From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction →
Now crowdfunding: 100 years later, let’s remember and act.
A documentary on the passenger pigeon—and how we can learn from its extinction? Yes, please! If you have a few dollars spare, toss it that way!
Therioshamanism: Eating, Wearing, and Hugging Animals; Or, Why Omnivores and Taxidermists Have Feelings →
The other day on my Tumblr, I reblogged a set of images featuring “pet animals” on one side and “food animals” on the other, with the statement “Why love one but eat the other?” in the middle. They were from billboards that ran in Toronto a couple of years ago. The message, of course, is that we shouldn’t eat chickens, pigs, and cows because they’re animals just like puppies and kittens are; it’s an attempt to turn people to vegetarianism or veganism.
Care of BeVeg.ca
I don’t think I gave the desired response. For one thing, I have reasons for not going veg*n. I’m an obligate omnivore due to various quirks of my body and its metabolism; I even have it on doctor’s orders that I need a reasonable amount of meat protein because I tend to get sick otherwise, even on a well-balanced vegetarian diet. And I don’t respond well to attempted guilt trips masked as appeals to emotion, especially when they present only one true way for everyone to do something. So I decided to respond with some non-rhetorical reasons why we eat cows and not cats:
Because generally speaking herbivores taste better than carnivores. Also, we’ve spent centuries selectively breeding cows, pigs, and chickens to be meatier and tastier, while we haven’t done that with cats and dogs. And it’s easier to raise herbivores as food behaviorally, especially because we have bred them to be more docile.
And it’s also cultural. There have been and still are cultures in which dog and cat meat is acceptable; it’s just that in Western cultures, where this sort of ad campaign pops up, it’s not acceptable. If you talk to anyone raised on a farm, though, you know that farm kids are raised with the idea that some of the animals end up as food, and that you can be attached to them and care for them and still accept that fact. If they’re from a hunting family they often learn that the same deer they hunt are also beautiful animals that can be admired, and this doesn’t have to be a contradiction. On a farm, you’re closer to life and death than people who shop at the grocery store and have never raised their own meat or gone hunting. I didn’t grow up on a farm itself, but I grew up in a rural area with lots of farms, and with the reality that if I am going to eat, something has to die, whether animal, plant, or fungus.
I have had people ask me before, “How can you say you love animals when you have dead ones all over your home? How can you appreciate them when you support killing and eating them?”
Piebald moose!!!! I’ve seen (pictures of) deer like this before but not a moose!
Sources: [x] [x] [a couple more pictures!]
This isn’t a real spider, rather a decoy spider built from twigs, leaves, debris, dead insects. Researchers discovered the insect in the Peruvian Amazon, and even though its decoy looks like a medium-sized spider, the impressive fake was actually made by a tiny, 5mm spider. That spider is likely, researchers say, a new species of Cyclosa, a genus known to pull similar stunts. But those creations are nothing at this level of detail. The smaller builder-insect even moves back and forth, giving the impression that the decoy insect is moving and, in the process, confusing predators into attacking the decoy instead.
Just another reminder that this is the price paid for many of the hides and bones we have and work with. They are not made in a factory. They are not made from plant fibers or petroleum. They come from living animals like this one, many of whom died like this one. Remember that.
Remember that, and act accordingly. If you choose, as I have, to continue working with the hides and bones—with the sacred remains, as I feel they are—please don’t forget this image. If you choose, buy only those that did not die like this, or if you do, at least be aware of their deaths. If you will, act with reverence when you handle them. If you will, do something to give back to the Land, and to the wildlife.
This is a reminder. Pass it on, please.
prairie falcon with shoveler
(photos by ron dudley)
I apologize in advance for the earworm, but the second pic needs to be accompanied by “We Are the Champions”.
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