February 16, 2017

How many people eat meat only because they lack the imagination...

... to picture the face?

36 comments:

David Begley said...

News flash. Ducks and cows are not people The Disney Company notwithstanding.

MadisonMan said...

Nothing that a good cleave wouldn't fix.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm still hurting from persistent image of the pleading eyes of the mouse I saw at the bottom of the trash can.

William R. Hamblen said...

They also have icky innards. You might as well starve.

Rusty said...

Ann Althouse said...
"I'm still hurting from persistent image of the pleading eyes of the mouse I saw at the bottom of the trash can."

They weren't pleading. They were sizing you up

JPS said...

My favorite comment so far is from one Elena Felicioli:

"Did you really just [write] an article about a girl not knowing her duck still had a head? Did I really just read it?"

Curious George said...

It doesn't walk like a duck, or talk like a duck. But it's still a duck.

Titus said...

My hubby, who is vege, uses this expression all the time. What about the face. Specifically, he rants about the pig and the pig face, and the fact that pigs are smart.

A new restaurant opened a block from me and I was going to go but they have this chicken leg item and it is actually a full chicken leg with the chicken foot/claw, and it sticks straight up from the plate.

I can't eat a fish if the eyes and tail are on it.

tcrosse said...

You can always draw a face on an egg. But how can one be blind to the senseless slaughter of our green brothers and sisters of the vegetable kingdom ?

traditionalguy said...

Pork Chop Phobia is curable with the right barbecue rub... like big bacon slices, but better.

Are W said...

I find it a struggle to kill and gut my meat. The supermarket is easier and not as stinky.

Fernandinande said...

"How many people eat meat only because they lack the imagination..."

Probably zero.

David said...

It's why I do not like to hunt. They have faces, and the faces can show curiosity, fear etc. I will eat game however. Outsourcing.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm interested in the people who don't have the imagination to picture the face and are shocked — as if it's the ending of "Soylent Green" — when they encounter meat with the face still on it. It's such a low level of ethics to be oblivious to what goes on outside of your view and only to think about it when you happen to see it.

There's also the general vegetarian discussion that often hinges on the idea that the animal had a face, but these people are able to visualize the face. These people are thinking competently, whether you agree with their regime or not.

I'd like to focus on the incompetent people who don't understand the basic facts of the life they live unless it hits them in body part they forgot meat animals have.

Fernandinande said...

Ann Althouse said...
I'd like to focus on the incompetent people who don't understand the basic facts of the life they live unless it hits them in body part they forgot meat animals have.


I really don't think there are any such people other than very young kids and the seriously retarded.

Unknown said...


The face can be the most delicious part...

CStanley said...

There's also the general vegetarian discussion that often hinges on the idea that the animal had a face, but these people are able to visualize the face. These people are thinking competently, whether you agree with their regime or not.

Would that the person who posted the adorable human toddler face would think competently about the implications.

Lucid said...

I dream about transforming into a tiger, ambushing prey, and tearing in to eat.

CStanley said...

People often talk about a rural/urban divide regarding the experience of "meeting your meat" but I always think about my NYC raised Dad, who used to have to go to the butcher shop and pick out the duck for the czarnina. My grandmother always insisted that he watch the entire process from decapitation on through the bloodletting, to make sure the butcher didn't cheat her out of any of the blood.

So I think it's generational more than geographical.

Fernandinande said...

CStanley said...
Would that the person who posted the adorable human toddler face would think competently about the implications.


I think you hit on my theory of "partial birth abortion" - it's not a human until you see the face.

Peter said...

When I ordered trout at a restaurant, they served it with the head still on it and the eyes just looking at me from the plate. (Well, OK, I ate it anyway).

Then again, supermarkets don't seem to carry beef tongue anymore. Perhaps that's because although it's tasty and not that difficult to cook, unless you slice or grind it up or something it's all too obvious what it is.

So, parts is parts, and why can't we just grow chicken (or duck) flesh in a vat from cells, anyway?

Yancey Ward said...

I guess I was inoculated/educated a long, long time ago by helping my grandfather kill and butcher his chickens every year.

Yancey Ward said...

I often wonder what will happen to vegetarianism if lab engineered-meat is ever grown on an industrial scale that makes it cheaper than getting it from livestock. Indeed, I wonder what will happen to livestock in that happenstance- does the modern cow run the risk of going extinct?

n.n said...

We're talking about babies, human babies, right?

It's ironic who is and is not Pro-Choice. Perhaps the natural omnivore is saved from expressing their cannibalistic alter-ego. The same can be said for similar suppressive efforts: religion/morality, social justice, as a progressive condition.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Have these people never seen a movie?

Unknown said...

Very much a first world problem.

And a case of ignorance about, and a disconnection from, what we eat and our place on this earth.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

What's the betting line on how many of these same traumatized people coo about "farm to table" restaurants, etc?

Known Unknown said...

It's smiling at me.

Trumpit said...

"Pigs will eat you in a heartbeat, and feel no shame or guilt about it."

You severely malign pigs by claiming pigs eat people. As if CNN is filled with shameless pig eats man stories (of unimaginable pig brutality). NO! Humans slaughter and eat pigs all the time, and feel no shame or guilt about it.

You should be ashamed of yourself for spreading anti-porcine lies. I bet you do it to justify your fiendish consumption of Ball Park Franks(tm) without a shred of remorse. Or is it the crispy bacon that you simply can't live without? So, heartless of you. Just how would you like to be killed with a shot between the eyes, then turned into sausage? Imagine your own guilty, sniveling-coward face the next time you eat pork. A pig is as smart, and friendly as your dog is. Don't you dare tell me, "Dogs will eat you in a heartbeat, and feel no shame or guilt about it." Speak for your own mean dog, not my Fluffy.

Known Unknown said...

I didn't click Hoodlum's link!

Known Unknown said...

Also, if cows had a decent defense mechanism or could evade capture, I would be a bit more hesitant to dine on them so frequently. It kind of feels to me like their destiny is to become hamburgers for the most part.

SukieTawdry said...

Food chain. Top. Us.

Rusty said...

I just bought a smoker.

Birkel said...

Tasty animals can wink at me and give me a smile. And I would calmly separate the tasty parts from the stuff I don't intend to eat. Then I would put it in a freezer for later.

Gahrie said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hungry-hogs-eat-oregon-farmer-article-1.1172448

Gahrie said...

does the modern cow run the risk of going extinct?

Probably not.....there would be a market for "authentic" beef at a premium.

However I have often made the opposite argument to the SJW types. Worried about pandas? Come up with a tasty recipe or two and withing ten years there will be millions of pandas on farms all over the world. Same thing with polar bears or rhinos.