Friday 27 June 2014

The vegetarian question

There isn't a question really. Just some observations.

Haggis makes me ill. Like proper stomach-churningly ill. But other than that, I don't care if people eat meat.

I'm curious about the cognitive dissonance, though. Why eat cows but not dogs? Pigs but not cats? Sheep but not horses? What is the actual difference?

There isn't one. So as a vegetarian who has never tried to convert anyone, and nor would I, why wonder about that? Well, there's the issue of how meat is raised and slaughtered. Can I have any say in that because I don't eat it? Probably not, but all the fuss about halal meat here recently made me laugh. Because all those people complaining about halal meat rigorously check the source of their £1 chicken, don't they? You can buy a whole chicken. For one earth pound. And not even consider for one moment how that chicken got in the supermarket freezer in front of you. If you were that concerned you wouldn't bother. You would go without chicken. And none of those people complaining have ever bought a kebab at 3am. Noooo.

Halal, kosher, hit round the face with an iron bar. What does it matter how it died? It's dead, and you're eating it. That's all cool - but be aware that the ultimate way to care about animal welfare is to just not eat them, or insist on such high farming standards that you probably couldn't afford meat anyway.

I should be vegan, and I'm not. I'm not a good enough cook, and my life is so unpredictable. Right now I can't eat properly until Tuesday, and probably not even then. I've got no money, and the Lady Madison will always eat before I do. But that's not much of an excuse either. I don't eat or buy honey because I feel sorry for the wee bees, so how hard would it be to chuck eggs, milk and cheese? Since my diet is largely cheese-based, very hard. I need a decent vegan cookbook, and some way of moving my life away from poverty and chaos.

The job I've been offered is working nights and I have no idea how my system and body will cope with that. But it's well-paid, and hopefully I can give Maddie the life she deserves, like a roof over her head and a happily interiwebbed and TiVo-ed mummy, and proper litter. It's hard over here right now. And that wandered off topic.

So yay, eat dead stuff, as long as you know it's dead, and as long as you know it wasn't always. I've been lectured for not eating meat several times - several times more than I've ever lectured anyone for eating it. I think those people probably feel guilty about eating meat and are trying to project their guilt on to me, especially since I genuinely don't care. And the more I say I don't care, the more people insist that I absolutely must. So I'll stop saying it.


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