Meat is not murder, it's justifiable homicide. Unbelieveable!

January 21, 2008

At first I thought it was a joke. Then I realized the author/farmer was serious. I can't think of a word bad enough to describe anyone who thinks this is "compassionate". The Big Food Fight: The compassionate carnivoreDate Published: 14/01/2008We need to love the animals we eat and stop making their lives hell, arguesTom Hodgkinson. Tom raised, killed and ate his own pigs, and discovered thatmeat is not murder, it's justifiable homicideHard decisions - killing our pigsCan you kill with love? This is the question that faced this novice pigfarmer last autumn. We bought two Saddleback weaners in the spring, and nowit was killing time. We did consider the standard option, which is to havethe animals taken to the slaughterhouse and

then cut up by the butcher, butfinally decided that it would be easier to have them killed at home and cutthem up ourselves, or rather, watch as a chef friend cut them up.AdvertisementThe adrenalin ran high on pig killing day. This was all completely new tous, so we didn't really know what to expect. Our pig killing neighbours cameround with a tractor, and dear Gnasher and Rasher were enticed into atrailer. We drove them into our yard and gave them some food. Then they wereshot in the head with a pistol, while the man with the gun stroked theirheads. One squealed for a few seconds before dying, the other simply droppedto the ground. Then each animal was tied by its back legs to the tractor andhoisted into the air. There was quite a bit of kicking. I was struck by thecalm gentleness of the whole operation.We cut the pigs' throats and drained off the blood, which we immediatelystirred to make blood

pudding...."How could you eat your own pigs?"What was surprising was the amount of tenderness that we felt towards theanimals when they were killed. We did not sob in a sentimental way as wedid, for example, when the bunny died. But we experienced an emotion thatwas a sort of mix of sadness and gratitude: you wanted to say, thank you,noble pig.Now, one of the surprising things about killing your own pigs is theresponses you get from friends. People who have exhibited not a trace ofconcern for animal welfare and have happily bought foul water-injected baconfrom the supermarket suddenly turn all compassionate. "Oh, I could never dothat," they say. "How could you eat your own pigs?"When you describe your method of killing, a humane and painless method - onemoment the pig is eating away, and the next moment it is dead - they lookhorrified. "Oh, it's cruel," they say. But then, as my son points out, if

weweren't going to eat them, they wouldn't have existed in the first place.However, when they taste the meat that comes from your happy pigs, theychange their minds. The flavour is simply so much better than anything thatyou could buy in the supermarkets...."The animal brought to the table will have enjoyed the friendship andprotection of the one who nurtured him, and his death will be like theritual sacrifices described in the Bible and Homeric literature - a singlingout of a victim, for an important office to which a kind of honour isattached."...We fed them and scratched their backs and stroked them and talked to themtwice a day. Keeping them was a great pleasure and eating them an evengreater one. I'd recommend it to anyone.Full Story:

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/the-big-food-fight/the-compassionate-carnivore-08-01-14_p_1.html--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~** Commentary is not allowed on AR-News, however, we have a daily AR-NEWS LETTERS email that we send out. If you would like to submit a letter for consideration, fire it over to ARNewsLetters** To yourself from this list, send email to AR-News- (AT) googl (DOT) com** For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.comAR-News or http://www.AR-News.org~+~+~+~+~+~+~-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- The question is not,Can they reason? nor,Can they talk? but,Can they suffer? Jeremy Bentham