PETA documentary last night

[diebitter]

fruit bat.

tastes a bit like chicken.


And for the squeamish, snails, heart, liver, sweetmeats and blood pudding too. Hey, I'm English, anything to break up the monotony of boiled pizzas.

[MC Chris]

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When we were in Savannah, she told me, in the most unequivocal terms, that the world would be an infinitely better place without humans in it at all.

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i dunno, i kind of agree with this point. that doesn't make me insane and i'm certainly not a fan of PETA.

[dylan's alias]

Spinal cord is probably the strangest thing I've eaten, it was just chewy and fatty.

All of the following were also on the menu at the kebab place I used to go to in Tel Aviv when drunk at 3AM:

Hearts - very tasty
Lamb's fat - tastes just like it sounds - chunk of grilled fat
Tonsils - Too drunk to remember clearly, also fatty.
Testicles - never available
Udder - never available

I also had fried sheep brains once, it looked like cauliflower and was mushy.

[Fishwhenican]

Fresh raw liver pulled from an elk. Not bad but not really something I would go out of my way for. The liver part was fine but the veiney part was too chewy. I was going to do this with the last elk I got but I forgot. I have tried the raw deer liver and it was not nearly as eatable as the elk liver was.

I have also had fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters (Calf Testicles). We cooked them up once at a branding I was at. Fresh off the calf and put in a frying pan with Crisco. Cook until they start to swell up then pop the membrane with a knife and they explode kind of like Popcorn. Salt them up and eat discarding the membrane as it is really chewy.

There is nothing in this world that would make me want to eat brains! Just couldn't do it!!!!

[Blarg]

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Perhpas it is the human capacity for murderous judgment that should be held up for scrutiny, rather than how that judgment manifests itself.

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While I think you and I agree that we all have our dark sides, for the most part society trains us to keep them in check. The examples you use are the extreme fringes that act outside of societal norms.



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A large part of our society brings them into the norm through tacit approval of their methods. An abortion doctor gets shot, even at dinner in front of his family, or his receptionist gets blown up, her children stalked, or some poor woman gets screamed at, lunged at, and followed home, and it's, "Well, you know, those things will happen ..." As if it were falling rain, or a child burping at the dinner table. When was the last time you saw a child molester's actions given a shrug and a "Well, these things will happen ..."

These things will happen because our tacit approval shelters and emboldens the people who make them happen, and their supporters. If a thug or murderer is "on our side," the rules suddenly get changed. And then we pretend we play no part in things that happen largely because of us.

[Blarg]

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Fresh raw liver pulled from an elk. Not bad but not really something I would go out of my way for. The liver part was fine but the veiney part was too chewy. I was going to do this with the last elk I got but I forgot. I have tried the raw deer liver and it was not nearly as eatable as the elk liver was.

I have also had fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters (Calf Testicles). We cooked them up once at a branding I was at. Fresh off the calf and put in a frying pan with Crisco. Cook until they start to swell up then pop the membrane with a knife and they explode kind of like Popcorn. Salt them up and eat discarding the membrane as it is really chewy.

There is nothing in this world that would make me want to eat brains! Just couldn't do it!!!!

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We'll see what happens after the inevitable zombie triumph.

[Fishwhenican]

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Fresh raw liver pulled from an elk. Not bad but not really something I would go out of my way for. The liver part was fine but the veiney part was too chewy. I was going to do this with the last elk I got but I forgot. I have tried the raw deer liver and it was not nearly as eatable as the elk liver was.

I have also had fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters (Calf Testicles). We cooked them up once at a branding I was at. Fresh off the calf and put in a frying pan with Crisco. Cook until they start to swell up then pop the membrane with a knife and they explode kind of like Popcorn. Salt them up and eat discarding the membrane as it is really chewy.

There is nothing in this world that would make me want to eat brains! Just couldn't do it!!!!

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We'll see what happens after the inevitable zombie triumph.

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LOL!

[Rick Nebiolo]

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I wouldn't have to think about it. In the situation you describe where I instinctively stretch my arms out to save a life, I wouldn't even see the human being.

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From my example it seemed pretty clear that the choice was between the pet you love and an unknown stranger. I thought it was obvious in the example you saw them both fall in so you would "see the human being".

Hmmm, I wonder if Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and/or your Dad would answer the question the same way?


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Part of this answer comes from personal experience regarding my dog and the attachment I feel to her. She was attacked by a large pitbull mix last year. I consider myself a real pussy. I've never been in a real fight, but my instinct was to jump on top of the pit and put my fingers in it's mouth. Pure instinct.

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Sorry about your dog and the pitbull (and perhaps your fingers not knowing the outcome) but this isn't related to my original question.


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But maybe this isn't an act of love for a life force. How would I react if someone tried to steal my car? Maybe I would be stupid enough to put my fingers in their mouth. Instinct. I would say such an act is unthinkable, but I would have said the same thing regarding my dog if you asked me before that incident.

Getting back to this whole PETA thing...

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My question in the earlier post directly relates to the "PETA thing". Essentially it is in asking is a single human life more sacred and/or important than a single animal's life, even when you have an attachment to the particular animal and the human is a stranger? In the example you are in position to chose to save one life but not the other. You have to chose. But it's a lot easier than Sophie's Choice.


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How many of us consumers wouldn't be willing to pay just a little bit more for a pound of animal flesh if we could be certain the animal wasn't "tortured" in that short period of time it had while waiting for us to eat it? And, sure, "torture" means different things to different people. But, by your definition, would you pay 50 cents more per pound to avoid the "torture" of the animal you eat? I'm pretty sure the loungers would. Not so sure about the golfers.

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Some loungers (e.g., my friend John Cole) golf so perhaps you should have said "country club, frat guy types". Kidding aside I don't have a problem with people using improved and more humane techniques in breeding animals for food and so on.

But I could never take PETA's extreme position. After all, if we didn't butcher cattle surely predators would without our protection (e.g. fences in grazing areas).

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

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When our dog, dhar, was attacked by the pit, I was incapacitated. Mat dove under my jeep coming back up with the pit by the back of the neck and our dog at her throat. This image haunts me.

Mat’s complete disregard for his own safety to save the life of our dog was driven by an adrenalin rush of super human strength to save her life. Dhar’s own self defense mechanisms kicked in and she sacrificed a front tooth in the brawl.

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Wrote my second post in the thread without noting that this was directly related to Matt's response to my question.

Glad to see that Matt and your dog are OK. Matt did the right thing.

But the question I asked Matt still remains unanswered.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

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I save my dog first if the drowning person is one of the PETA Wackjobs. After that for most people I do not hesitate to save the human being, unless I know they are child molestors or something of that sort. In that case I make sure to push them under and do everything I can to make sure my dog lives and they die.

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IMO your answer is moral but the conditions of the question specified you don't know anything about the person.


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As far as animals that are "tortured" for food goes, Most animals that are raised for food or milk or whatever are treated pretty darn well. I am actually convinced that cows would be extinct if it wasn't for humans.

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Add on toy poodles and so on and your point would be perfect.

~ Rick