General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is hunting so sacred? [View all]moriah
(8,311 posts)First, are you vegan? If you are, you'll know that it's an expensive way to live compared to what people on SNAP can afford. Talk about balancing vegetable proteins to get a full complement all you want, but just try to justify your soy formula for your non-milk allergic baby to a WIC officer based on personal beliefs.
Now, if you're going to say that somehow getting your meat in pre-packaged plastic containers means that your hands are as clean as the package seems to be of "murdering creatures who never harmed you", you've obviously led a life distanced from the reality of meat as food.
Have you ever raised meat?
Have you ever fed a pair of calves from the time they were weaned until they were ready for slaughter? Dealt with getting head-butted off your feet because you didn't want to dehorn the feeder calves, or castrate them unnecessarily if they'd achieve weight before it was necessary and no females to get them unnecessarily excited around? Gotten affection for them even after landing in literal bullshit? Cried when you took them for processing, but still ate the meat because beef comes from cows?
Have you ever raised eggs? Woke up in the morning to go to the outhouse and been greeted by a flock of free range chickens? Decided whether you could hold your water long enough to give them their morning corn, or if you wanted observers the entire time you took your dump? Searched for eggs and candled them to make sure there wasn't an embryo surprise waiting for you if you put it in the baking? Stewed the aggressive culled roosters with dumplings?
Have you ever raised dairy? Tried to milk a goat? Goats are quite interesting, though my advice is to fence them OUT, not in. They love tomatoes, and don't think about leaving anything that looks green and leafy near them. Our nanny produced enough for the child in the household who was having allergy issues and still keep her female kid healthy. They got the highest prices at auction when the kid grew up, and went into a dairy herd.
Have you ever even driven BY a commercial poultry operation? You'd know because of the smell.
Have you seen the birds being bred as fryers? We hwd three male Tyson refugee fryers dumped on us by would-be rescuers. They did better in our flock, out-competing the native roosters for the hens, but genetically they were very flawed birds because the line wasn't bred for health -- it was bred for fast weight gain and fast slaughter. Despite having free range all three developed problems that required euthanasia before four months had passed. They couldn't walk and were getting mites the others could fight off.
You think I've abandoned reason because I actually feel better about eating the venison my hunting family members gift us with than I do animals I haven't raised? I at least know the venison in my chilli had a better life before becoming venison than most of that perfectly pre-packaged meat at the supermarket.
Now, I have said multiple times in threads that hunting didn't suffer during the "assault weapon" ban, and won't suffer from magazine limitations. And I'm *glad* it's illegal to not process and either eat or donate your kills here. Just killing for sport and not using the sacrifice of the animal's life for food IS beyond reason.