An Eating MEATing

Vegetarianism is something that I fully support.  However I am far from vegetarian.  I don’t think I could fathom the idea of being an actual vegetarian.  I remember a couple months when I was younger that I decided to go vegetarian, but I didn’t give up chicken so it really doesn’t even count, right?  Either way, I don’t think I could ever give up meat entirely.  

That’s why I give my respect to the people that can give up meat.  I do not agree with what I have seen (in films such as Earthlings and Food, Inc.) in regards to the treatment of animals, and that is why I can understand vegetarianism.  But I grew up with chickens, pigs and a few other types of animals.  And yes, we would eventually eat them.  Each year we would have pig roasts, and the pigs that had been my pets in previous years would then be dinner.  

I find it interesting because my having grown up with this made me immune to the idea of it being wrong or cruel.  In my eyes it was just the cycle of life.  But I have been asked many times how I dealt with losing the animals.  People have accused the entire tradition of being sick and brutal.  I laugh at this accusation.  

I am a thorough supporter of fair treatment to animals, but I also still stick to the idea of the cycle of life.  We may kill animals, but they sometimes also kill us.  Not that either of these things are necessarily morally sound, but we have been hunting and eating animals for a long time.   And when we do kill them, it is in their own due time if it is done appropriately.  

So I guess I am saying that the films that I previously mentioned are sad and disturbing, but they do not depict the way that everyone treats animals.  They are true yes, but not always and not everywhere.  And of course it is not right to treat animals this way, but these movies do not give anyone the right to pass judgment on people who choose to still eat meat and move on with their lives (not to sound insensitive.)