https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 06 Jun 2026 03:18:47 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2347880 Sun, 08 Nov 2015 01:46:45 +0000 lemondrop 2347880@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I grew up on a farm, and part of it was to have boundaries about who was a pet and who was going to be dinner. You did not get attached to the animals slated for food. My brother and I learned it at a young age- animals live and die, and you work hard to give them as good of a life as you can while they are around. </p> <p>I love to eat meat and dairy and I work in the animal industry. I prefer to know where my food comes from and how well it was taken care of and what it was fed. That's not always feasible with limited time and money, but I take pride in knowing that a gallon of milk I buy at the store comes from a small family dairy that I've worked with. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2347107 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 14:33:48 +0000 mrbee 2347107@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: Haha I don't think I'll ever go all veggie... I'll probably just cut back on pig and beef (especially pig). Chicken and fish are still ok in my book! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346992 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 13:11:57 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2346992@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yeah, I don't think I could eat something I named and petted. </p> <p>My mom and her siblings tell stories about visiting their grandparents. My aunt in particular was traumatized when she asked specifically about where one of the farm pets she befriended was. Her grandmother was chopping up stuff in the kitchen and lifted the dead animal to show her it was dinner. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346963 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:52:07 +0000 LovelyPlum 2346963@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsBrewer: I like this! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346962 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:51:21 +0000 LovelyPlum 2346962@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hmmm, I don't know if I could do it. Maybe?? For fish, it doesn't bother me. Weird! </p> <p>Random: wasn't Mark Zuckerberg's New Years resolution one year only to eat animals that he knew by name??? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346947 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:42:07 +0000 Grace 2346947@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@rachiecakes: Haha! Yeah, pigs can be evil. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346820 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:36:18 +0000 mediagirl 2346820@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I try not to think about the animal when I eat the product. I should but I just take for granted that it is there, in a package, ready for me to cook it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346812 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:33:38 +0000 .twist. 2346812@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't think I could butcher anything, but as far as emotions? I would just pat their heads and say "aw, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna eat you." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346804 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:30:40 +0000 rachiecakes 2346804@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Grace: My family (great-grandparents) had a farm and my cousins own/run it now, I used to babysit my little cousin there when I was in high school. They raised pigs, cows and chickens and every year there was a family reunion and pig roast. There was one pig that scared us, he was so big and mean and would jump against the walls of the pen. I didn't feel bad the year he was the roast! :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346623 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 10:06:28 +0000 RsMom 2346623@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I grew up on a farm and we raised our own meat. My husband hunts and we all fish so this has been the norm for me my entire life. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346412 Fri, 06 Nov 2015 01:04:45 +0000 birdofafeather 2346412@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: @erinbaderin: agreed! After reading animal, vegetable, miracle, DH and I got more serious about trying to find "happy and local" meat options. We don't always succeed, but the one thing we have done for years now is get a local heritage turkey for thanksgiving. That turkey story stayed with me for years! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346391 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:48:29 +0000 daniellemybelle 2346391@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: LOL to homeschooling vegetarian hippies 😂 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346390 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:47:19 +0000 daniellemybelle 2346390@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: This exactly. Michael Pollan has said that ideally, animals would have good lives with one really bad day. The problem I have with meat is the industry and how horrifically animals are treated. I wish I could buy bacon from your family rather than the grocery store!</p> <p>My parents raised chickens for a while but they were given names and treated totally as pets (though they were kept for their eggs). I think it would have been very odd for US to eat them. But when one rooster got too aggressive, it was given away to a family that did eat him. A little weird but again, so much better than factory farming and I do think humans are intended to eat meat. Just not so much. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346384 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:36:33 +0000 Grace 2346384@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I grew up on a farm and we ate the livestock. It never bothered me, we were just raised that that's where food came from. Plus, the number of times I had to chase the cows or pigs because they had escaped, gives me little sympathy towards them. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346373 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 23:00:32 +0000 MrsBrewer 2346373@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ehh it doesn't bother me. DH's uncle owns a farm and raises cattle for slaughter. That's where we get all of our beef from actually. So when we go and visit, the cattle are all outside always, and we always see them out there. It actually makes me feel better though because I know they are being taken care of really well, fed well, provided a warm barn to sleep in the winter etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346334 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 22:07:25 +0000 Mae 2346334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>lol picturing the some pig thing. </p> <p>But here is my opinion. I would LIKE to think I could do it. Realistically it is way better to own your animal and slaughter it and eat it because 1) you know it was healthy 2) you know it was sanitary/fresh 3) you can control it having a "good" death 4) it got to live a much happier life than factory farmed animals. So really it seems like the best possible situation for both you and the pig, assuming you're going to keep eating pig. </p> <p>Realistically if I had to kill my own animals I might just go veg because I'm a softie. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346324 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:53:36 +0000 rachiecakes 2346324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Wow so many vegetarians on the Bee! </p> <p>We're a family of vegetarians. I couldn't eat any animal I couldn't kill and I just can't do that so.. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346316 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:42:45 +0000 BananaPancakes 2346316@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I grew up on a small farm and we raised our own pigs and cows for food. It doesn't bother me and I prefer it that way. My husband also hunts and I regularly see and help him clean deer and fowl, and while I typically need a day between eating the meat I just saw harvested, I get over it because it's better than knowing that chicken I just ate lived the shittiest 6 weeks it could have lived cramped in some cage.</p> <p>We also live in a relatively rural are where the FFA is big and kids raise their own pigs, cows and lambs for slaughter to learn about the process. My sister and my husband have done both as middle and high schoolers. So it's part of the culture around here, too, which normalizes the practice of hanging out with your food. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346201 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 20:34:50 +0000 honeybear 2346201@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Where's Papa going with that ax?</p> <p>I thought about it when I was a teenager and decided I couldn't deal. Still can't. As a result I haven't eaten meat or poultry for two decades. I used to fish pretty regularly and I swim in the ocean, and I know those guys have a pretty good life there, so I'm okay with eating them on occasion. </p> <p>You guys are totally going to come back to the States as homeschooling vegetarian hippies! ;) I love it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346187 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 20:32:31 +0000 Greentea 2346187@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is actually a huge thing for me. I have been fishing my whole life and in college got even more into it. Growing up my dad would clean the fish. In college I had to catch my own and kill them, pull the bones, start a fire, and roast my fish! (I did a lot of camping and backpacking.) So, I learned that I didn't really like to kill, and decided I shouldn't eat anything that I wasn't willing to kill.</p> <p>Long story short, I eat birds and fish, that's about all I can handle taking the life of, and eat it on very rare occasion. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346103 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 20:00:43 +0000 MoonMoon 2346103@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm a total lightweight about that reality, which is why I'm vegetarian! I think if you couldn't kill your own you just shouldn't eat it, win win. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346096 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:56:39 +0000 peaches1038 2346096@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My grandpa was a farmer and I was in 4-H growing up. I raised market lambs and sold them at auctions where people bought them to eat. I was able to put the money I earned towards college. I love eating meat and actually prefer to know the farm/animals where it comes from for the reasons mentioned several times above. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346090 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:51:29 +0000 erinbaderin 2346090@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I feel like I might actually feel better about eating meat in your situation. Like you said, they're taken care of and living in people's yards, which is undeniably a much much better life than what the animals we usually eat in North America get. If an animal gets a good life and then is killed humanely and eaten, I think that's fine, it's when they have a terrible life and then are butchered that I start to have a problem. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346063 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:38:31 +0000 Synchronicity 2346063@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have always had a very hard time separating bacon from pig and beef from cow, which is why I don't eat any meat now. It's been almost a decade since I stopped eating it, and I still feel this sense of relief when I see cows in the field and don't have to worry about eating them later... sounds ridiculous, but it's a mental thing I can't get past! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346051 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:31:31 +0000 Astro Bee 2346051@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My dad's family had a small family farm growing up. They had cows, chickens, and sheep. Too this day, he can't eat lamb because he befriended "Floppy Ears" as a child! He developed an aversion to the taste after his "pet" was served for supper one night. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346045 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:27:24 +0000 Mrs. Twine 2346045@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Here's my take. We live somewhere that we see death fairly often. When we had pigs, it was not unusual to have animals that would get injured or too sick to survive from time to time. Sometimes Eric shot them to be more humane. After they died, they were outside in our yard, surrounded by fence so that our dogs couldn't eat them. This didn't stop the eagles, but carrion is fair game to wildlife. Sometimes the big dogs will kill animals when we're spending time with them. Rats, mice, once a rabbit. Sometimes baby birds. I admit that this still makes me cringe, and if we are actively "creaturing" and looking for smaller animals like this we will lock the big dogs up. I've come to the belief that if they get it on their own, well, I guess that's just sort of natural and what would happen with any predator, but I'm not leading them to it like some sort of reverse-canned hunt. Sometimes we see animals that predators (like the aforementioned eagles, or maybe a hawk or fox) tried to get but didn't manage to carry off. I've come to the conclusion that life is just cruel and hard, honestly. We are mostly sheltered from that if we live in urban environments, but it just is. Animals are cruel to one another sometimes, and sometimes awful things happen to living things during the course of life. I always, always, always try to eat meat that I know the source of. Life being cruel is zero excuse to me for poor treatment of animals. But I feel okay eating meat because most of the animals I would eat live a pretty good life and are killed in a humane way. I think we all come to different conclusions based on our exposure to and knowledge of where meat comes from, and I certainly can see where vegetarianism or veganism can come directly from being aware of and contemplating the entirety of the issue. I think eating less meat is a great goal for anyone, simply from the perspective that meat from living conditions that most people would feel comfortable seeing animals in requires a great deal of input (money, space, foodstuffs, etc.) and there are many other foods and protein sources that require far less and are therefore more realistic for the growing world population. Anyway, sticky and complex issue for sure. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346041 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:24:18 +0000 Maysprout 2346041@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That's hard, def a reason why we eat mainly vegetarian now. But I do eat meat on occasion. I think it helps to give thanks before meals. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346035 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:17:37 +0000 Meowkers 2346035@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was sort of raised like this and it's the reason that as an adult I don't eat meat. I was around farm animals until the age of 9 and I saw how emotionally attached they could become and how smart they are. I was heart broken every time I would form a special bond with a particular cow or pig and then one day she wouldn't be there any more. </p> <p>As an adult with that kind of background, I absolutely cannot bring myself to eat meat. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346030 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:12:35 +0000 chopsuey 2346030@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>i don't think I could do it if I saw the animals!<br /> 😬 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hanging-out-with-the-animals-youre-about-to-eat#post-2346024 Thu, 05 Nov 2015 19:07:31 +0000 littlejoy 2346024@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrbee: Sure!! And that's what I couldn't be a part of. Honestly, I doubti would have ever stopped eating animals if it was done the way it is where you are. I feel like a lot of cultures have so much more respect for the animals than we do, in the US. It would be weird to adapt to the idea of living among the animals you will eat, and I think what you're feeling is an internal morality struggle ... No matter what, I'm sure you'll find your path, and be grateful for what this change has taught you. :) </p>