Most of us would probably not even consciously think that we are eating an animal, thanks to the fact that we never actually see the animal in question alive. It is conveniently separated from our lives in the form of brightly labeled, attractive packaging, disguising any sense that this was once a living, breathing animal that felt pain and some form of emotions. What we see is the succulent ribs, or crispy bacon that compliments a quarter of our plate at dinner time.
Maybe the animal would ask: “Is it because there is a shortage of other food?”. To which you would reply “No there is plenty of other food, in fact it’s easier to grow other food”. So what it boils (fries or roasts) down to, is that it tastes good! It would get even worse if you had to explain to the baby lamb why he only got to bounce round in a paddock for a few short weeks before he was fast tracked to the dinner plate - not much of a life for them.
Here’s another question for you: “What’s the price of a human life?”. Most of us would respond with something like “It’s priceless”, meaning that no amount of money should be able to compensate for a human life. We all know this is really not true and that at times human lives go cheap, however I can tell you the price for a chicken’s life - it’s $12.00. Imagine telling a chicken that it was only worth $12.00, I wonder what it would think about that - probably not much, but they’re not the smartest of animals.
Right about now you are probably wondering to yourself what point I am trying to make - am I going to bleat on about the evils of meat eating or the hypocritical nature of humans who put such high values on their own lives and low ones on any other living creature. Well, in fact I’m not going to do any of that, I am just making observations. In truth I sometimes think of these things and if I were a resilient man I might go vegetarian. But I’m not, I’m lazy, I’ll buy the meat packaged and seasoned and on display in the supermarket, and I won’t think of the animal and the place it came from when I sit down at dinnertime... much.
But, every now and then I’ll think that perhaps I should give thanks to the animal for the life it gave me so that I could have my dinner, in some mini prayer like the native Americans used to. But this just doesn’t feel right. It’s not like the animal lived it’s life free in the countryside, roaming the wilderness in search of food and watching out for danger. No the animals we eat today have their lives preordained from the start, they’re stuck in pens or in tiny coops eating what is dished out to them. How can you say thanks to them, they never had a choice or an option or a possibility of escape - it’s not that I aren’t grateful, I just can’t see the animal being that accepting.
So where to next? Should we start treating animals with more respect? Should we stop eating animals? Perhaps we just turn to science and start growing meat protein to satisfy our cravings, this is infact a closer reality than you might realise. This would solve our ethical dilemma about the treatment of animals, but trying to convince people to eat GE food is hard, imagine GE meat!
Well unfortunately I haven’t really resolved my own feelings on this matter, I will continue to eat meat, and periodically will reflect to myself if it is ethical to do so. I won’t say any little prayer to the animal at dinner time and I will wonder what the future of our food eating will be.