Veggies and Omnis: Do you remember, as a kid, being disturbed by the idea of eating cows, pigs, and chickens?

Question

And for parents, how did your kids react when they learned that meat is dead animals?

Just curious... I personally was bothered by it until I finally decided to become a vegetarian at age 14.

Answer 1

Well I stoped eating pig at age 7, because I learned that the bible said we're not suppose to eat it.  I later became a vegetarian at age 14. The whole animal-cruelty theme did not start until earlier this year, two years after being vegetarian.  I have stoped using products that tested on animals, atleast I think I have ..... and no, I do not get disturbed by the idea that I used to eat meat, to be honest with you, its very tempting not to eat it, but I use the strength to fight the urges hehe.

That does not make me a hyprocrit, the people who do eat meat and hide it are the hyprocrits !

Answer 2

I don't think i ever thought about it.

I don't actually remember being conscious that "meat was animals"

Rickey, what possible logic do you have to say that each thumbs down you get proves that a vegetarian diet is unhealthy ?

That is a tad silly you know. This is Yahoo Answers, not Yahoo Guesswork. If you don't know, don't answer - life is simple

I agree with exsft, rural communities treat life and death much more matter-of-fact than towns dwellers. Same goes for people as well as animals. I guess rural lives were traditionally harder, maybe thats why. Maye its because they see death ( in animals, naturally and at mans hand ) more often so realise its inevitable. There are not too many people in a rural life that get upset over death - even a pet. Its just part of life ( so to speak )

It doesn't disturb me that people eat meat, its thier choice. I expect I'll support campaigns to increase veggie awareness forever, but i'm not going to try to change an individual by negotiation - its not my style.

Even as a veggie I have to handle animal death with some degree of c'est la vie  - I can't sit there crying over a dead sheep and let 20 cattle and 40 sheep die because i didn't water them, can i ?

You can be compassionate AND pragmatic - i think thats what i'm trying to say.

Answer 3

Not in the least.  My brothers and I fought over who got to kill the chickens.

Answer 4

No, and in general, I think the total lack of understanding among the general public of where food comes from is the leading cause of the lack of appreciation for having it.  Spend a few days starving and see if your attitude towards walking into a supermarket with 25,000 items in it changes.

Knowing your food is the greatest means by which you can learn to respect it.  Precisely why I see no reason to be an ethical veg.  Despite the propaganda so many of you have bought into, no one has greater respect for their products than the ag producers themselves.  If you lose respect for your job, you get fired and find another one.  If a farmer loses respect for his job, he has lost respect for himself and his land. Not so easily replaced, is it?

If the U.S. and specifically California, continue to pave over irreplaceable farm land we are destined to be completely dependent on imported food.  Now what do you think that will do for prices, availability, and food safety?  If a certain gigantic communist country is so backwards that it is still painting cheap toys with lead paint, why are American consumers so stupid as to think relying on this same country for our entire food supply is a good idea?

Answer 5

I was horrified when I first discovered where meat came from.  My family always professed to be animal lovers; we took in stray dogs and cats until their owners could be found and nursed sick and injured birds and rodents that we found in the garden and nearby.  

When I turned 11 I suddenly began to question why some animals deserved kindness and care and yet others were barely given a passing thought, condemned to a life of suffering and pain.  I can remember asking my family when I was a kid why some animals are treated so badly and ultimately slaughtered and eaten.  No-one could give me a satisfactory answer usually just saying 'those species are food, it's the way it is' or something similar.  I couldn't understand this, and I still don't - to my way of thinking, any animal that can suffer and feel pain and fear should be protected, regardless of the species.  That's why I've been vegetarian for 20 years now and why my kids are being raised veggie too.

Answer 6

The idea of killing animals and eating them didn't bother me until I was in early High School.   I guess I was about 14.

Before that I didn't care.  Even when my dad decided one spring to raise a group of about 15 or 20 chickens from chicks to adults.  He kept them in a little shed we had in the back.   We played with them when they were little and fed them chicken-food (some kind of grain, I think).

Then in the summer he chopped off their heads with a hatchet while we watched!  My mom thought it was going to traumatize us, but to me it was just another experience.

Answer 7

I'm an omnivore and i always really new that meat was dead animals...and it doesn't bother me the same as fruit and veg being dead plants bother vegetarians....the reason i probably dont feel bad is the fact that if your going to feel sorry for one thing dying but not another then its not right.....at the end of the day...everything lives then everything dies...that will never change so feeling sorry for an animals life being lost but not a plants regardless of the pain issue is wrong, that's why i value all life the same

EDIT your all entitled to thumbs me down but i fail to see how one can get upset at an animal losing its life for food but dont care when a plant does, life is life...we all live it then we all die

Answer 8

Nope never bothered me one bit. I grew up familiar with farm life and was quite aware at an early age what goes on. I cannot remember being revolted or upset about slaughtering animals for food at all.

As for my children, I have never discussed it with them. They seem to know where their meat comes from and seem not upset by it at all. None ahve expressed concern nor have they expressed a desire to be vegetarians because of animal rights issues. When you live close to livestock and in a semi rural environement, such issues are almost always never debated.

Answer 9

Yes, I was actually pretty disturbed early on. I wasn't born in the USA, I was born in Eastern Europe so I lived for six years on my grandmother's farm. I loved animals and I'd always hang around them, but I was kind of scared of pigs (they're really mean sometimes, especially if you stand between them and their food, yikes).

My grandmother bought a pregnant cow to keep as a dairy cow but the cow had her calf and nursed it first, and my grandmother raised the calf. I loved the calf, it would l**k my hand every time I saw it, it was actually really clever and figured out how to manipulate the wooden slat that closed off the barn that kept it. It was just like anyone's relationship to a pet. It grew up fast but remained affectionate and recognized me every time it saw me (cows are *NOT* stupid, far from it!).

And then one day that cow was gone. And my grandmother gave me that half-handed talk about life and animals and food. I was 5 or 6 years old and just beginning to pay attention to the killing aspect of raising animals, and this REALLY disturbed me.

After that, I remember seeing my grandpa kill a rooster (they had 2 roosters - one was great, but the one he killed was a really pushy little jerk that would beat up the hens and would chase me and my little brother around the farm). My grandpa told me not to look but what little kid listens to something like that? Of course I looked, and it was gross.

Finally one of the last things I remember is my grandpa and my dad slaughtering a pig. My grandmother took me indoors but I looked out the window and I saw the whole thing, and afterwards I was honestly disturbed beyond belief.

Seeing it myself really shaped how I feel about being vegetarian now. And of course, my grandparent's farm is something that barely exists any longer - the animals really did have good lives aside from their final moments of terror and pain (but don't we all die some day?). Frankly, the reality of factory farming and the meat industry in America is a thousand times more horrific. I've personally gone to see major cattle farm/distribution centers and I continue to be interested in doing my own eyewitness research. I've talked with people that used to work in major pig farms (like one in Southern Illinois) and all my worst fears about what could be happening to the animals are true.

Frankly I stopped having the ability to justify inflicting unbearable pain and life-long suffering on animals - animals that are as intelligent or more intelligent than cats and dogs. Pigs are some of the smartest animals in the world, with the cognitive abilities of a 3 year old human child - they can be trained to do more tricks than six dogs combined, have been taught to successfully play Super Nintendo games like Mario (and understand them!).

Every time I saw first hand the unbearable realities of factory farming, or heard about it from a direct source, I could not ignore the fact that the pig with broken legs being dragged into the slaughter house and then killed more than understood - they were probably very afraid - I could see it from the perspective of a 3 year old child.

I think ignorance and justifications blanket people and provide ample excuses to support these things. While we all like to think of ourselves as advanced, modern animals, we are more twisted, disgusting and primitive than roaches, rats or any other creature because even though we are intelligent enough to understand the impact of what we are doing (and to sympathize), even though we are smart enough to eat a balanced vegetarian diet, we willfully choose to support something so disgusting and wrong.

I think I have a lot of unique experiences that many others just don't share (raised on a farm, traveled extensively and have been able to personally witness the realities of factory farming and KNOW that the only propaganda out there that exists are the cherubic farms featured in commercials for meat and dairy). But because of them I'm a vegetarian and will never reconsider my decision to be one - ever.

Answer 10

I don't remember being bothered by it, but I did write an impassioned piece when I was about 9 along the lines of 'well how would YOU like to be killed and eaten?'. I always had a lot of empathy for animals and found their suffering unbearable.

I became a vegetarian at 16, on and off since then, but mostly on and pretty much dedicated.

Answer 11

Your story sounds very similar to mine.

Answer 12

it has ALWAYS bothered me.  i have never eaten meat off of a bone (no ribs, chicken wings, etc.) because if i thought about the source i would be too repulsed to eat it.  if during dinner a family member talked about the cow, chicken, pig, etc. that our food came from, i couldn't eat it.  i used to get into fights with my parents when i was young about how i wanted to give up meat and they wouldn't let me (we were pretty poor when i was young and my dad was still in school, so i can't really blame them for not catering to me).  i finally went veg pretty much the second i moved out to go to college, lol.

Answer 13

I think I was about 7 when I first made the connection between a hamburger and a cow. It made me really sad. After that, I saw all meats in a different way. I hated the veins in my chicken legs, I hated the skin on the thanksgiving Day turkey...and so on.

For some reason, it didn't stop me from eating it. My family are adamant meat-eaters. I guess I knew it would be a horrible uphill battle in trying to convince my parents.

I turned veg once I moved out on my own, though and I've not looked back.

I just wish I would have been educated and strong enough to take the plunge when it first started bothering me.

Answer 14

No, I don't think I thought about it.

I remember one time at school, a boy was eating a hot dog and someone mentioned that hot dogs come from pigs. The boy actually spit the meat out and started screaming and looking disgusted. I remember laughing at him, thinking he was being ridiculous -- "of course meat comes from animals", I thought. It didn't bother me; I'd been conditioned to see eating animals as natural.

It's funny that after alllll these years, I still remember that incident. Maybe it was what planted a seed in my mind that there's something wrong with eating animal flesh!

Answer 15

I was never disturbed as a child about eating animals.  I came from a hunting and a farming family, and eating animals was just the way it was.

My children were brought up the same way, it's meat. It's what we eat, and if that's not going to work for you, pick it out, move it aside, whatever.

Answer 16

I do recall being conflicted with my love of animals versus my love of the taste of them. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time. I did not go vegetarian until I was 17; now it's been almost 23 years.

My daughter is being raised vegan and understands that meat is dead animals. She understands that we do not eat meat because animals are beautiful and we love them.

She is also understands that we need to respect others beliefs and not judge them.

Answer 17

Your parents should be ashamed to let a 14 year old make a decision like that...if you want to ruin your health for personal reasons as an adult....thats fine...but 14 is too young to make a decision like that..and to all of you ready to hand me a thumbs down....each one i get tells me i'm right!!!!!!

Answer 18

Never thought about it.

Just as most everyone else.

They have it all set up so that you are totally disconnected from it all.  Even someone I know who grew up in Hong Kong where you go and buy your chicken they will kill it, de-feather it, gut it, and give it to you in like 60 seconds... this person also never got the connection until later when she lived on a farm and had a pet chicken (along with other food chickens)... then one day, her mother, on purpose, took her pet chicken and cooked it for dinner.  Then she finally understood that it's not just her pet chicken, but all chickens, all animals...

We are so disconnected from animals and nature that we cannot feel anything for an animal unless we first get to know it.  I suppose the same goes for killing other people... shoot strangers at a distance no problem.  Get to know a person, then try to kill them at close range... difficult.