SC - Re: "cruel food"- long response.

[Michelle "TJ" Brunzie]

Ana,

Now that you've explained to us your concept of "cruel food", perhaps I may
share a few thoughts with you, as I do much of my own butchering, and in
fact will be teaching a butchering class at Pennsic XXVIII.

I rarely eat veal, because of the cruelty to the animals usually associated
with the development of the fine, white flesh associated with that meat,
specificly the isolation of the animals in dark, tiny cages, so that they
won't develop their dark muscle fiber. I refuse to condone that kind of
cruel treatment. I will, however, butcher and eat veal calves which have
been raised humanely by local farmers whom I know. The problem with veal
calves is that they are the male offspring of milk cows, and other than some
limited usage as bulls, they are useless from a producing farmers point of
view, since we have no use for oxen in this day and age.

I will eat most anything else, because it isn't commercially viable to treat
your animals cruelly, through growth to slaughter- it reflects in the
quality of the meat. Let's not even get into growth hormones and the like
;-)

Chickens are slaughtered and prepared for the market in a most unhealthy
manner, so I always take them and soak them in a salt water solution for
half an hour or so before cooking- it improves the flavor immensely. Anybody
out there who likes chicken, but is the least bit squeamish, shouls NEVER go
to a chicken slaughtering facility- you will NOT like what you see from
either a sanitation or a slaughtering poiint of view.

Horses are slaughtered for food far more frequently in the US than most
people realize. If you've ever eaten at a fast food restaurant, you've
likely eaten horse meat- that was the real idea behind Wendy's "Where's the
BEEF" promotion a few years back. This makes sense because there are a lot
of older or injured horses out there that need to be dealt with. I'd rather
see them eaten than simply left to suffer and pushed into a hole in the
ground when they die. Older horses are preferred because their meat is darke
r, appearing more like beef.

Dog and cat are frequently eaten in many places all over the world- I have
no objection to this, as long as it's not MY dogs or cats on the menu ;-) I
rather wish they WERE acceptable fare in the US, since there are so many
homeless and suffering animals out there.

Game is acceptable to me, particularly venison. We've killed off all their
predators, and they're a real hazard out here in  SE Ohio- we are now
allowed bucks and does, and two per season per person- they're talking about
upping the total to three. Again, I'd rather see the animals harvested than
left to starve in a bad winter, or loose to destroy people's crop and cause
car wrecks- I've hit several. Other game such as rabbits can easily
overpopulate too.

As far as fish are concerned, oysters and clams die as soon as you open the
shell.  If you do lobsters and crabs right, their death is very fast. Other
types of fish vary- most suffrocate slowly, unless they're immediately flash
frozen.

It's up to you what you wish to do about all this- if you want to go vegan,
fine by me. My personal solution is to regularly slaughter my food, so I
never forget what I'm doing- I take personal responsibility for the deaths I
cause, I don't try to pretend meat comes all pretty and pre-packaged from a
meat factory.

Ana, if you're truly interested in this subject, Mistress
Christianna-don't-call-her- Grandma gave us a url last night with links to
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who are very extreme-
perhaps you might find some useful info there, beneath all the polemics. The
URL is:

www.jesusveg.com

Hope this helps.


Phlip

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

The World's Need

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.

- - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================