Why don't people understand?

[Sonia]

Sorry for starting so many threads today...but my kids are actually behaving and I get a chance to play on the PC and ask questions...


Why is it so hard for other people to understand the grief we go through when we lose an animal? Even for those of us that raise meat animals....it is hard to lose an animal that you have raised and nurtured. I cry when I butcher a rabbit....even though I know that i gave it the best life possible. It still hurts to do the deed. When a favorite dog (or cat, or chicken) passes on it hurts! Why must we go through the ridicule of mourning an animal as if there was something wrong with us?

 

[Anny]

To be honest with you most people are on your side or at least a large large group of people. Pets are like kids. They are living breathing creatures and every death is a sad one. That is why I personally don't eat animals. I couldn't have it in my to kill one so I can't eat them.

 

[hooligan]

Quote:
I totally agree with you.

 

[poopcoop]

I have found that the best way to solve the butchering process without letting it get the best of you is to NOT give them a name. My wife likes to name them and then when it's time to do the DEED, she always breaks down. Now she has stopped naming the ones that she knows will go to the Table, it has helped her a LITTTTTTTTTTLE Bit.

Ray

 

[DuckyBoys]

I would worry about people who don't feel that kind of grief - even if they don't show it, they should feel it. I used to do animal experiments for science - not all the animals were harmed or sacrificed, but I still felt bad. I remember one horse in a nutrition trial that went down after we gave an injection and I thought I was going to cry right there in front of my mentor. Thank God it got back up - but I was worried. We don't kill horses in research - that would be a disaster.

But even with the mice, I hated it. I remember interviewing labs before picking which one I wanted to go into and one lady was doing brain experiments on rats. Ya know I understand that she's doing really important stuff and if I HAD to I would be OK with it, but I'm really not OK with hooking drug lines up to exposed tissue through a hole in the skull and watching how they react to drugs.

And that is normal. My reaction is normal. Anyone who doesn't feel remorse and pain when doing that stuff is abnormal.

 

[goatkeepers]

Anny, I can't eat them as well. The way I see it- I can live and thrive without having to kill an animal so I don't see the need to eat meat. And I never have liked the taste...
But whenever I explain this to people I get these stupid comments like "what, but killing innocent (enter vegetable or fruit here, carrots for example) doesn't bother you?". SO stupid!

I don't know why people make it their business to try and make me look weird. That's one of the reasons I am just really ticked off with people right now *lol*. That's my opinion and I think it makes pretty darn good sense. Why do we have to kill and eat animals (a lot of which are raised in severely inhumane places!)?
Same when we lose an animal. Even my own mom doesn't get it. She'll be supportive but she doesn't get it. I don't think you ever will, until you lose an animal of your own...

 

[Sonia]

some of our meat animals do end up with names. Yes those are harder when it comes time....OTOH those are the ones that make me feel the best too.....they had a GOOD life....and a good death. Sounds like a contradiction in terms though.

 

[Sonia]

Quote:
God gave us the animals of the earth for sustenence. We are stewards of the earth. I have no troubles eating meat (but do not look down upon those that choose not to). Knowing that we gave them a good life is very helpful.

My main point of this thread though is that many people are ridiculed for grieving over an animal weather it was a pet or meat animal. Why should we not feel empathy for those that have passed, animal or human? I spoil my pets/livestock the same as I do my children. Should not grief accompany the death of a loved one even if that loved one happens to not be human?

 

[goatkeepers]

Quote:
I don't quite agree with that. I think we should care for the animals on this earth, not eat them. It's everyone's personal choice, but I don't think we were put here to eat the animals...

I agree with your last sentence though. Grief shouldn't be reserved only for two legged animals.

 

[Sonia]

LOL I think the 'Two leggeds' are more animal than the animals most of the time