The meat paradox
Scientists have been studying this conflict, between caring for animals and killing them to eat them. This phenomenon has been labelled ‘the meat paradox’ by University of Kent and Université Libre de Bruxelles researchers Steve Loughnan, Boyka Bratanova, and Elisa Puvia.And we generally do care for animals. That’s why countries have laws protecting animals, why societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCAs) and other animal protection groups exist, why there was such national outrage when tigress Avni was killed, why the global horror when Cecil the lion and later his son Xanda were killed by trophy hunters in Zimbabwe, and it is likely why you are reading this book. In fact, many of us find what has to happen to animals to produce meat wrong, at least in principle, what little we may know about it, even if we eat meat.
A prank that was set up at a supermarket in Brazil, in which a man pretending to be a butcher offered samples of free fresh pork sausages to the store’s customers, proves this point. Shoppers would visit the counter, eat and admire the pork. Then, the butcher would offer to make more, but to do so he would bring out a live piglet and put the animal in a machine that appeared to instantly grind her up and turn her into fresh meat. In reality, another prankster was sitting in the machine safely collecting each baby pig. Although customers had just readily eaten pork, they were aghast when they thought a live pig was about to be killed. One woman spat out pork from her mouth, others pleaded with the butcher not to kill the young pig and even tried to physically stop him from doing so. None of them picked up another piece of the free fresh pork that they had eagerly eaten before seeing the live pig. If you were one of the customers, what would you have done?
Comments (12)
I am a vegetarian but have to admit that probably no food is pure non-killing. But that doesn't mean I should start eating meat. I will always be a vegetarian. I like to be vegan.
Everybody eats what he likes. Everyone has their own logic behind their own food.
Ideally, we should only eat organic home grown food where no insecticide has been used
It’s a fundamental law of nature that one animal eats the other, and to do it as humanely as possible is not a paradox just a matter of rules since ancient times, i.e. kosher.
There are two things people are better not to know how these are made, sausage and law.
It’s a fundamental law of nature that one animal eats the other, and to do it as humanely as possible is not a paradox just a matter of rules since ancient times, i.e. kosher.
But what a person should eat, it is in his hands to choose. Nature has given intelligent mind to humans.
I'd take the free pork but say something about the piglet. It would never have been alive to begin with unless someone was prepared to eat it which doesn't mean kill the animal in unnecessary pain.
Further, If you think we'll let animals exist outside of zoos, when we can finally grow meat testtube style, think again. There will be no reason to reserve the resources they use.
Nature has given intelligent mind to humans.
There's no law against it.
I don't know if you know what a cornish hen is. It's a very tiny chicken. Recently I cooked one in my air fryer. I told a friend about it and she said she could never eat a bird. I was shocked when she said it was a bird. I vowed after that to never eat another cornish hen.
Mr. Google gives the definition of a cornish hen: "a Cornish Cross is a hybrid of the Cornish and the Plymouth White chicken, which we bred to produce the meat you see in the grocery store." So I guess they are saying it's two different breeds of a small chicken.
I still won't eat another cornish hen because it is very small and my memory could easily think of it as a bird and I would never eat a bird.