Vegetarians are despised by a section of society. A certain sort of person dislikes cat lovers. Does the same section of society, or a part of it, dislike both in equal measure? You’ll also find that a section of cat lovers are also vegetarians. They love animals too much to eat them. Vegetarians can’t justify eating animals knowing how they are reared, transported and killed. There are alternative ways to survive. We don’t need to eat animals. Therefore some people don’t.
If it can be difficult being a vegetarian; it is harder being a vegan. Vegans eliminate all animal products including dairy products and eggs. I can be tricky to achieve that when socializing. A vegan can be a pain-in-the-butt to some people and admired by others.
Vegetarians can be irritating to some people. Why? Is it because the meat eating person is reminded of his failings? Or is because the vegetarian is preaching vegetarianism and making life difficult for others in a meat eating world? The world is meat eating and the priority in the production of meat is money. Animal welfare is secondary. Cat lovers dislike that.
There is a certain purity of thought and spirit in a vegetarian or vegan. They are a principled group of people with mental strength. You have to be, to be one, in a world rigged up for carnivores.
Cat lovers have a similar strength of character and mind. There are countless examples of a gentle woman feeding feral cats and arranging for trap-neuter-return programmes, while being despised by neighbours, some of whom make formal complaints to the local authorities. One such case resulted in a change to the local legislation. There are other examples on PoC.
Cat lovers can polarize opinions. The hunters of this world, the one’s who believe hunting is still acceptable, have a tendency to hate cat lovers. The former is aggressive and a bit dull of mind while the latter is gentle with a strength of character the former does not have.
Meat eating should be “flesh eating”. We, humans, can’t call it that because it is not sanitised enough for human consumption. We have to dress the whole flesh eating process up so that is continues to be marketable in a world where there should really be many more vegetarians.
Butcher’s shops are “Disneyfied” as Carol Midgely in the Times states. She is right. Even the word “butcher” sounds OK but if it is used to refer to terrorists killing a captive person it does not.
It is almost as if society spits out vegetarians. They don’t really fit. Certainly in some restaurants they don’t. The chief will quite possibly have a thing against vegetarians and provide crappy vegetarian food and excellent meat based food.
Cat lovers can face a similar problem. The people who run society are usually meat eaters. The hunting, shooting type. Normally the male homo sapiens. He’ll often look upon cat lovers as eccentric old ladies. He’ll be wrong. They are the sort of people who if given a chance would make the world a better place.
Photo by Hanumann
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
http://www.viva.org.uk/feed-world
I’m not clever enough to know if this is true but I often read like in the link above, that the grain grown to feed ‘food’ animals and birds bred and fed to be slaughtered, would be enough to feed the whole world if we were all vegetarian.
Yes – I heard about this too – I think it must be true. The cut down the rainforest to feed the cows to supply McDonalds.
ANYBODY who works in that industry should be ashamed of themselves.
By the way, my mothers husband’s son worked for Nestle and I finally said it to him. I told him he should be bloody ashamed of himself. He just treated me like some kind of idealistic idiot but I am satisfied I totally ruined him and the rest of the familly’s dinner.
Good for you Marc, we have to let people know how wrong it is to work for or support firms who test on animals, Nestle are real bad guys!
I had to laugh that you ruined everyones dinner, oh you are my kind of friend x
Ha ha – yes I was glad I made them feel all awkward. The strange thing was nobody had any kind of reply.
If only you lived around the corner so I could invite you and Babs over for a cup of tea 🙂
No kind of reply because of guilty consciences maybe lol
Yes we could come for a cuppa and have a real good cat chat, there’s nothing better!
You’re a bit of an outsider because you think out of the box. You’re not mainstream. Most people are mainstream. So, that puts you at odds with the world. Not totally really part of it. I have always felt like that. I don’t accept the world. That immediately puts a person outside the mainstream and “dangerous”.
The fact that the cat is a carnivore is one of the reasons that “Cat Clubs” are non existent in India and the cat not a popular pet as most Indians are “VEGETARIANS”.This is my analysis for the surprising lack of awareness of cats in India although dogs are very popular and every city has a “Dog Club”.Dogs can be fed on a “VEGETARIAN DIET” but never in the case of cats or its bigger cousins “THE BIG CATS”.The World was made to consist of Carnivores and herbivores which perfectly balances itself in nature.Its we humans that are causing the “NATURE IMBALANCE” as we are “GOD” on Planet Earth, superior over all living creatures.If every living life on earth were herbivorous then the World would have a “FAMINE” as the total “PLANT POPULATION” on planet Earth would be wiped out due to total vegetarianism.
Perfect Rudolph – I agree with what you say 100%.
Nice point which highlights the population problem of humans and it is getting worse.
Is it because most Indians are Hindus that most Indians are vegetarians?
As far as I remember, Hindus believe in the afterlife. Life beyond death and people being animals in another life. This should have an impact on how they relate to their companion animals.
Does the Hindu beliefs interfere with cat caretaking?
I sleep, conscious free, knowing that I haven’t fostered the slaughter of any animal for human consumption.
Both sets of my grandparents had large farms in Michigan. Before anyone even thought of shielding children from unpleasantries, I witnessed one of my gtandfathers slaughtering a hog. I won’t go into detail, because nobody should have that vision burned into their mind. But, that was the end of pork and beef for me. I didn’t really like the geese (and thought they were chickens) because they chased me and tried to bite my bum. So. I ate chicken for a while, until my next visit to one of the farms. I was a teenager and all done with meat.
There are rare occasions when I still eat seafood, although I think it’s wrong. It’s usually in some sort of social event though.
I am always surprised when I encounter a professed animal lover that eats meat. It baffles me.
I love animals intensely and eat meat but it is chicken and some fish. It am a sort of failed vegetarian. It is not good. I agree that people who love animals should not eat any of them. The trouble is I don’t have a lot of things left in my life that I really like. Food is one and I like Indian meals like Chicken Korma. Small things. It’s a fail and I feel guilty. But….I ain’t perfect.
That’s it in a nutshell Michael, none of us are perfect.
Good article Michael and I’m quite sure some people don’t like Babz and I for being cat loving vegetarians, even though we don’t preach. But I admit I myself never miss a chance to comment on how much better being veggie makes my conscience feel and I love it when we are out for a meal and as it’s brought to our table the words ‘two vegetarian breakfasts’ (or vegetarian sausage or whatever) ring out and other diners look to see what on earth we eat.
I’d love to be vegan and if I was younger I would do it and be proud of it but I feel it’s a step too far for me, going veggie was easy, going vegan would be a whole new lifestyle.
We eat no meat, poultry or fish in our house, use nothing that has been tested on animals, have nothing leather and wear nothing from animal furs or skins, that is one thing I do preach about because there are plenty of alternatives these days.
All cat lovers are not veggie, I have a lot of cat loving contacts who eat meat and I know we are in the minority still but it’s gradually changing, the veggie sections in supermarkets are expanding and eating out we get more choices. It will take time, but I think one day in the future if the human race survives that long, eating flesh will be a thing of the past.
I admire you for being vegetarian. You’re better than me in that way. I think that vegetarians prick the consciences of meat eaters, which is a reason why vegetarians upset some people. It is not about the behavior of vegetarians but meat eaters.
Cat lovers are concerned about animal welfare. All people should be concerned about animal welfare (we know that) and the ones who aren’t are reminded that they should be by cat lovers.
The problem here is with the meat eaters who are not empathetic towards animals.
I am lean towards vegetarianism. I eat chicken and some fish. It is a beginning. I struggle going the whole way because I like food and I need to try and preserve the things I like.
However small the something you do is better than nothing and you have to go at your own pace, it’s no good going veggie and feeling miserable and missing the food you love. This is why I feel I can’t go vegan, I know I’d feel miserable missing cheese and butter and chocolate especially, the vegan versions are yuck! We tried soya milk but it was undrinkable.
Don’t feel bad Michael, look at all else you do for animals, namely cats!
Let’s face it, you depriving yourself of the chicken and fish you enjoy isn’t going to save all chickens and fish!
I stopped eating them because I didn’t enjoy eating them any more, not because I didn’t like the taste, but because I felt too guilty to enjoy meals.