Different cultures approach this in different ways, Gavin. Not so long ago many UK households would be able to kill, skin and butcher animals such as rabbits for the pot. Even the family pig. Today many of us would be squeamish about that. As a 6th former I had to kill and skin my own rabbit for dissection. And we pithed our own frogs for dissection. I killed my first steer in an abattoir near Linton not far from you and since then have lost count of beasts I have killed and eaten, hopefully calmly and kindly. ["Who are we eating today?"] But for most people these days that would be bizarre and unacceptable, except possibly with game or fish. But that is how it was.
We also find that in many parts of the world people integrate "farm" animals in the home - quite frequently they live alongside humans - which is where the interaction and mutation of potentially pathogenic viruses takes place. Animals live in the family space - but when the time comes to sell or eat them - then practicalities, sometime brutal-seeming practicalities, take over. Tough stuff still goes on in the UK, but out of sight, and we pick up packages of neutral-looking meat products, ignoring the realities of animal production, transport, slaughter and butchery.
So the question is who has got the greater tendency for cruelty, those who can face the tasks or those who choose to ignore reality and let someone else do the job, hopefully humanely? I take the view that if I am going to eat something I ought, at least, know what is involved.
R.
Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons