It's all in what you get used to. I was raised on a South Dakota
diversified farm in the 50's. As a very young child I can remember
assisting (as did my cousins and other farm kids) in the "processing" of
numerous chickens, ducks, geese, and hogs. It didn't bother me and
seemed quite a natural process. One might say I was integrated into the
food production chain. My daughter is 5 years old and is aware of where
meat comes from. She matter of factly asked me the other day, does this
ham come from the pigs leg? I told her where it came from and she
happly ate her ham sandwich.
(Would that all of our children were as responsive to the pain of their
fellow human beings as they are to some furry creature's demise.) I try
to protect my daughter from it but, my own take on kids and meat eating in
general is, children today are exposed to so much gore and violence
on tv, in music, in school, and movies that beheading a chicken isn't
going to bother them much if they see the process up close. At a recent
family reunion, the little kids there were exposed to cleaning fish by an
older cousin. They were all fascinated and all got into the process.
My daughter has been bugging me since to go fishing.
With all that said, I must admit I have qualms about meat eating today,
although I have not given it up. What bothers me about today's livestock
and meat, but the diseases (e-coli, etc.,) that result from today's
processing, production, retailing, and handling.
Jim Novak
On Fri, 8 Sep 1995, Bill Leland - Executive Director wrote:
> My now 13 year-old son and 16 year-old daughter have been vegetarians all
> their lives. When my daughter was 8 or 9 and at a birthday party with a
> friend, the friend asked her if she wouldn't really like to try, just once,
> a hot dog. My daughter quite spontaneously responded surprised and startled
> "what! eat an animal!" -- an idea quite difficult for her to imagine for
> her (of course, she knows that others do so).
>
> Kert -- I would be interested in what you compile. I will be back on this
> list in a couple of weeks.
> Cheers, Bill
>
>
>