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
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”.
That’s it in a nutshell Michael, none of us are perfect.
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?