[Sca-cooks] To cat or not to cat

Ian Kusz sprucebranch at gmail.com
Thu Aug 2 21:18:01 PDT 2012


I've heard of squirrel (West Virginia and Kentucky) and Possum Pie
(somewhere in the South) being consumed.....that's part of what made this
confusing.  Grew up in Alaska, where they eat walrus and whale in some
parts....

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 8:48 PM, Aruvqan <aruvqan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 8/2/2012 9:57 PM, Ian Kusz wrote:
>
>> huh.  I'm clueless as to why this is a big issue (unless she's taking
>> someone's pet), but then I don't understand most social cues.  So I'll
>> stay
>> out of the mix, here.
>>
>> I'm wondering, though, do you folks have the same attitude toward, say,
>> wildcats, like lynx?  I mean, some of them are almost as small as a
>> housecat (depending on the breed)....how about possum, or "ring-tailed
>> cat"
>> or polecat or whadyacallums .....uh, raccoon?
>>
>> Do you have the same objection to bunnies?  Muskrat?
>>
>> For me, society is a minefield, and I'm trying to figure out the
>> "trigger,"
>> here.  Hard to avoid it if you don't understand it.
>> That's what I get for growing up in the woods.  My dog wasn't a mine of
>> information on taboos.  I guess I'm lucky that I figured out that sniffing
>> crotches wouldn't fly....although that dog was amazingly smart....just
>> not...uh...the same outlook....
>>
>>  Hm.
>
> In the US in most communities there are laws against the use of
> nontraditional [for the US] animals as food, generally cats, dogs, horses.
> There is a very strong cultural aversion to eating any meat that is more or
> less not: chicken, pig, cow, lamb, duck, goose, rabbit, alligator,
> rattlesnake, ostrich, emu, buffalo, beefalo, deer/elk/moose/reindeer.
> Probably missing a few that are legitemate. Most people refuse to eat
> anything other than cow, pig and chicken [and mild fish like cod, salmon,
> tuna, shrimp, clams] It is purely cultural. I personally find horse rather
> nice, and have eaten dog [raised as a food animal] but would prefer not to.
> [I will eat anything I am not actually allergic to with the exception of
> insects, many amphibians and reptiles and such seafood as I have already
> tried and found I dislike.]
>
> I think it comes from the heavy anthropomorphism of cartoons and Disney
> movies about wildlife. Certainly the generations prior to World War 2 had
> fewer inhibitions as to the source of meat - I have a few cookbooks that
> offer recipes for squirrel, rabbit, opossum and porcupine. Well my Larousse
>  also offers serving suggestions for cat, rat, dog, beaver, seal, whale and
> pretty much anything that walks, crawls, slithers, flies or swims. Heck,
> now I am remembering *lots* of stuff people won't eat currently.
>
> [I got accused of spit roasting a poodle that went missing temporarily at
> an event about 15 years ago. Stupid mundanes camping in the same
> campgrounds as an event. As if I would cook a toy poodle, not enough meat
> and the diet the stupid woman probably fed the poor thing would make it
> taste horrible.]
>
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-- 
Ian of Oertha


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