see all these threads on killing ducks, or other animals all for the betterment of our animals. I mean where does it become too much? Isn't killing one animal for another kind of defeating the purpose of being an animal lover?
Yes I was just about to say all those wildlife documentaries showing carnivores taking down herbivores is always a bit sad momentarily but that is nature, that is life and we can't do anything about that anyway. Animals for food are bred for that anyway, ie they wouldn't even exist if we didn't 'grow' them.RC, you need to watch some nature shows on TV so you better understand the natural order of things.
Not all of us are vegan. Most of us are not, I think. I could be wrong as I don't know everyone here personally, but what I don't understand is where do animal rights activists draw the line? Why is it ok for a lion, painted dog or hyena to kill and eat Thomson's gazelle, but it is wrong for me to kill and eat (or feed to the dogs) a mule deer? We are omnivores which means we eat meat. Because we are omnivores, that means we (as well as our carnivorous canines) have been given the tools by nature to chew, digest, and find nutrition in meat.I'm vegan and an animal rights activist so I could not even fathom killing an animal - or fathom people who hunt, kill their own, etc. It goes against my moral grain.
I feed raw for my dogs health but every time I feed her, it's torture for me.
Serenity, I can't help but feel that you are making this about you. No one here is looking down on you for feeling the way you do. We are all different and there are many different views. There is nothing wrong with that. You are one of those who simply does not like the idea of killing an animal yourself. THAT'S OK!!! We don't mind. I hate seeing those chicken cages too. It's awful! That is why I hope to one day be able to rear my own chickens so they can scratch around in the dirt looking for bugs and run around flapping their wings and live life like a real chicken SHOULD be able to. Yes, they will end up being killed for meat, but because I was the one doing it, I will know that they lived as stress free of a life as I can possibly provide. Same for any other animals I raise.Sorry, re, didn't see this earlier.
This is the difference, I think. When I see a herd of cattle or a few chickens pecking around in a yard or even a pig rolling in mud, I do not think, "There's breakfast, lunch and dinner". I actually think about the animal and wonder what kind of character it has. I've gotten to know so many animals...so. many. types. And every fricken last one I've met, pet or not, ends up having some kind of character that makes it hard for me to imagine anyone eating it.
Ducks, gators, chickens, snakes....where I used to work...I got to know them. They all have distinct characters, (I refrain from saying, 'personality' lest someone think I am humanizing these animals...I am not!), and some of them are downright sociable. The one mallard who used to fly in to the park every day would come running when he saw us, to be around us. Chicken Little...jeez, I never knew chickens were that damn funny until I met this chicken. I sometimes wonder if this chicken knows he's a chicken. Even the gators who are not cuddly and cute and you can't pick them up and squeeze them, I can't. It helps that I don't like the taste, (yes, I tasted a nugget so I could honestly answer how they taste and it is NOT LIKE chicken at all!), but I still couldn't do it. When you spend almost your entire day around them, it's hard to imagine taking their life to eat them.
When I pass by a field with cows...hell yes I have guilt. I love cow. I love their meat and I love their milk. The milk I do not feel bad about drinking but the meat...yes I do think about it when I'm buying it and making it. It IS easier when I was not the one who had to kill it. I don't care if someone thinks I'm a hypocrite for that, (I've been called that in the past, several times, I don't care, think what you want), and I'm not going to get in to a debate about what humans need as far as food.
Heck, one time, when I lived in Seattle and was doing courier work, I got behind a truck with chickens in cages on it, on I-5 coming back in to Seattle. It was cold outside. The chickens were cramped in those little cages, just stuffed in there. I hated that. I felt horrible for those birds. I wanted to puke. I could not eat chicken for over a year because of it. I know where they were going. I didn't want to be the one that ate them.
I have tried to be a vegetarian before...I just can't stand it. Maybe they have improved over the years, I don't know but I don't like most veggies, I am not in to beans and tofu? No. Just no.
It's not like I walk in to the store and blindly grab not having a second thought about it, I sure do. However, I didn't have to see it, as I said in my previous post, I didn't have to look it in the eye and see it looking back at me...no, I'm not going to do it. As it is, I don't eat a whole lot of meat anyway. Every fricken time I do buy meat thinking it's for me, 99% of the time it goes to the pets in the end. Some of that is money, some of that is my laziness and some of that is the guilt.
No one is wrong. If you can look at an animal and see your next steak dinner, that's how you see them. And some of us see an animal and see that animal as a creature that is living and breathing and can't find it in ourselves to steal that away from that animal by our own hands.
(But Serenity, you are doing that when you buy meat!) I know. Read what I just said, above.
I guess to make a comparison: In China, they eat dogs. I have seen the photos of those dogs, on their way to slaughter. Just like the chickens, those dogs are stuffed in to cages for transport. How some here might feel about that, feel about taking one of those dogs, killing it and feeding it to their own pets...maybe you can start to understand what I mean about other meat.
Go check out some of the threads. You have been here long enough to have been able to read most of them but hey, maybe you missed them. Cooked chicken can have a tremendously different effect on a dog than raw chicken. It is not uncommon for dogs to be allergic to meats in their cooked form. A lot of things in dog foods cause allergies. Potatoes, grains, etc. They are not actually meant to eat those things. They are designed to eat meat and that is why dogs do better on a raw diet. Even if you are skeptical about a raw diet, there is no reason you couldn't try it out for a few months and, if Winston gets no better, then you can go back to kibble. All of us here are convinced raw feeders, but there is no law that says switching to raw HAS to be permanent. For us, it is permanent because we have seen how much better our dogs are on raw vs kibble. No one can make you keep feeding raw if it doesn't work out for Winston.how would a raw diet help winstons allergys when i dont even know what he is allergic too? chicken is chicken.
Nope, wasn't making it all about me. I wrote that before I saw his other thread in the canned dog food section. At the time of writing my posts, I stupidly thought he was asking a legitimate question. And I saw people calling him out for asking the question. Thought people weren't understanding that some of us are not capable of doing this.Serenity, I can't help but feel that you are making this about you. No one here is looking down on you for feeling the way you do. We are all different and there are many different views. There is nothing wrong with that. You are one of those who simply does not like the idea of killing an animal yourself. THAT'S OK!!! We don't mind. I hate seeing those chicken cages too. It's awful! That is why I hope to one day be able to rear my own chickens so they can scratch around in the dirt looking for bugs and run around flapping their wings and live life like a real chicken SHOULD be able to. Yes, they will end up being killed for meat, but because I was the one doing it, I will know that they lived as stress free of a life as I can possibly provide. Same for any other animals I raise.