We're
omnivores, we can eat meat or
anything else for that matter, the
morality of eating meat doesn't really come into it. If I need to
kill another living thing in order to
survive, I
will. I have done so in the past, being a
muslim, I got taken to a farm when I was 16 and asked by my father whether I would like to kill the
lamb I was going to eat for
dinner. I hesitated, thinking it through, and then I prayed for it's
soul to enter
heaven, as I am supposed to do, and then I
killed it in the most
painless way possible. I will admit that it was a
strange feeling, but I must also say that it felt totally
natural. I watched the blood spill away, and then got to the task of
skinning and
gutting the animal. Afterwards, I even helped
chop up the meat and we took it
home and put it in the
freezer. The lamb dinner that night tasted more
intense, but no worse for that. At least I know now that
I can kill an animal for food if it comes to it.
But to be forced to ask yourself why you eat meat? Isn't that a bit, well silly? It's like one of those political games that people play with each other to make us all feel a bit more guilty about being human. After all, we have been killing animals for meat for millenia, long before we started farming. The violence, and the genetic make up is within us. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with variety in your diet, and I will readily admit to having a largely vegetarian one, but I don't feel it is appropriate to ask me why I choose to eat meat. I just do. It is part of who and what I am as a person, and a human. As a muslim, I don't really have the crisis of conscience that most people are forced into by longwinter's assertion, because we have rather strict dietary laws, and also codes of conduct when dealing with other living things, and especially tight ones for the welfare of the animals that are to be killed for food. It saves me from a lot of heart ache.
Still, even if I wasn't a muslim, and I met longwinter at that so called banquet and he (or she) leaned over to me and said:
"So, why do you eat meat, Jaez?"
I would answer (after properly chewing my food of course...)
"Same reason I eat anything, nutrition longwinter... now be a dear and pass the apple sauce."