My tweets

[sacramentalist]

• Tue, 19:13: To people crying over a lion: Yes, it's sad. How many pigs, chickens and cows have you eaten this year? Rein it in with a little perspective

Comments

[sabotabby]

Zero. And no fish or other sea creatures either. I may have eaten some bugs, but I assume they consented if they flew into my food.

This said, while there are lots of good reasons to not eat animals, none of those are endangered.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Oh crap. I forgot I had my tweet poster on.

FWIW, I've been told off repeatedly on Facebook. Yes, it's inhumane, and this caused the death of more endangered animals than one. Yes, he's a cowardly jerk (apparently with a small penis). No, I'm not making fun of you. You're entitled to your feelings. No, I'm not being dismissive or sarcastic, I'm just being brief.

I'm not even a vegetarian, and I wish I was more comfortable with my dialectics. I'm not so clear on it not being the same thing. I'm actually jealous people can do this. I just do wrong and feel a constant twinge of guilt. How many bred-to-the-slaughter chickens are worth a rare lion? A million?

This is a perfect storm. You have a privileged North American white guy.. a dentist, even, breaking International laws and torturing and killing Mufasa,

African parks need to give all their animals Western names so this outrage exists every time an extant species is poached to extinction.

[sabotabby]

African parks need to give all their animals Western names so this outrage exists every time an extant species is poached to extinction.

Hey, it works.

I think we can only have so much empathy as a species. It's easier to identify with something unique and something cute. FWIW, I don't think there's an inherent immorality to eating meat, though I don't think there's really any good philosophical argument in favour of it, either. So I don't. I sometimes make a yearly exception to the rule (usually for the_axel's pig roast, where the animal is free range and raised in a sustainable way, but those exceptions are getting rarer and rarer the more I think about it.

But I think there's a moral difference in eating, say, an oyster, which has no higher brain functions and is environmentally sustainable to raise, and sport-hunting a sentient animal from a species of which there's a very finite number. You can probably never eat as many oysters as it would take to make an impact on the biosphere, whereas a handful of people—probably even one person—are capable of actually causing the extinction of all the rhinos in the world.

Regular livestock are somewhere along that continuum. Chickens will never be extinct, but factory farming is devastating and world-altering. That's the main reason, not animal cruelty, that I don't touch the stuff.

I feel guilty about almond milk, though, given the drought. You can't avoid participating in all horrors, but you can avoid the worst easily enough.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Domestication is extinctive (I don't know if that's a word, but I'll use it). The source cows and chickens are long gone. That's the drawback of monoculture.

Extinctions happen every day. Very sad.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're in luck! Turns out there aren't many almonds in almond milk.

http://www.refinery29.com/2015/07/91466/almond-milk-lawsuit#.wirpux:BwEc

[sabotabby]

Awesome! Because I make a really great horchata cocktail.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Such a can of worms. I have a client who goes on hunts exactly like that. Has a polar bear, a grizzly, an elephant, a lion, a cheetah, etc., etc., etc. all mounted in his home. The whole feel about it is just gross. I love a steak, but I don't mount the cow's head on my wall, either.

Yeah, I'm not getting into it. I'm not NEARLY as upset as a lot of people. My general reaction is: Oh look, that guy's a huge douchebag. I have trouble quantifying what I find so distasteful, but I don't like trophy mounted fishes/deer either (and find people posing with them to be gross), and I have no problem with killing (other people) or eating (me) them. It defies the Scandinavian call to humbleness. It's just so...arrogant and pointless, the trophy hunting.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

How dare you eat worms! Nematodes deserve to be loved, too! Well, after you name them and put little collars on them.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Like Charlie the Tuna, they WANT to be eaten. It's their little thanatos drive.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Thanatos Drive? I love that! I've never heard that expression.

Do you watch BoJack Horseman? It's got a world where the people and animal-people live together. There are no pets, but there are little scenes, like a cow waitress serving food with disdain "here's your steak" and the customer is all "I'm sorry..."

They did a whole episode on eating meat. There's a chicken farm that raises chickens, but also run by chickens. The difference? Some are people and some are genetically modified for maximum eatin'. It's unsettling but also very very funny.

[pork_chop]

if he was hunting lions for survival/food, it would be a different story. though it would still suck because they're endangered in the wild.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Apparently they aren't edible, on account of being apex predator full of toxins. But not Paid Commercial toxins, but real ones.

[clevortrevor]

I agree that every life wrongfully or cruelly taken is a tragedy. I hope some global change comes from this very well-placed, if singular, outrage.

If there's one message I've taken away from all the press on this issue, it's that dentists clearly make too much money.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I acknowledge people don't want to be told something is wrong with their feelings.

$54k? At the going rates for a unit of work, that's probably a week of checkups and cleanings.
Though business will probably drop down if people check his Yelp reviews.

[bronnyelsp.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking all day "Why does it matter he has a name and a collar? Don't kill the fucking lions!"

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Hunting in general is gross. Not for food is grosser. Even an asshole like Ted Nugent eats his kills. Not that a lion is edible... so don't kill them!

The fact he is referred to as "Beloved lion, Cecil" leads me to think the media is manipulating everyone. Nobody cares about a black woman dying in Police custody. They can be safely outraged by this far-away problem while being judgement of their neighbour.

[immemor.livejournal.com]

On fb I wanted to write, "Local dentist eats Cecil the chicken; no one gives a fuck." But I was kind to my fb friends today, don't know why. Still, from my understanding they did a shitty thing. But most of us are living in a glass house where this is concerned.