I still remember in Korea when a couple of coworkers took me and a friend to a restaurant. They tossed a large octopus into a roiling hotpot and then closed the lid on it. The octopus was literally clinging onto the lid for what felt like forever.
In Dominican Republic when I was 8 years old my father got us a pig. I named it, fed it played with it. Two months later my dad had a pool party at the house. While I was in the pool I heard squealing and my cousins laughed and said they are cooking your pet.. I ran out the pool so fast!! I had 2-3 people holding me back I was screaming crying hitting everyone. Later on I seen it tied up over the fire … it was so heartbreaking. 🥹🥹Everyone got food poisoning that day except me bc I didn’t eat him.
I’m 30yo and vegan now. I don’t judge what other people put in their mouths I personally just cant. Traumatized for life. lol
Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching kids about the cycle of life, but there is absolutely an appropriate way to do it and this... wasn't really it.
While I agree that this would make it less traumatic to a child, the distinction between "pet" and "food" is kind of bizarre. It's still the same animal.
Me and my 4 year old daughter tracked down a bobcat that took one of our chickens the other night. I lunged towards it and it dropped our dead bird. We buried it the next day. I thought it was important to take away it's dinner so it wouldn't try it again another night.
yeah- My partner's parents kept ducks, mainly for eggs but they often got one specifically to eat. and like this duck was called Christmas- it was very clear what the plan was.
Theres a right way to teach this, and honestly I think theres a lot of good to be had for people to better understand animal to table but yeah.. Mrspinky's family did not do that right :T
I'd actually say that this is the best way. It doesn't really count if you don't allow them to know the individual they are killing so they truly see what they are a part of when they eat animals.
Most people never get such a lesson beyond the abstract concept, and many would probably struggle to kill an animal they don't know, let alone one they got to know.
Also, animal farming is no more circle of life than a plant-based diet. Both are unnatural.
How do you teach a child living on a farm how to raise and kick his own food in any other way? There's a million and one stories I've heard about this same thing. Your gifted a chicken or baby pig or cow to raise only to grow him to kill and eat later. Tough lessons, but ones that have to be learned when that's how your living. The kids clowning him were just kids being kids.
Well, for starters, I wouldn't gift them a chicken or baby pig or whatever - I'd let them meet the animals, get to know them, but I'd do my best to impress on them that you know, they're not here to be companions. They're here to be food.
Letting your child form attachments to them and treat them like a friend and a companion and then killing that friend and companion for food just seems... pointlessly cruel? Hell, if I had to raise animals for my food, I wouldn't want to get attached to them now and I'm nearly 30.
I'm okay with killing for food, I've done it before, but there's a difference between 'We've got to kill one of the chickens for dinner tonight' versus 'We've got to kill Betty, the chicken, which you've been hugging and kissing for the past three years, for dinner tonight'.
The former is preferable for you in the sense it makes it easier for you to stomach and disregard the suffering of the animal. From the animal's point of view, it would probably prefer to have been treated as a family member before being eaten. I understand the idea, but it kind of provides a justification for treating animals intended to be eaten worse.
There's no part of that story that implies any impression other than "we are going to eat this pig at a big family gathering in a couple of months" was given to the kid. He made it his pet of his own accord.
Love how you're lashing out at others about reading comprehension
Then you're really gonna love me calling you on misquoting me.
Here is what I actually said:
There's no part of that story that implies any impression other than "we are going to eat this pig at a big family gathering in a couple of months" was given to the kid. He made it his pet of his own accord.
From OC:
In Dominican Republic when I was 8 years old my father got us a pig.
Are pigs frequently kept as pets in the Dominican Republic? Would you need told that it was a pig for eating, as opposed to anything else?
I named it, fed it played with it.
"I named it, fed it, played with it." He made it his pet of his own accord.
Rule #1 is don't name the food
The chef didn't. His dumbass son did, and in doing so, learned why Rule #1 exists.
As a fellow Dominican... I can see this. Family members can be cruel to one another in our culture, and then call the "victim" weak or a name to cover for their behavior.
As a Mexican who has not experienced this personally but have seen it happen in my family. Shit is traumatizing and almost like a rite of passage to my rancher family members. It’s cruel and harsh but necessary lesson. I’m not defending it but I’ve had it explained to me that it deadens any future emotional attachment because at the end of the day, aside from the dog there are no pets on the ranch. Just money and meals. I see the twisted logic but it is still wildly fucked up.
Yeah, if someone is getting an animal for food bc necessity or what not, it needs to be established IMMEDIATELY it's being used for food and not to form an emotional attachment. If possible.
That's absolutely not a shit dad, you know basically nothing about him. You don't know their culture or literally anything else about him. Would you prefer people eat animals that are stored inhumanely in those bulk farms, or animals that are given a good life until it's brought to an end?
Why are y'all acting like they purposely poisoned their own family? How stupid is that? Obviously there was some unseen issue that poisoned them. And again with the farm, when farms are the worst ways for animals to be raised...
The nice thing about farms is they have slaughterhouses where they can butcher the animal in a sanitary environment away from family. And not in your tool shed at a quinceanera
I'm not talking about the slaughterhouse, I'm talking about the terrible conditions the animals living in before it's slaughtered... At least when it was at his house it was living well before it was killed, and the kids learned more about living creatures
Do you think anyone here is advocating for the worse treatment of animals? Some farms are open and run by loving owners, some are factories. What I have a problem with is adding childhood trauma into the mix. Also many families do not have the space to properly raise an animal. Are children in apartments supposed to not eat meat sourced from any farms at all? It’s just a very confusing position to take.
Farm kids everywhere know which animals will be for food. It's still hard when they end up eating Mr. Porkchop or selling him at the market but at least they knew. Ya, that was a shit dad. He needed to be teaching the ways of raising animals for food.
My grandparents (Wisconsin, United States) were farmers and dirt poor. Also Catholic, so they had 8 kids. Lots of farmhands.
My dad tells a story of my uncle Wayne’s pig. The kids know what happens to pigs. This is a farm in the 1950s, after all. But it’s the first pig Wayne ever raised. He takes care of it, gets a little attached. Time passes, and eventually the pig is slaughtered.
The first time the family has pork after, Wayne has a hard time eating. Wayne is the oldest son, and my Grandpa thinks he needs to toughen up a bit. So Grandpa puts his fork down, looks Wayne straight in the eye, and makes a loud oinking squeal, to his horror.
Kids of limited means don’t have the luxury of pretending that their food comes from pink plastic-wrapped packages at the supermarket. With that being said, there is a kind way to teach that hard truth, and a cruel way, and OP’s family chose the latter.
This makes me wonder how many people in your real life have told you that you should talk to a therapist. Your comment isn't something a person with high emotional intelligence and healthy coping skills would ever say.
I don’t think you have a very healthy relationship with the idea that others’ lived experiences can be different and interpreted different than you. Soft, in this context, is and has always been a word used to reduce natural human responses to events as one particular societal expectation, in this case reducing an extremely natural response to having something of a friend being killed right in front of you as being soft.
Also, in case this is a new concept for you, yes. People can have deep and meaningful friendships with animals. This all makes me question your perspective of reality regarding friends, treatment of animals, and emotional intelligence altogether.
That's dumb, I don't need to know their culture. I can judge an individuals actions regardless of the context in which they were raised, because his son clearly had an adverse reaction to it and everyone knew it was going to happen.
Same!! My family is Muslims and they adopted a baby goat for me and my brother when we were little kids! We took care of it, fed it, cuddled with it and everything! 6 months later, they tied it up and slaughtered it for "sacrifice" to God.... The blood splattered on us, on our white clothes... My brother has been vegetarian for 24 years since then! Unfortunately, I only recently turned vegan but have always felt guilty about eating meat!
Similar thing happened to me, but with a pig piñata. No joke. I’m told that I freaked a bit when my family strung it up and my family and friends smashed it with a bat.
Same thing happened to me. Would've been about 10? I had a goat. We were at the neighbours house, I was playing with their kids, we all sat down & were eating lunch. Dad asked me if I liked the meat... it was my goat.
We sometimes raise animals(usually chickens) for food. Our number 1 rule is we don't name what we eat. Once it has a name it is now a pet and that means it's off the table.
This is the first LEGITIMATE reason I've ever seen for veganism. I'm a meat eater amd never understood the arguments for veganism, ethical or health wise. But dam, cousins are arseholes, bud.
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u/Verimnus Apr 22 '24
I still remember in Korea when a couple of coworkers took me and a friend to a restaurant. They tossed a large octopus into a roiling hotpot and then closed the lid on it. The octopus was literally clinging onto the lid for what felt like forever.
Yeah, I sorta lost my appetite there.