Earth is full of plants. For millions of years plants are consumed to satiate hunger. They are full of nutrients essential for a healthy well being. Animals though were consumed in primitive ages as the humans were not evolved to the extent of being equipped with knowledge and skills of culinary. This defines why animals hunt animals for food in animal kingdom. Food chain doesn’t entail human, though many consider human the top predator of food chain. Although humans are also taken into account of being ‘animals’ by some, it should not be deemed this way. Humans are main elements of society. Humans have families, beliefs, feelings, etiquette and language. Animals on the same also have families and feelings. It is callous to rule out the fact and act brutal in detaching an animal from its mate and children on the name of food. The type of food, which can be altered with mushrooms to avail the amount of proteins required by body to grow muscle mass. Assuming that not consuming animals will lead to over populace of this creature on Earth is bogus keeping in light that they are being bred on farms for humans and not hunted like primitive ages. Breeding can be stopped.
I see animals and I see them communicating with me. When they look in my eyes I believe they have stories to narrate. I will attach pronoun ‘he’ to refer to animals as they are living beings with genders not material. Poignantly, pets are referred with pronouns distinguishing genders but not the wild.
I am a vegetarian. In my childhood I was fed with all sorts of meat but I was ignorant of awareness at that time. I was being scripted. Once I was enlightened on my own grounds, I refused to be selfish. I refuse to slaughter innocent lives for the pleasure of taste. I am a human. I am better. I am knowledgeable. I am skilled. I can survive with art of culinary transforming plants into luxuriously exotic food. I can be sensible. I am empathetic. I can’t be a killer. I can’t be an animal. I can’t be held responsible for breaking families.
I refuse to go to slaughter houses where air is filled with agonizing cries of innocent , word-less, merciless animals applying for application of clemency to just be given more time with their peers to enjoy the gift of life on this beautiful Earth just like us.
I see hens caged in suffocation in a butcher’s shop on the sidewalk and feel their pain when they see others getting slain in front of them with excruciating wailing. Waiting in a cage where movement is an impossible science and wittles are hardly given for their hunger or thirst, they look to me in desperation of being freed. And I can’t do anything about it. I can’t stop the suffering and cruelty.
How can a living being with hearts and brains be different from humans on ethical grounds? Aren’t hearts for feelings and brains for sensations? Then why animals are deemed without feelings? Doesn’t an animal scream when hurt?
I weep in silence when I see frozen meat in supermarkets talking miseries in several inaudible languages. Animals are there to provide us animal products not meat.
What if animals become extinct in the world?
People who are saturated in hankering of meat will be desperate for alternatives. With sense of social morals freckled with lust, they will see flesh in humans. After all, humans are made with same what an animal is made off.
Will cannibalism be accepted? Will a human hunted for his flesh have feelings?
If yes, then how are animals different today?
It is proven that vegetarians have longer and healthier lives. Not imposing but it is a fact. There is no offense to meat eaters. I am a vegetarian in Pakistan – a country known for its rich culture of food and marination.
It is difficult for me to dine out so I choose to cook and eat at home before leaving for a restaurant. I have not yet come in contact with another one of the same type in Pakistan as I am. When people sneak into exploration of my vegetarian-ism their heads turn into a giant question mark. The usual response I get is “So you don’t eat meat?” On my disapproval and expression of morbid aversion toward meat the second prompt comes “Not even chicken?” No chicken? What does that suppose to mean? Since when chicken is not considered a meat form?
Since there are nine types of vegetarians, it is very difficult to organize the wandering vagabond perceptions in people’s brains about not being THAT one. I am an octo-ovo vegetarian. Means, I do consume animal products such as eggs, yogurt, milk, butter etc but decide not to murder the innocent creatures for the flesh that keeps it alive to produce what I require. I leave killing as an animal act suitable for animals in animal kingdom as they are not skilled with cooking techniques. This makes me different from them. (Although, I even stop an animal killing an animal when I see it by providing food.)
There were times, when I used to request for a vegetarian sandwich in a restaurant. Asking for vegetarian sandwich to come into existence in kitchen leads to impossible modifications. First of all, the waiter doesn’t understand what it is. Then when I explain that slices of bread with vegetables in between, they ask if I want no chicken at all. It’s tormenting. Then the only vegetables found over the counter are lettuce and tomatoes. I am vegetarian but I like good meal. Eating only lettuce and tomatoes with bread might be acceptable during a war in scarcity of food but not otherwise. In effort of trying to explain a waiter my own recipe for sandwich requires almost fifteen minutes of explanation which even result in counterproductive outcome when cook apparently failing to emulate delivers his high class of nonsense on a plate in front of me. Therefore, I have decided not to order anything at all. There is no main course for me, it’s just may be one choice of soup- if I am lucky -and garlic bread, French fries, mashed potatoes or steamed vegetables, which are side entries.
I feel like a woman in little girl’s department of clothes. Nothing fits.
In a cultural cuisine restaurant here, I do have options of ordering ‘daal’, which are pulses or mix vegetable ‘bhujia’. Bhujia is a form of mashed vegetables cooked in oil and spices. I do like them but not when I go out dining. I do like art in food. Something special but only grown in soil not lived on soil. No one has been able to paint this sensation in culinary for me. I find less trouble when I am traveling to western countries as chefs are quite creative in kitchen. All I order is ‘surprise me with veg’ , and they do. People here seeing me having pleasure eating vegetables with ‘umm…umm…’ sound label me crazy and deprived. I don’t mind that at all as far as I am a human with consideration.
xandria, thank you for your well done blog post. Your comment on lust was thought provoking. Upon consideration I can see that there is a certain lust when humans who should know better insist on killing living creatures for their own pleasure – given that we have alternatives. I appreciated your comments about having to eat lettuce and bread. My wife and I travel extensively, and we grow weary of asking for a dish without the meat and being told that the restaurant will gladly withhold the meat toppings but charge us the same price. Or, we are offered a salad and bread, over, and over, and over again. There is some hope, though, as we just visited a tapas restaurant and when we asked about vegetarian options the waiter brought us a vegetarian menu from which we ordered some of the most amazing dishes ever from a restaurant. We will be preparing a positive review of that restaurant for our blog.
It can be difficult at times to stand fast in a culture that blindly encourages meat consumption (as does the culture where I live in the American South). They can really give no good reason, other than we have always done it that way. But, I don't use my hands for violence or my brain for oppression, and if used the logic of "we have always done it that way" I would still behave like a primitive. It is impossible to evolve if we don't change from the ways that we have "always" done things, isn't it? So, I commend you on your post and wish you the best.
That you for your clarity of expression (even though English isn't your 1st language) and your firmness of belief, blended with a wonderful willingness to "let others be"… 🙂
My favorite part of what you've said in this post is: "frozen meat in supermarkets talking miseries in several inaudible languages".
Beside, a horse is a very muscular animal despite of being a herbivorous. If 'he' can have good muscles mass and strong body then humans can achieve the same results being vegetarian.
+Angelique Stevens, I understand that you like eating meat. You should, and no one is asking you to give up. You are free to express your point of view. On the same grounds, I stand firm. In my view, a human can easily live without meat. Killing animals is totally brutal.
You are missing one key element that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom (and yes we are animals)…Complex thought. The ability to think in nonlinear ways. A lion sees a gazelle and kills it registers as food. We see a gazelle and it registers "that is a gazelle, and they live on the plains of Africa." We build complex technology and have harnessed energy. We look up at the sky and think "are we the only ones? Oh look there is the big dipper" animals cannot comprehend the vastness of space, but for some their only concern about the sky is whether or not some bird is going to swoop down and eat them.
Humans were designed to eat meat. Your eyeteeth (also called canines)are meant for ripping flesh. Our digestive systems were designed to use the amino acids from meat to create muscle mass.
Oh and eating a cow does not in any way mean that the very same person will become a cannibal if he or she can't eat a steak!