Are Brits Heading Towards Vegetarianism?

Butchers shop about 1900.

A recent news story indicates that the British have become more intolerant to the sight of meat for sale, which further indicates that there is a gentle shift towards vegetarianism and a greater sensitivity towards animals. Or are Brits simply becoming more intolerant of the real world and want to live in a sanitized, artificial world?

In the past, people were familiar with seeing dead and carved up animals hanging in butcher shop windows.

Sometimes partridge, pheasant and rabbit were hung in rows. The sight of butchered carcasses now offends the eye of many Brits. That is what is seems like and I can fully understand because when I see a butchers shop window I see dead animals not “meat” for consumption.

And so it is with JBS Butchers in Sudbury, Suffolk. In the past people would admire their window display of “dead animals” hanging on hooks.

Then suddenly it became unacceptable. Their window display turned the stomachs of residents. One resident wrote to the local newspaper, Suffolk Free Press complaining that the display was “disgusting”. Another resident was afraid her 12-year-old daughter would be upset by the sight of butchered bodies of animals and so avoided the shopping percent all together.

JBS Butchers fearing that their presence would cause a downturn in trade for the other shops nearby radically changed their display. They have joined the ranks of the butcher shops displaying sanitised cling-film wrapped “meat”.

Brits no longer accept the sight of animals butchered for their consumption. Are Brits becoming more animal rights aware? Is this a good thing for cat welfare in the long term? It probably is.

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Comments

Are Brits Heading Towards Vegetarianism? — 9 Comments

Dee (Florida) on February 26, 2014 at 8:33 pm said:
Since I’m doing more cooking for my cats to give them a better diet (thank you, Rudolph), I’ve found that it’s pretty nauseating at times. Now, boiling chicken or slightly broiling beef is stinky business. How I’ve changed over the years! That stuff used to smell good to me when I was growing up.
Truthfully, I think most of the civilized world is moving toward a healthier diet. Meat may never be eliminated but lean meat is popular. It doesn’t make it better in my eyes, but healthwise, it’s better.
I’m always asked if I feel that I am deficient in protein. No, I’m not. A tablespoon of good peanut butter is higher in protein than an 8 ounce steak.
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kylee on February 26, 2014 at 5:33 pm said:
one thing ive noticed with my furbabies if they dont get meat or if ive run out of meat. They are not their happy selves and i get into aLot of trouble. Thats when live animals come for a visit i.e rats,mice,birds. So i want to give them as much meat as possible as i know they love it.
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Barbara on February 26, 2014 at 4:11 pm said:
Apparently some primary school kids don’t even associate meat with animals, they have no idea that bacon is pig and beef burger is cow, this is because as has been said meat is now anonymously wrapped in cling film for the supermarket chill cabinet or hewn into unrecognisable chunks for the butchers shop on the high street. But disguise it all you want the stink of dead and decomposing flesh is still there, I avoid going near the raw meat bit of the supermarket and keep my eyes averted and don’t breathe when passing the butchers as it turns my stomach now to smell (or worse see and smell) meat. But cats need meat, dogs need meat, that is how they are made and they should have what they need, I don’t agree with people who force their own diet choices onto their animals, or onto other people for that matter.
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Ruth aka Kattaddorra on February 26, 2014 at 7:12 am said:
I think it’s a pity really that people only see dead flesh neatly parcelled nowadays, they can pretend it was never a living breathing feeling being, just like them.
Take a piece of dead human flesh and wrap it up and put it with the animal flesh, who could tell the difference, we are made of meat too!
So it offends some people seeing dead animals hanging there, but they don’t stop eating them, no they complain about the sight of them.
But I do think more people are turning veggie, we have noticed more around the veggie section of the supermarkets and in cafes etc. Like in the cat food aisle cat lovers talk about their cats, veggies tend to have conversations about Quorn and what tastes good.
Not long after going veggie and wondering if we could keep it up, Babz and I were walking along by the shops and a big van pulled up, the doors slid open to expose rows of pigs hanging upside down, to be carried into the back of a butcher’s shop, a very gruesome sight, we knew we would never eat the flesh of any dead animal, bird, or fish again.
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- Marc on February 26, 2014 at 8:58 am said:
  I agree Ruth – people need to see what they are eating for what it really is so they know what they are responsible for directly.
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kylee on February 26, 2014 at 4:31 am said:
i dont think cats can be converted to vegies. As they aare carnivores. Ie Meat eaters. I cant comment as not British. But I guess those pictures of early life were abit disturbing. Over in Nzl alot of Meat is produced in used being a country where diary is produced lamb etc, and Milk
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- Ruth aka Kattaddorra on February 26, 2014 at 10:16 am said:
  You are right Kylee, cats need meat, we would never deprive our cats of it, we have a choice whether to be veggie or not and we don’t need meat to survive, but they do.
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  - Michael Broad on February 26, 2014 at 10:59 am said:
    I agree with you. If a child is raised with the idea of a vegetarian diet being good I can see more and more people adopting it. There are a lot of environmental benefits and huge animal welfare benefits. I feel the leading nations on animal welfare are drifting away from red meat and eventually some will become vegetarians.
    I think this story is quite significant.
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Rudolph.A.Furtado on February 26, 2014 at 1:30 am said:
Michael, “VEGETARIANISM” has its origins in India as the majority of the population are mostly Vegetarians.In the 21st century “VEGETARIANISM” seems to have become a ” “HIGH SOCIETY” discussion and fad.Sadly we humans forget that the World was created for both, “VEGETARIANS” and “CARNIVORES” to exist simultaneously with the natural forces of nature.The purest form of unpolluted “NATURE” is in the form of animals that inhibit this planet.Can your domestic “CAT” ever be converted to “VEGETARIANISM” ? Can the mighty “ELEPHANT” be converted to become a “CARNIVORE” ? Nature has created these animals to be different and exist on this Planet. We humans are top of the “FOOD CHAIN” on Planet Earth and some of us have become vegetarians while others are carnivores.If the entire human and animal population on Planet Earth suddenly become “VEGETARIANS” then there would be a “FAMINE” as all vegetable products and plants would be overgrazed and eaten beyond sustainable levels.Similarly if all humans and animals became “CARNIVORES” then also there would be”STARVATION” as each species would eventually make the other species extinct over a time frame.The World was created for both Carnivores and Herbivores to exist and maintain the delicate balance of nature.I hope my debate would convince a lawyer on the matter !
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