(no subject)

[iceinyourmusic]

hi! hello! question! vegetarianism/veganism & pet ownership: how do they mesh?

eta: and, okay! before anyone actually tells me that pets aren't for eating, let me clarify that i'm mostly wondering about the issue of feeding your carnivorous-type pet animal. if it is an issue?

Comments

[gatefiction.livejournal.com]

people keep saying cats need something in the meat (taurin? something) or they'll die. so, not so much an issue for a cat-owned.

however huuuuuuuuuge topic at work right now is if the vegetarians should decide for their (human) children. like, can they have meat at day care? KINDA annoying when the meat eaters are telling everyone about what children should eat. OH BUT AT LEAST THERE IS HARRY POTTER WEEKEND TO LOOK FORWARD TOO!!!!

[leksa.livejournal.com]

cats need something in the meat (taurin? something) or they'll die

uh, yeah, whence sort of my question - i mean, obviously, if you have a meat-eating pet & then decide to go vegan, you're not going to kick the pet out on the street and/or starve it to death, but i can't see how it wouldn't be an issue (in the ethical sense) you'd at least have to consider especially if things went the other way around. that is, if you're choosing not to consume meat and/or all animal-based products for some ethical reason or another, then wouldn't choosing to take on an inevitably meat-eating pet present a... conundrum? or something? and i'm wondering whether there's some way, i don't know, around it? or something?

on the other thing, though, dude, my question is - what is with the meat-eaters' assumption that vegetarians/vegans just don't know what sort of nutrition a human being needs? obviously, not all (and not even most!) meat-eaters are like that, but, seriously, the (occasional) ones that are, gaah. ... or maybe i'm just itchy.

[gatefiction.livejournal.com]

what if the vegan takes a couple of street cats, maybe that equals the meat-eating bits? i didn't stop eating meat for ethical reasons, so i should just shut up anyway. except to say how muh i love my rescue cats AND YOU OF COURSE AGREE AS THEY ARE THE BEST!CATS EVAH.

as for the other thing, YES INDEED - people on a diet of some kind are generally aware of nutrition! i don't think anyone who eats at mcdonald's has the right to tell ME what to feed my kid with. FOR REALS.

[leksa.livejournal.com]

THEY ARE THE BEST!CATS EVAH.

THEY ARE THE WINNING CATS! yes. um. - i would guess, vaguely, that the specific reasons for one's veganism/vegetarianism (within the mighty wide spectrum of "ethical", that is) have to make some difference here - also wrt: the rescue cat matter. and, really - i do know folks who are very much animal-rights type vegans & have cats & are obviously not the sort of people who wouldn't think something like this through, so it must work out in some smart way - i'm just curious.

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

Speaking of kids, aren't you supposed to be having babies or something? When do I get a step-child?

[gatefiction.livejournal.com]

Keep your fingers crossed around September, will ya? :-)

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

I will keep my LEGS crossed (for once).

Also, if you have a baby, I am totally coming to check it out. I want to see Sweden in the summer.

[leksa.livejournal.com]

ALSO I HIT [POST] TOO SOON BUT LET'S NEVER FIND OUT WHAT I MEANT TO SAY.

[mandysbitch.livejournal.com]

I know my cat would eat me if she had the chance. I say I should be allowed to eat her first.

but seriously (folks), I ponder long and hard (dirty!) about my cat and making decisions for my cat. For example, I take my cat to the vet yearly to give her injections against a whole bunch of diseases including feline flu and AIDS and to get an annual check-up. She hates this, of course, and given that she doesn't know it's for her own good, she can't possibly see it as anything but torture. Is it kinder to do this to her every year (for her own good) or to let her die from a disease? You have to ask, what right do you have to make this decision? When we talk about animal rights, what rights can an animal have if they can't assert them? Is a rights discourse even suitable here?

The animal rights issue is a fantastic philosophical debate. I mean, ask a vegetarian/ vegan how they feel about abortion, for instance.

I feel like I've been cut loose from truth based discourses - due to a steady diet of post-structural and post-modern theory - but it makes me wonder how I can do anything, believe anything let alone something so discursively fraught as animal rights and veganism. Yet Foucault went on civil rights marches - what do you suppose it all means?

Which is to say, I feed my cat meat. I don't have a philosophy behind it - except she's damned fussy and attempts to feed her rice, cheese and pumpkin (apparently, cats are supposed to like pumpkin) have been unsuccessful.