Vegetarians Piss Me Off
Apr. 21st, 2009 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perzephone
I hear about this every once in awhile. I've also seen things on t.v. & in person, too.
I honestly have very few feelings one way or the other about dietary preferences. Much like sexual orientation, to each their own. If you want to eat veggies, eat veggies. If you want to eat meat, eat meat. Personally, I think that choosing a diet in the name of politics or activism is stupid because eating should be something you do for your body, not for your ideals - but if you want your politics to dictate your diet, so be it.
With all that said, the thing that pisses me off about a lot of vegetarians and vegans I've encountered is that they are like missionary Christians. They want to push their politics onto other people - and in some cases, their pets. Moonvoice has heard wind of a vegetarian who has a sick ferret & a vet has suggested feeding it meat - but the vegetarian prefers to force their own dietary preference on their pet.
In the wild, most of a ferret's energy is consumed by actively seeking other living things to eat, and most members of the Mustelidae (the largest family within the Carnivora order) family are efficient and fearsome hunters - like wolverines and badgers. Yes, they can be opportunistic scavengers and they will eat berries and plants - but it is not a steady, primary diet. Ferrets eat meat. They are carnivores as nature intended them to be. Their bodies and digestive systems are designed to eat meat, their teeth and claws are sharp for tearing flesh. They don't have politics or morals or ethics - they have prey-drive and instincts.
When an animal becomes a pet it places a sacred trust in its owner to provide it care and shelter. House pets are especially vulnerable because in general they cannot survive on their own in the environment in which they live. To let an animal suffer from malnutrition because your politics and morals interfere with your ability to act humanely is absolutely appalling.
It's taken awhile for me to cool off enough to put my thoughts into digital form... and all I can really say is that out there is a God or Goddess Who loves ferrets - and hopefully He or She or It was paying attention.
I honestly have very few feelings one way or the other about dietary preferences. Much like sexual orientation, to each their own. If you want to eat veggies, eat veggies. If you want to eat meat, eat meat. Personally, I think that choosing a diet in the name of politics or activism is stupid because eating should be something you do for your body, not for your ideals - but if you want your politics to dictate your diet, so be it.
With all that said, the thing that pisses me off about a lot of vegetarians and vegans I've encountered is that they are like missionary Christians. They want to push their politics onto other people - and in some cases, their pets. Moonvoice has heard wind of a vegetarian who has a sick ferret & a vet has suggested feeding it meat - but the vegetarian prefers to force their own dietary preference on their pet.
In the wild, most of a ferret's energy is consumed by actively seeking other living things to eat, and most members of the Mustelidae (the largest family within the Carnivora order) family are efficient and fearsome hunters - like wolverines and badgers. Yes, they can be opportunistic scavengers and they will eat berries and plants - but it is not a steady, primary diet. Ferrets eat meat. They are carnivores as nature intended them to be. Their bodies and digestive systems are designed to eat meat, their teeth and claws are sharp for tearing flesh. They don't have politics or morals or ethics - they have prey-drive and instincts.
When an animal becomes a pet it places a sacred trust in its owner to provide it care and shelter. House pets are especially vulnerable because in general they cannot survive on their own in the environment in which they live. To let an animal suffer from malnutrition because your politics and morals interfere with your ability to act humanely is absolutely appalling.
It's taken awhile for me to cool off enough to put my thoughts into digital form... and all I can really say is that out there is a God or Goddess Who loves ferrets - and hopefully He or She or It was paying attention.
