How are people not grossed out by preparing/cooking meat?

Seraph

Thu, Mar 01 2012, 3:40 am

gp2.0 wrote:

Watching footage of factory farming, with these animals who never have a normal life and are then slaughtered, can bring tears to my eyes. Free-range animals who are raised on a family-run farm or ranch have good lives, at least.

Death is never a happy occasion.

Having food to eat is a happy occasion.

I am sad that the best way for people to be healthy is by killing and eating other living things. But I'm still going to put MY health first. Law of the jungle.

And now, I have a question for the vegetarians: Don't you care that every time you eat a fruit or vegetable you are killing it?

You tear an apple off a tree. There is an audible snap as the limb holding the child to its parent severs. You bite into the apple. There is a loud crunch as its flesh tears apart. The juices that were carrying nutrients to its heart drip down your hand. You then discard the seeds, the potential life of a baby tree.

You can't hear the apple trees screaming as their babies are taken from them. You can't hear the apple screaming as you rip it apart. But that doesn't mean they aren't screaming.

In every leaf of every plant there is a spark of soul, which you snuff out when you kill it.

If you're OK with eating plants, I don't see why you're not OK with eating animals.

Those that say plants arent sentient beings, they aren't sentient to our knowledge. But they have proven scientifically that plants grow better in a happy environment, when you talk to your plants, when you put on music, than when there is quarelling, etc... Perhaps plants really do have some intelligence.
And as for feelings- I've read somewhere that they've recorded really high pitched (undiscernible to the human ear but able to catch via other meals) "screaming" from plants when they're picked...

Seraph

Thu, Mar 01 2012, 3:58 am

In the kitchen wrote:

Hashem gave us permission after the flood to eat meat, he didn't say that you must eat it though.

Speaking of the flood, one of my issues with vegetarianism and veganism is that I heard that the reason hashem gave us permission to eat meat and actually commanded us to eat it after the flood is because eating animals would prevent the world from sinking to the level it was during the antedeluvian days. One of the reasons the world was destroyed was that humans were equating the lives of animals to the lives of people, and one of the final straws was that they wrote marriage contracts between man and animals. Hashem told us to eat animals davka for that reason, so we become aware that we are NOT on the same level as animals, that our lives take precedence over theirs...
Unfortunately, in recent years, society has sunken down to nearly such a level. People often DO put the lives of animals on the same level as humans, and some even put their lives above human lives, willing to kill people to prevent cruelty to animals, for example. And yes, there have even been marriages made between people and animals in recent years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.....riage

As for ethics and vegetarianism, interestingly, some people championing for animal rights also champion for the right to have abortions, and the born alive act, etc. Interesting, because in this case they value the lives of animals over that of a soon to be born or already born but unwanted child.

As for the torah view of eating animals, I've learned that all animals and plants, etc... have a nitzotz kedusha in them, a spark of divinity, and when we shecht and eat those animals with a bracha or turn them into a klaf for making mezuzos or torah, or make a korban, we help those animals fulfill their tafkid in life.
Of course, I support being aware of the effect of eating animals, that an animal died for you to be able to eat it, and to have hakaras hatov for that.
Personally, because I care about animals and the ethics and morality, I try to eat every last bit of an animal, even things that would gross out some, like gizzards, spleens, livers, intestines, tongues, wings, bones, hearts, fat, skin, etc... because I don't want the animal to have died for nothing, and to kill the animal and then throw out part of their body is a true waste. At least if you're going to kill an animal, don't put a large percentage of it into the trash!

chocolate fondue

Thu, Mar 01 2012, 5:01 pm

I didn't read the whole thread, but here's my 2 cents:
It's a matter of perspective.
Why should I be grossed out by meat? I'm doing the meat a favour by eating it.
A regular cow is a simple animal that eats grass, drink eater, procreates and eventually dies.
When it is shechted with a bracha, it is being elevated.
When I prepare it for a Shabbos meal, or even a regular supper, in a kosher home, I am elevating it.
When I make a bracha on it and eat it, I am elevating it.
When it becomes part of me it is elevated to the level of a Jew, with a neshama.
When I use the energy I get from eating it to do a mitzvah, it is becoming part of the ultimate purpose of creation - to make this physical world a place where a Hashem is being served.

(now jump on me)