What is a Meat Animal?

[MineralMan]

Wikipedia has a list of animals used as meat animals around the world, with links to articles about who eats each animal and where. Just about every animal is eaten somewhere in the world, and some of them are ones you wouldn't expect to be on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meat_animals

In some cases, an objection to eating certain animals is common in one culture, but the animal is eaten in another culture. Horse meat and dog meat are two examples of such animals. The objections seem to arise from the keeping of some animals as pets or companions in one culture, which can afford to do so, while they are not kept as pets in other cultures. In the case of dogs and cats, we feed our companion animals the meat from other animals. It takes a particular affluence to be able to give food to an animal. In many places, meat is scarce and none is available for pets. In others, there is a surplus of meat, so it is economical to feed it to pets rather than reserve it for human use. A particular animal may be tabu in one culture, while it is readily used in another culture as food, sometimes even in places very close to each other.

In other cases, certain animals are not eaten for religious reasons because it is believed that they are unclean or are some sort of religious totem and protected due to that. Cattle, for example are not eaten by most Hindus in India, but are eaten by other Indians, who have no such religious prohibition.

In the United States, we rarely consume goat, but it is widely used as a meat animal in much of the world. Presented with a dish prepared from goat meat, many Americans will find themselves unable to eat it, despite its popularity in subcultures within the United States. Rabbit, also a very popular food animal in much of the world, faces similar prejudices in the US among many, although it is relished by many Americans.

Which animals we eat and do not eat appears to be almost entirely a cultural issue. Perhaps we err in condemning the consumption of particular animals in places with a very different culture than our own. Perhaps it is inappropriate for us to do that. Imposing our particular cultural norms on those with different cultural norms seems to me to be a little off the mark, and somewhat inappropriate.

[Motown_Johnny]

1. I would have no issue eating goat. I have eaten rabbit and also had a pet rabbit

that we took in from the cold in the dead of winter and released to the wild in the spring.


I think that once you remove the religious aspects, such as cattle in India, you end up with mostly economic reasons for what is or is not used as a food source in any given area.

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, I think economic issues play a very large role.

Meat is a very good protein source for humans, very concentrated. In many places, it is also very scarce, and for many reasons. In those places, all animals are considered edible, for the most part. Only the wealthy can afford to keep animals as pets. In other places, there is a food surplus, so keeping animals as pets is more popular. Where people are starving, any food source is a good food source, and animals eaten in such places go far beyond the polite Wikipedia list.

[MineralMan]

6. I've eaten goat on a number of occasions. But, then, I have

lots of friends with different cultural backgrounds. Rabbit, too. In fact, I'm a pretty adventurous eater, and there are few things I wouldn't try if they were placed in front of me, prepared for the table.

[Aerows]

30. I'm an adventurous eater, too

and I've tried some fairly off the wall meats. I love to cook, and I like to eat, so I'm not going to apologize for eating frogs, lambs, goats, ostriches, iguanas, snakes, ducks, chickens, turkeys or just about anything that makes it to the dinner table.

[supernova]

16. Goat is on offer at most Indian restaurants

around here. Also any restuarant serving ME and Caucasus food as well.

I've tried it. it's a little gamier than beef but very good in it's proper context, usually braised in a stew heavy on spices or yogurt.

[Aerows]

27. I like goat

It has to be cooked right, but it's delicious when done in a lot of spices :). Lamb is just plain delicious no matter the context.

[Aerows]

22. I like sheep and goat

I've even eaten alligator. I've also had a pet rabbit, but I've also eaten one. Would I eat my cat? No, not under any circumstances, because my cat is smart and is a companion. Is every cat smart and a companion animal? No, just like not every bird is suited to be a pet.

I have zero problems eating creatures. Livestock has been raised to be livestock since we got out of the hunter gatherer stage, and I think it's silly that there are people who debate whether or not we should eat meat. If you don't want to eat meat, don't eat it, but to harp on it like it's a huge issue for the people who have been around livestock all of their lives, you are preaching to the deaf. We already know how to be humane in killing animals, already know where meat comes from, and if you are expecting to shock us into converting from being meat eaters, well, you aren't going to do so.

[Vehl]

34. The cattle taboo in India also rose out of economic reasons

The prohibition against eating cattle rose out of economic reasons as well. Indian food has a lot of Dairy-related stuff. Furthermore in an agrarian society cattle were the animals used to thresh the harvested rice....transport.. etc etc. In a society which was overwhelmingly vegetarian, Milk was one of the few forms of protein. Thus cattle were essential to the Indian society. Its not unreasonable to believe that this central role played by cattle, over time morphed into a semi-religious reason against the consumption of cattle meat.

[MineralMan]

44. Very good points.

I suspect you're correct in all of them.

[HopeHoops]

2. In the US, pretty much anything that has been so engineered that it can't survive on its own.

Face it, in the US, factory critters aren't fit for life outside of the disgusting and filthy environment they know as their only home. Layer hens end up as McChickenBalls when they stop producing enough eggs each day. Pigs are confined to tiny metal containment cells on concrete floors, and don't even get me started on cattle treatment.

The US has a fairly limited list of "meat animals" compared to the rest of the world. In other countries, most of them live the life of actual farm animals.

[MineralMan]

5. Well, pigs at least seem to survive pretty well when they escape

from those places. Feral pigs are pests in many parts of the US. Of course feral cats and dogs have the same characteristics.

[Aerows]

24. Feral pigs ARE a problem

and they can be every bit as dangerous as feral dogs. We had an issue in our area of feral pigs after Katrina. There's a reason why boar hunting killed a lot of people, and it isn't because they are docile and domestic animals. They can be dangerous.

[deaniac21]

49. They are much more dangerous than feral dogs. In Arkansas

they can be hunted 24/7. I have killed pigs as large as 450 lbs.. They move around in large groups and the areas that they go through look like they have had a visit from the Borg.

[Aerows]

23. Not everywhere in the US and not all industries

I have an uncle that has a catfish pond that he hand raises. Some of us are very familiar with hunting, treating animals humanely, and we still eat meat. You aren't going to scare or shock people like that out of eating meat, though you might shock them out of using inhumane methods of raising animals.

I'm not convinced that every vegetarian loves animals more than omnivores - I think some of them think they do because they haven't spent a large amount of time raising animals.

That said, there are some abhorrent practices in the raising of livestock, and it's a good thing to point those out. They aren't a justification, however, for people to not eat meat. They are a justification to be less cruel.

[HopeHoops]

50. I doubt your uncle's farm falls into the "factory farm" category.

I know there are farmers who care about their animals and use ethical practices, but unfortunately that isn't the case with the huge industrial complexes. It isn't just the way they treat the animals. The antibiotics and pesticides they use find their way into the streams along with the runoff of the waste. There have been some improvements, but at a very slow rate. One of the more disgusting practices is keeping hogs in metal pens on concrete floors - pens so small that they can't easily stand up (if at all) and certainly can't turn around. A lot of companies have pledged to phase this practice out and some have even made moves to do it.

As for hunting, I have a lot more respect for someone who kills for food and eats what he kills than someone who grabs a styrofoam tray of ground beef at the grocery store. At least the hunter has taken responsibility for the kill. I think hunting for sport (Palin's publicity stunts for example) is simply disgusting.

[individual rights]

4. It's all about your hierarchy of values.

Did you ever see "A Boy and His Dog?" :)

[MineralMan]

8. I haven't seen that movie, but the description on IMDB

sounds really interesting. I'll go check Netflix. Thanks.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. LOL

[Ohio Joe]

7. I've had both goat and rabbit

Goat was good, I had it in this odd little dish that was kind of like creamed spinach (but a bit different) with chunks of meat. The rabbit I loved, my brother roasted it with a mushroom sauce, very tasty.

[Yavapai]

21. If you are in a Mexican restaurant and they offer it, try birria.

It is goat meat and very good (at least for me.)

Also, through my years, I have tried rabbit a few times. I have had domestic rabbit, cottontail rabbit and jackrabbit and they all tasted the same to me. I didn't much care for it,
but it might have been better if cooked in a different manner.

Have also eaten deer, pronghorn (antelope), elk (love it), bear, rattlesnake, javalina, buffalo, frog legs, snails, Ostrich (very close to fillet mignon), squid, octopus and once in lower mexico, iguana. The deer and pronghorn tastes just about the same, buffalo is similar to beef only a bit drier. The bear was a bit greasy but okay with the sauce it was in. The rattlesnake was kind of bland like a deep water fish. The javalina I fried without spices and kind of reminded me of german bratwurst and the other times I tried it, it was mixed with ground pork and pretty much tasted like the pork. The frog legs tasted to me like the smell of the pond it came from. The snails from one french restaurant tasted like little garlic flavored pencil erasers, and from the other french restaurant, kind of like little garlic flavored blood-clots. The iguana down in Mexico had such a strong flavored sauce, that I really couldn't taste it at all. Also tried "rocky mountain oysters" once in New Mexico but really couldn't get past the thought of what they were.

Have been told that fried crickets are very good (described to taste like lobster with a hint of a nutty flavor) but have never been anywhere they were served.

[Aerows]

26. I don't like frog

Alligator is like a mix between frog and chicken. Now snails, I can eat the hell out of some escargot. I liked rattlesnake because it was nice and dry and grilled well.

I've never had bear, but deer, buffalo and Ostrich, I have eaten, and would eat them again.

[bvar22]

9. Last night on "Dual Survivor",

they ate an Armadillo,
and said it was "good", like rabbity chicken...LOL.
There is very little they haven't eaten on Dual Survivor,
with the exception of mice...and only one of them refused to eat a mouse (fearing parasites).
They ARE careful to cook the hell out of anything before they eat it.

I live in an area where Possum Festival was popular in the past.
This festival featured a number of ways to cook and eat possum.
If I can bring myself to eat Possum & Poke Salad, I'll never go hungry here.
Both of those are in wild abundance.

I believe by "Meat Animals", they are referring to anything man has domesticated as a food source.

[DonCoquixote]

13. Meat

It is mostly cultural. For example, during the Seoul Olympics, a South Korean company sued to be allowed to offer samples of it's "fragrant meat" to the people in the stadiums. They won, and lo and behold, many Western Tourists ate the free "kebabs" they were giving away. Of course, they vomited when they realized "Fragrant meat" was actually DOG!

[MineralMan]

18. Porcupines, too. They're survival food, since anyone can

approach one close enough to clonk it on the head with a rock. I understand they're not bad, although I've never eaten porcupine. Beaver, too, is another animal that served as food in pioneer days. I have eaten muskrat, though, once.

[Warpy]

10. Dog meat is on the menu on some reservations here in NM

and you can tell which dogs are meat and which are beloved pets. They care for their companion animals deeply. They just differentiate between family and food.

But yeah, people will eat anything if they're hungry enough.

[ZombieHorde]

11. The ethics of meat eating is really interesting to me. Recommended. nt

[Cant trust em]

12. I've never eaten goat, but I don't have an aversion to it. nt

[MineralMan]

32. Very popular among middle easterners. I've enjoyed roast goat

at their gatherings several times. Roasted whole on a spit. Delicious.

[Exultant Democracy]

14. k&r

[Arkana]

15. Like it or not, we ARE the top of the food chain

however you slice it.

I've read that this is because we possess something other animals don't--self-awareness. It's not the ability to strategize or innovate...hell, wolves and lions and other carnivores that hunt in packs do that. But it's our ability to recognize what we are and what we are capable of. It's this that makes our brains more highly developed than that of any other animal on earth.

It also doesn't hurt that we can utilize modern technology, either--what with the whole "opposable thumbs" thing.

[MineralMan]

19. As you say. We're at the top of the food chain because

we can be. Even people without access to metal can kill any land animal for food. The mammoth went extinct because it could be killed by humans using primitive weapons and because it was not as smart as those humans, who were able to come up with a strategy to hunt for such a large creature. Even whales were taken by humans using only stone-age technology.

[GKirk]

20. I'd like to know

what is the history of some religions banning certain animals as unfit to eat.

[MineralMan]

29. Read Leviticus. That's where you'll find the Jewish prohibition

on eating a bunch of animals. Goes back a long ways.

[GKirk]

40. It's more the why

Why would some religious guy say this source of protein should be ignored?

[MineralMan]

42. The prohibition against pork was for health reasons.

Pigs carry trichonosis, so people became ill. Shellfish have their own problems, primarily with toxins from algae blooms.

The prohibitions had reasons that the people of the time didn't understand, but recognized. That explains some of them. Others are not so easily explained. The canid group can transmit rabies, as well, and handling their meat is a great way to get it.

So, that's part of the reason, anyhow. They didn't understand what about the meat caused the problems, so they prohibited entire classes of animals.

[stuntcat]

25. k & r, nt

.

[flvegan]

28. None of them.

Come on, you knew I was going to show up and say SOMETHING.

[MineralMan]

31. Well, of course. I have zero problem with vegetarians and vegans

posting their opposition to meat eating. They're living their beliefs.

Those who eat one kind of meat but condemn those who eat another kind, though...well...feh. Especially when the kind they don't want people to eat are eating meat from other dead animals. Humans can't eat horses and dogs, but the pet dogs humans keep can eat horsemeat. There's a disconnect there in the logic.

[Aerows]

37. Amen

It's the hypocrisy that I can't stand. If you are an in your face vegan, don't be running around in leather, and driving a car with leather seats.

[MineralMan]

43. Very few vegans would do that. Most are very conscientious

about such things. I have nothing but respect for dedicated vegetarians. I don't much like it when they get militant about insisting that others do as they do, but otherwise, they're a consistent group about not using animal products.

[Speck Tater]

33. Meat animal = animal made of meat = all vertebrates and some invertebrates. nt.

[thelordofhell]

35. We used to have goats when I was a kid

We used to pit roast a goat every year. They are delicious with BBQ sauce.

[Aerows]

36. I'm curious how pregnant vegetarians handle things

When women are pregnant, their dietary necessities go through the roof. Anyone here that was pregnant as a vegetarian?

[undeterred]

38. One of my neighbors is a vegetarian and she ate meat when she was pregnant.

She said her appetite went up and she specifically craved meat so she decided to go with it. You do need protein when you'r pregnant. She and her husband went back to a vegetarian diet after giving birth. Turned out that the baby actually liked the meat baby food so they've had to be flexible parents and they now eat some meat.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

45. She's not really a vegetarian.

I was at a dinner with this women who was telling everyone she was a vegetarian as she was eating crab. :eyes:

I haven't eaten meat since 1974 and have had two healthy babies in the mean time. I never fed my sons meat and one has never eaten it. Sons are 36 ans 22.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

46. Yes

I've been a vegetarian since 1974. :)
I have two sons 36 and 22. Both were born very healthy.
There are lots of things a pregnant woman can eat that aren't dead body parts.

[aaaaaa5a]

39. I've had goat and rabbit. I liked them both

although I am trying to limit my meat intake and would like to eventually become a vegetarian. (Its very hard!)


I have also had cow tongue, frog legs, dolphin, Bison (which is much better than standard red meat) duck, ostrich and deer. I have never had dog. But would be open to giving it a try.

[Forkboy]

41. "Chicken's good."

LISTER: Yeah, really good.

KRYTEN: That's not chicken, sir.

CAT: Oh, what is it?

KRYTEN: It's that man we found. Well, it seemed such a waste to leave him lying there when he'd barbecue so beautifully. Did I do wrong? I didn't get any error commands...Obviously I thought about it, because without my guilt chip or moral imperatives, I have nothing to guide me. But it seemed to me that if humanoids eat chicken then obviously they'd eat their own species; otherwise they'd just be picking on the chicken.

[Synicus Maximus]

47. I don't know about now but goat used to be the preferred

barbecue meat in East Texas.

[outerSanctum]

48. I think that they should send dogs and cats that are set to be euthanized

to poor countries that eat them. I would imagine that it would go a long way toward ending hunger in those areas.