Why are we happy to eat animals that we have NO emotional attachment to, but won't to eat animals we love?

Question

Why are we happy to eat animals that we have NO emotional attachment to, but won't to eat animals we love?

Answer 1

because most people don't even make a connection between meat and animals.  sure, we all know that beef comes from a cow, but when it's cleaned up and packaged at the local wal-mart it no longer looks like an animal.  it's easy for people to eat it because they're so disconnected from the animal's life.  obviously this isn't the case with people who butcher their own meat, but for the majority of people i think this holds true.  

most people have never been around farm animals....they notice emotion, insight, and thought in their dog or cat because they are around them constantly.....but a cow, pig, or chicken?  unless you've spent a long time around farm animals you may not realize that they share the same variation in personality that domesticated animals do.  all animals are sentient beings and have distinct feelings, thoughts, etc.  there was actually a study published about a month ago that proved that even birds have distinct personalities.  it's easy to eat something when you forget about the fact that they're individuals.

EDIT:  I am a vegetarian by the way, so I don't eat animals whether I have an emotional attachment to them or not.

Answer 2

I think it's objectivication. Floppy the pet bunny, no you wouldn't eat him, but Floppy's cousins...those other things we keep in the barn....dinner.

Oldest trick in the book, we go to war against Germany and suddenly second cousin Sigmund is an evil k***t...quick, burn the pictures we took together last year and gimme my gun!!

P.S. Who's Pop Tircherry? I don't see a post by that name nor any post about wprd origins. Anybody see a post like that, please email me...herowithgreeneyesandbluejeans@yahoo...

I think it's all about evolution, learning to ignore hate in all it's manifestations, then at that moment, it doesn't exist.

Answer 3

because jsut like you dont care about others feelings as much as you do for your loved ones you would not care to eat an animal that you do not no than one that you do no.

Answer 4

I think the human brain must have a defence mechanism which makes it easier to disconnect from what we see around us or what we are eating.

I have a colleague in work who spends all day waffling on about her rabbit. Every day. i thought it was quite endearing, until at a work meal out she ordered... rabbit.

Either that, or people just refuse to make the connection because it would mean they either had to face the fact that their behaviour is hypocritical, or stop eating meat.

Answer 5

i've eaten horace, angie, charlotte, mervyn, jonas and priscilla. they were the pigs i raised when i was growing up. i don't live on a farm anymore, but i took great care of my pigs. i learned at an early age the way these things work. i accepted it and am fine with my choices. priscilla was my favorite, she was as smart as any dog i've ever owned. i miss that pig. she was tasty though.

Answer 6

Because we have no emotional attachment to the animals that become food.  The answer is in your question.

And to Pop Tircherry, the different names came from the Norman invasion of England.  The animals kept their original Anglo-Saxon names, (Because the Anglo-Saxons worked the fields and with the livestock).  The food took the Norman(French) names, because the French became the nobility (hence they did not work the fields, and only dealt with the animals when they were on the dinner plate.)

edit: To those of you who have no idea what the last part of my answer means, it was in response to a post that is no longer on here.  The answerer (Pop Tircherry) was talking about the semantic differences between "cow" and "beef," but it was clear from his post that he did not know where those differences came from.  Which is why, I suppose, his answer is no longer on here....

Answer 7

Hello,

can you please drop the word "we". It sounds like you are including me in your statement,

I don't really understadn why people do this either. I guess its because they are condistioned to believe that commercial farm animals have no feelings and are there to be exploited.

Some of us do see cows and sheep every day and i can clearly say they have all the attributes of a household pet. So i don't see why "size" seems to condemn some animals to an early death after an appauling life, and yet other animals get to live by the fireside and be pampered for 10 years.

Answer 8

"we" aren't.  This is the vegetarian/vegan forum and most of the people who answer here don't eat animals.

Answer 9

Many people raise a single cow, or batch of chickens as pets and then slaughter them for food.

Nothing wrong with that. It is natures way. I have eaten a pet Rabbit and it went down fine.

Nary a tear shed.

Answer 10

I'm NOT happy to eat animals that I have NO emotional attachment to ! Who is this "WE"? I don't eat any animals, full stop.