No, I don’t have any regrets about eating animals.

[BigBlueHen53]

I missed the thread asking if I feel bad ... and I have to say (stay with me, folks!) ... in a way, I do feel bad, or rather, sad, that anything has to die so that something else can live. It's just the world we live in. But .. do I feel guilty for eating meat? No. Do I, have I, or will I, feel guilty for eating a chicken I have raised? No. It's just meat at that point. And as others have said, everything dies. It won't go to waste. Why should it?

I'm glad my chickens have a good life here on my happy little farm, if you can call it a farm. I'm glad they can have a quick death at the hands of someone who's skilled and knowledgeable about it. I'm grateful that I get to live on a place where I have this opportunity, to provide the best possible meat to my family, to nourish them. Not everyone has that opportunity. I'm truly thankful.

 

[Peepsi]

I don't regret eating animals, either. I love trying new animals on the dinner plate. I'll eat almost anything. Toasted mealworms, elk, kangaroo, alligator, antelope, octopus, crickets, tiny little whole roasted baby crabs (you eat them shell and all!), deer, I've had all that. There are so many meats I'd love to try....zebra, capybara, squirrel, dog, horse, guinea pig, that really-tasty sauce made out of waterbugs that certain Asian countries make, I'm always up for new taste treats (everything in my want-to-try list is on the menu in countries around the world).

I don't feel bad about it....well, not too much. I actually do feel sort of bad when I eat Octopus, because they're so intelligent, curious and personable.

I'll most likely even eat my pet chickens one day. I know that sounds cruel, but I'm really curious as to what home-grown chicken tastes like (they'll have to be made into soup, as I want to keep them long enough to get eggs). Well...not Falcon. I can't eat Falcon (my EE). She's way too awesome and acts too much like a likeable human. But Salt and Pepper (my silver and gold-laced Wyandottes), they've bitten me enough times to where I won't mind eating them in chicken soup!

OK, I guess I've said too much.

 

[Skippersnh]

Stay away from my dog that's gross

 

[FortCluck]

I think people say vegan and don't even truly know what veganism entails. Veganism isn't just food, it's an entire lifestyle. No animals products or tests products anywhere. Half the people that claim to be vegan aren't due to the products in their households.

I don't think anyone should be telling someone they have to eat one way or another. I can't stand when people hear I'm plant based and try to push meat eating at me... LIKE NO! I don't do it to save all the animals of the world, I do it for health reasons. People need to calm down with telling people what's good or bad for their body... It's not your body so who cares!

 

[blackandtan]

I do feel bad when killing day comes around, but console myself with the knowledge that all my animals had a happy, comfortable life. I know they end peacefully and quickly, without fear because I do the best I can to ensure they don’t see it coming.
Maybe it seems awful to some people, but occasionally I do mark the packages with names, I find it helps me choose cooking methods for say, an old hen, a young rooster, ducks that were fighting before they were culled etc.
I love meat but just find so many farming practices abhorrent that I rarely buy meat at the store.....barring the occasional time I’ll load up on bacon on sale or a package of chicken wings!
I raise as much as I can and hunt or fish for the rest. Very little guilt, a lot of pride in providing for the family, and happy organic ethical chicken/deer/fish in the freezer.

And if I may, can I rant a bit about trophy hunting? Non hunters hear that term and think hunters are just out there killing for the antlers and leaving the rest behind. Not only is that illegal, but unnecessary too.
I’m a trophy hunter. That is to say, I have my mind on a certain buck this year, of course I want the rack, but I’ll also use the hide for a mount, all that great tasty meat will go in the freezer, the dogs will enjoy some of the bones and meat trimmings, I’ll even clean up the hooves for sale along with the tanned pieces of hide I won’t need. Nothing is wasted, and I am guilt-free.

 

[FortCluck]

I do feel bad when killing day comes around, but console myself with the knowledge that all my animals had a happy, comfortable life. I know they end peacefully and quickly, without fear because I do the best I can to ensure they don’t see it coming.
Maybe it seems awful to some people, but occasionally I do mark the packages with names, I find it helps me choose cooking methods for say, an old hen, a young rooster, ducks that were fighting before they were culled etc.
I love meat but just find so many farming practices abhorrent that I rarely buy meat at the store.....barring the occasional time I’ll load up on bacon on sale or a package of chicken wings!
I raise as much as I can and hunt or fish for the rest. Very little guilt, a lot of pride in providing for the family, and happy organic ethical chicken/deer/fish in the freezer.

And if I may, can I rant a bit about trophy hunting? Non hunters hear that term and think hunters are just out there killing for the antlers and leaving the rest behind. Not only is that illegal, but unnecessary too.
I’m a trophy hunter. That is to say, I have my mind on a certain buck this year, of course I want the rack, but I’ll also use the hide for a mount, all that great tasty meat will go in the freezer, the dogs will enjoy some of the bones and meat trimmings, I’ll even clean up the hooves for sale along with the tanned pieces of hide I won’t need. Nothing is wasted, and I am guilt-free.

I can't wait to feel that pride when my family eat the chickens their daughter/mother grew for them. It'll be amazing when that day comes.

 

[blackandtan]

Oh and I’m also pro-fur and guilt free, haters, come one, come all.
Trappers work hard to harvest it, ethically, harvest numbers are monitored and controlled, fur pieces can be recycled several times into other items and after that it can go in the compost pile and back to the earth.

Fake fur? Made of oil, (and I won’t even go into how bad that all is for the planet!), when washed fake fur sheds micro plastics, which goes into the watershed to cause more pollution, and in the end when it wears out you take it to the dump.

 

[slbenter]

I must be either nieve, lucky, or both. I've been reading this website for years, fairly thoroughly, and I can't remember the last time anyone came to the meat bird section and complained about us eating meat.
I'm also going to have to read up on rule #11.
I can't imagine anyone being "offended" by a statement of belief that we are created... any more than a person of faith should be offended by a statement of someone's non belief.

 

[FortCluck]

Oh and I’m also pro-fur and guilt free, haters, come one, come all.
Trappers work hard to harvest it, ethically, harvest numbers are monitored and controlled, fur pieces can be recycled several times into other items and after that it can go in the compost pile and back to the earth.

Fake fur? Made of oil, (and I won’t even go into how bad that all is for the planet!), when washed fake fur sheds micro plastics, which goes into the watershed to cause more pollution, and in the end when it wears out you take it to the dump.

I've never owned anything fur (only thing I have is a Buck head from a deer my husband's father shot). I do want a bear skin rug though with the head. I wouldn't mind having a deer blanket to keep me warm.

 

[goldysgirl]

At our friend’s Sunday dinner we ate beaver..tasted like roast beef...lol...I raise chickens, rabbits and ducks that started out to be eaten...we have only eaten a few. But as winter comes due, we will be forced to reduce a few, we have more than 100 animals....that doesn’t mean I will enjoy it..I was raised eating venison and wild rabbit and duck..but it is totally different once it’s your own animals. Something, as a new farmer, I have to come to terms with.

It also bothers me when someone comes into a meat birds forum and demands we justify our feelings around something as sacred as life and death and as impossible as the pursuit of ethical consumption, to them in particular. It's so exhausting seeing that topic blow up every few months and trying to explain it to people who usually ask from a place of bad faith.

Fact: Everything that lives, dies. So to me... If life is to be created you also are responsible for their inevitable death. Every baby you birth, every chick you hatch, every puppy you've rescued will die.
If death is something bad then the creation of life produces something bad EVERY time. Because the latter always, every time, leads to the former.

I often rebutt with do vegans grow their own plants to avoid the millions of mice caught in combines or tractors? The wildlife shot or injured or hurt to protect the crops? The millions of acres cleared for everything from palm oil to soybeans? Every one I've spoken to think that's a ridiculous idea, even though it "saves lives". Vegans too must consume to survive. Our own need to consume can either outweigh the lives of other living things, or we could simply just embrace the call of the void so we consume no more.

Sometimes I grieve because much of ethical consumption is outside of my reach and influence. Animals are grown in cruelty, pesticides for mass crop production damage the earth, clothes I wear are sewn by foreign factory workers under slave wages, the precious metals in my laptop literally came at the expense of countless human and animal lives in impoverished and exploited regions, the electricity that runs this websites servers is generated largely by fossil fuels... THAT brings me grief. The SYSTEM brings me grief. I believe there's alternative means to this end that aren't so exploitative.

But the consumption itself? Consumption is inherit to life. And what small changes I can do to change the system, I do but I don't grieve that I consume. We are all entitled to consume. If we aren't then all life must cease because all life consumes - from humans eating meat to the vines that break the walls of my home, to the tree that shades and out-consume the sapling that dies underneath it.
So I don't feel bad about it. If death isn't negative and consumption a requirement, all that's left to consider is the experiences and ripple effects of the things we consume. Who cried today to bring you that burger? What pain was experienced? Minimizing that matters to me.

Some vegans have argued to me that animal life can perceive it's own pain, death and grieve... But... Plants speak. They send out warning notices to other plants when they are being attacked. They send signals to each other about water and fungi and nutrients and even talk to bees and animals to continue their lives and protect them. The irony of veganism arguing "We can't really understand animals emotional pain because they don't grieve like we do but still shouldn't consume them cause they might be grieving" but "We can't understand plants pain but should still eat them" is frustrating to me.

Life means consumption. Consumption means death for SOMETHING. It's only what happens in between that matters. If death is inherently bad, or consumption of life is, then all life is. End of story. I simply don't believe that life - or death is bad. Life and death itself simply... Is.

/Endrant

You must be watching some of the same documetaries that I have been watching. Palm oil. Plant communication. Do you netflix?