Comments on: Faces of My Comfort Food

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:07:21 +0000

We are all sentient beings. Isn’t that reason enough not to eat an animal?

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:08:31 +0000

I know what you mean about how weird it is to buy meat. But to me, it’s important to have a connection to the animals I am feeding to my animals. I realize I am making a conscious decision to trade one life for another. My cats are obligate carnivores. They don’t have the choice that I do of whether to eat meat or not.

If I let them outside, they could hunt and kill their own food, and I wouldn’t have to be involved. But that’s another decision I make. We keep them inside so they don’t destroy birds. Pets have an unfair advantage in urban environments. Pets and farm animals are all a part of human’s impact on the planet.

That said, I am a total hypocrite because Michael actually buys the meat and cooks the food so I don’t have to. :-)

By: sui

sui — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:51:41 +0000

Oh cool, thanks! I went to a natural pet store and got some natural raw food (frozen) but they’re all packaged in plastic, grr, so I don’t think I’m going to continue (I’ll probably just get the occasional stuff from the butcher as a treat for her). The main cat food we give her to eat is Prowl from The Honest Kitchen, a local San Diego brand that is gluten-free and processed in an FDA-inspected facility (most commercial pet foods aren’t! blech!). Their boxes are made of recycled cardboard but they do have a plastic bag inside to hold the powder… rawr. We would make our own except I think it’d take a lot of time and as non-meateaters it’s kind of weird for us to buy meat unless we go to local grass-fed specialty butchers. Bleh!

/rant

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:26:57 +0000

Sui, here’s our recipe for homemade cat food: http://fakeplasticfish.com/2008/10/less-impact-cats-eat-homemade-food/

By: sui

sui — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:15:26 +0000

Hear, hear! I haven’t read Eating Animals yet but the book that pushed me towards being (now) a vegan was Fast Food Nation. Learning how the meat industry affects EVERYTHING, it’s hard to keep on going.

I do wonder how one can call himself an animal lover who eats animals. I became a vegan for environmental reasons, but everything the meat industry affects is important to me as well.

By the way… what do you feed your pets? :) I just adopted a cat a few days ago and am feeding her raw meat. :D

By: ClizBiz

ClizBiz — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:14:08 +0000

Oh, Beth! I love this post! And the photos – oh, I miss all our new animal friends already. (Harrison and Melvin especially.)

After our wonderful time hanging out in the turkey pen, I’m going to have a weird Thanksgiving. Although I stay on the vegetarian menu most of the time, sometimes I fall off the wagon. It is rarely worth it and those so-called ‘comfort foods’ provide less and less comfort as the years go by.

I’m so happy we were able to experience the Farm Sanctuary together. Looking forward to our Celebrity Party! ;-)

By: Danielle

Danielle — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:24:10 +0000

Beth you know that I’m with you all the way on this… while it wasn’t a book that changed my perspective… instead a whole series of events that finally pushed me to recognize what I’ve known all along… eating animals just doesn’t feel right (even when it tastes so good). Having backyard chickens… them becoming part of our family… has been one of those things that is a constant reminder why I choose not to eat meat… they are so sweet… and smart. They come when we call them, know when we have food (they follow us around like dogs), know our schedule (we have a rooster that doesn’t make a sound until he hears the dogs food hit the bowl)… I love our chickens and am sad that so many don’t have the lives our chickens have…

Because of your recommendation, I’m in the process of reading “Eating Animals” now… my husband said, “why do you want to read that?? we don’t eat animals.” And then I read him the paragraph about Thanksgiving… last year, even after I made the announcement that I was no longer going to eat meat… I bought a turkey to appease others. This year, we will not be having a dead animal in the center of our table… AND… that paragraph made me feel at ease with my/our decision.

Comfort food doesn’t have faces anymore… and it feels so good. :)

By: Clif

Clif — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 23:16:12 +0000

I've been reading Rousseau's Emile his account of how a person should be brought up. He has a few pages devoted to meat-eating and why it's something we should not do. It starts with this sentence: "The indifference of children towards meat is one proof that the taste for meat is un-natural..." after which he attacks meat eating with several arguments. You might find it interesting. It can be found on page 165 at Google Books and remember this guy was writing in the 1700's!

By: autumn

autumn — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:25:53 +0000

omg, i LOVE that turkey with the grass hanging out one side of her beak and snood over the other side! and then all that wattle.

By: Kathy Stevens

Kathy Stevens — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:20:45 +0000

Beth:

Thanks for the post, the photos, the transformation! One of the points I try to make to visitors at Catskill Animal Sanctuary is that in ways that matter, we’re all the same. It seems like you experienced a little of that on your recent visit to Farm Sanctuary.