covered in chemical preservatives and things that destroy their bodies.
• United States
21 Mar 13
I understand but hunting animal's is different.if you are going to hunt a wild rabbit or deer you wouldn't be petting it before or seeing it's personality.
• United States
23 Mar 13
it doesn't bother me. I grew up eating the chickens that stopped laying, and the rabbits as well as the hogs. I petted, and played with all of them.
@jdawg011 (498)
• Canada
21 Mar 13
No. Weird how it is, if we see it we can't eat it. But if we don't see the animals being treated horribly, then we will eat them. It is really disgusting how animals are treated in slaughter houses and such these days, it is why I try to buy organic/free run meats.
• United States
21 Mar 13
Society has caused this disconnect with movies and cartoons that give animals human traits that don't really exist. Now I know animals have personalities but they aren't really human traits which is what makes people feel guilty.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
21 Mar 13
i to could never and my son has become vegetarian because of watching ways they raise and kill meat. i havent been able to give up meat yet, but then i dont watch such things and cringe when he talks about it anyway, i definately know for a fact i cant eat what ive raised and fed. my 3rd husband had a farm and tried to get me to eat some of the chickens and we had a big fight over the pig i raised luckily my uncle took the pig in tradings and used her for birthing other pigs.
• United States
21 Mar 13
I'm glad someone think's the same as me and happy you saved the pig :)
@Porcospino (31366)
• Denmark
21 Mar 13
I could never eat an animal that used to be a pet or another animal I had seen alive. I wouldn't even consider it. My pets are not food. My father often jokes about it and when he visits us he looks at the rabbits and says things like "They are still so small, there isn't a enough meat yet, they need to grow bigger before we can eat them" But that is just a joke. He knows that that I would never ever eat them. My father's uncle used to keep rabbits as pets and he often picked a rabbit from the cage, killed it and turned it into a meal. His son and his gramdchildren lived next door and he sometimes gave them some rabbit meat and they told the children that it was chicken, because they would have refused to eat the meat if they had known that they were eating one of the rabbits.
• United States
21 Mar 13
That's funny because my dad does the same thing and joke's about everything even fish in my fish aquarium.
@nyssa102 (748)
• United States
21 Mar 13
Hello, and welcome to mylot:) I am a vegan, so you know that the answer is immediately no. I just came from a message board on another site and the posters from the UK are upset because they are eating Halal meat without labeling. The practice means that the animal remains conscious during the killing, so many people who eat meat are not into this. I'm not arguing religion here, just the ability of people to choose freely, and such meat must be labeled, some care, some do not. People are laying their money down for a product and they are asking for transparency. I believe in freedom, so do not lecture on eating. But I am a vegan based on religious preference. But even if I ate meat, I do not think I could eat a pet. There is something sad about some creature looking at you as a god because you feed and water and hold it, and then you slaughter it. I'm sure many people laid off from jobs feel the same way. They thought they would have support and care for years, then Poof, they are let go. I agree with you.
• United States
21 Mar 13
thank you two of my friend's are vegetarians :) I don't mean to lecture anyone either or try to change anyone's mind's i was just curious if everyone was as cruel as the people on the other message board but now i see people aren't.
@chikapet (47)
21 Mar 13
In my place people slaughter animals at home especially during occasions like wedding, parties or during the festive season in December. When i was a child and saw my father slaughter a goat in December i never ate the meat, i would really feel for for the animal . But now i got used and i can watch a cow, goat or chicken being slaughtered then eat the meat later.
• United States
21 Mar 13
I respect your opinion because you weren't mean about saying how you felt like the other on the IMDb site.
@marguicha (223010)
• Chile
7 Apr 13
There are many people that raise animals to eat and I wouldn`t call them pets. So I would not have any problem if I ate an animal that was raised in a farm. In fact, as animal cruelty goes, it is said that big industries that raise animals as food are a lot more cruel to them while they are alive and in how they kill them. I eat meat and I feel that we, humanbeings, have our body made to eat meat just as a horse or a cow have theirs to just eat pasture.
@doroffee (4222)
• Hungary
21 Mar 13
Well, it depends. I am a meat eater... so it would be a bit hypocritical if I acted like a huge environment protector. If I knew about the fact that the animal is going to be killed, I think I would eat the meat if I didn't see the animal dying per se, or if the head wasn't served (like I can never eat from pork if the whole pig is served, with that apple or plum or lemon in its mouth)... and well, I think if it was a cuter animal or an animal I'm more attached to (like a bunny or a little chick), and I knew which one exactly the dish was made from, I wouldn't eat it. Otherwise, yes, I guess.
• Greece
21 Mar 13
I could not eat a pet. I once saw a man kill a goat when I was visiting a relative. I saw him with it, walked past and then heard the goat cry out. I turned round and he was about to skin it. When we had dinner that night we were given goat. I could not eat it. I could still hear its cry. If I ever went into a slaughter house I would never eat meat again.
• India
11 Apr 13
I can eat meat and chicken that I just buy from shop , if even I see how they kill chicken I would never be able to eat that chicken.. if I do not see, and I buy them frozen there is no problem , else, I would never eat it... when we have duck or rabbit, we feel for them like a member of family and even when they injure by something of die, we cry, I do not know how some people can eat their pet...