[Sca-cooks] Re: Cooking Cats

[El Hermoso Dormido]

I'm not generally the 'flaming' type, so you're safe there :-)

(I will also add that I, too, am rather soft-hearted about critters in
general, and I don't actually disagree with the 'theme' of your post
at all...)

My only complaints/quibbles about this post are a couple of specious
generalizations:

On Wednesday 25 September 2002 09:21 am, Stephanie Ross wrote:
> [...]Modern
> slaughtering techniques, no matter how humane they claim to be, cause
> adrenaline to be released into the meat. Perhaps this is why meat eaters,
> on average, tend to be more aggressive than vegetarians?

(Warning - 'Devil's Advocacy' and pedantry follows :-) )
I would firstly question the assertion that 'meat eaters tend to be more
aggressive'.  Is this simply a personal subjective observation, or results
of controlled studies?

I would secondly question what you mean by 'aggressive'.  Do you include
merely 'assertive' in that?  Perhaps meat-eaters are simply more energetic
and confident due to greater health from improved nutritional intake...if
indeed there is a real difference between them and non-meat-eaters.

Personally - my gut feeling is that where there is any correlation between
pacifist or aggressive tendencies and diet, that it is more likely that the
personality influences the diet, rather than the other way around, though
that's just a purely subjective, intuitive, unscientific opinion, obviously.
[...]
> BTW, I have heard that in
> Vietnam, they terrorize and beat dogs so that the hormones can tenderize
> the meat before slaughter. What a sick planet, that we are forced to
> survive by eating the suffering of lower species.
[...]
The only reason this one makes me twitch is the cliche' of "Asian cultures
do sick things to food animals" - not because it's necessarily 'untrue' but
it misses out on similarly strange things people do in other parts of the
world as well.  I recall reading something about tiny, endangered songbirds
in France that are eaten whole...(possibly apocryphal, anybody know anything
about this?)

In their defense, the breed of dog used, I'm told, is one that has been
developed over many generations as a 'food breed', much like modern Cattle,
so it's not a matter of them being intelligent, alert critters like the dogs
we're familiar with.

...not that I could bring myself to eat one anyway, being a 'dog person' to
begin with, and certainly not condoning intentional cruelty to animals, for
food or otherwise...

Personally, mad-scientist-in-training that I am, my "secret" wish is that
someday I have lots of time and money to pursue vat-grown meat (from samples
taken from healthy animals under good, modern surgical conditions, and who
would then spend the rest of their lives quite comfortably) and plants
engineered to produce animal proteins (A portabello mushroom steak that
actually TASTES like steak, perhaps?...)

But, then, I'm obviously not normal. :-)

> I'm sure I will get
> flamed hard for this post, but my mundanely pagan heart won't back down
> from this opinion.

Tsk, tsk, as if there weren't cruel pagans or kind non-pagans.  I know, that's
not what you meant - just thought I'd point out the implication.  Personally,
I wish "non-mainstream" religions would pick DISTINCTIVE names for themselves
(e.g. "Wiccan") instead of lumping themselves together as "pagan".  After all,
the ancient Aztecs were pagans, too, as are (let's see if I can spell this
right) the modern Vodoun ["Voodoo"] practitioners... :-)

And I believe 7th Day Adventists are vegetarian, aren't they?


There.  Hopefully that'll head off any incoming flames at the metaphorical
pass, the issues that appeared to be most flammable having been already
brought up and addressed in a non-inflammatory manner. :-)

Disclaimer and disclosure:
The preceding post is entirely the fault of the 'Anal-Retentive Scientist'
portion of my personality, who gets very little opportunity to speak and
couldn't stand it any more.  I am a confirmed Omnivore ("Gluttony" IS, after
all, my second most favorite Sin) but I avoid, for example, veal for the same
reason the previous poster does, and do not condone outright cruelty to
critters, human or otherwise.  As to religion, I tend to tell people that
I am an Autotheist or that I worship The Great Potato (and other such things)
when asked, which probably tells you just how much of an issue the subject
is with me (other than from an academic perspective, from which I am actually
relatively interested in the subject). :-)

Signed,
El Hermoso Dormido, who hopes he hasn't offended anybody...
...unless they REALLY deserve to be...