My last post about PETA got me thinking about meat. For those of you who know me and know my dietary habits you know that it doesn't take much to get me thinking about meat, but that is beside the point. I started thinking about meat and about how much a PETA member would hate me if they ever met me. Keep in mind that I have never met a member of PETA or taken much time to even really understand what they believe. Basically I don’t really care because what I have seen of what they believe is crap. So I’m not going to waste my time studying any more. I think my basic problem with PETA is that I believe that animals like cows were put on the earth so that I could eat them and they believe that cows have feelings and should be protected with more fervency than we would protect the life of a human child.
[Pause for random tangent]
[The following paragraph is going to be a random tangent. If you are easily distracted and cannot continue your train of thought while pausing for random thoughts please skip this paragraph.] For some reason I have this idea that at some time in the history of the world all animals were "wild" as opposed to "domesticated" or the like. Modern day cows wouldn't necessarily be considered “domesticated” but they definitely aren’t “wild” animals. Working off my assumption that all animals were at some point wild it would follow that at some point cows were wild. I don’t know if it is just me, but I have a hard time imagining this. Anyone that has seen cows first hand knows that they are about the slowest and dumbest of all animals. I can’t imagine how they survived before someone put them out in a field and put a fence around them. I just have a hard time seeing a herd of cows roaming the prairies and fighting off a pack of wolves. Are there any wild cows still out there? Maybe someone can help me here.
[Back to where we left off]
I just get sick of people who put the “feelings” of plants and animals above the well-being of humans. Where the crap do they even get the idea that plants have feelings and even if they do why do I care what a plant or animal feels or how I treat it beyond the concepts of stewardship and the like. I'm not going to go into my rant about the stupidity of chaining yourself to a tree so that it won't get cut down but not caring at all when millions of children are dying of hunger in Africa not to mention the horrors of abortion in this country. I'll just say, "GET A PASSION THAT MATTERS!"
I guess I just get angry at anyone who would try and deny me a good burger. To quote Nick Smith, “I like animals, they taste great.”
Man Ben, I was just thinking about the whole domestication of animals thing the other day. But before I get into that, I've gotta say one thing:
Heh. I've got some meat for ya right here. Heh.
But back to the issue at hand (pun intended), I was wondering, everybody calls cows "domesticated animals," but what the heck does that mean? Can they survive without human oversight? What constitutes and animal being domesticated, like a dog.
I mean, we all think the common dog came from wolves or dingos or coyotees or something, and that their "domestication" involved not attack people when in captivity, that this trait was slowly breed into them.
But what about cows? What's the non-domesticated version of a cow? Is it a water-buffalo, or just your plain, uh, dirt-buffalo or something? Where did these big dumb things come from, and why, oh why, do they taste so good with a side of mashed potatoes and a glass of red? (or a beer for you "think your edgy" Reformed folks out there).
Is it trainability that makes an animal domestic? If you breed them right for long enough, you can start teaching them things like crapping in a certain area, and bringing you your slippers in the morning; and this fact makes them domestic?
If this is the case, why aren't we trying to breed MORE animals. Let heck, I've always thought Chimp Humor is some of the greatest humor. I'd LOVE my own chimp. Why can't we domesticate those things? Instead we teach them sign language, which is OH so usefull.
I'd like to see something like the Iditerod (sp?) race with Chimps, now that would be cool.
Posted by: at August 1, 2003 12:23 PMDomestication = common house cat. These things couldn't survive in the wild for two minutes. The key is that wild-survival skills are taught by parents. If a cat doesn't grow up under wild parents, it will never learn those survival skills.
That's why house pets are so worthless.
Posted by: at August 1, 2003 02:14 PMAmong the living creatures created on the sixth day, cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth are mentioned. While the term "cattle" is vague (it may or may not refer to domesticated animals), many translations have opted for a more precise term- "livestock," a few even going so far as to read "tame animals." The choice between terms seems to be determined on whether the translators believe that Moses was using one term to explain another (Calvin opts for this after rejecting the idea that "cattle" refers to grazing animals while "beasts of the earth" refers to meat-eating animals) or that he intended to make a distinction between the terms. If the last option is the case, then "livestock" would appear to be a legitimate translation. In other words, many animal species were created pre-domesticated and with the intent of human oversight and consumption.
Posted by: at August 1, 2003 02:17 PMWater buffalo are actually really dangerous...
Posted by: at August 4, 2003 12:38 PMLet's try to breed "domesticated" people first.
PETA=people eating tasty animals.
Beware of anyone that feels that strongly about anything.
Posted by: at August 25, 2003 01:23 PMShould I feel strongly about that opinion? Enough to make it a part of how I judge things? =)
Posted by: at August 25, 2003 02:29 PM