Depends, why are you veggie in the first place?
If it's because of the moral implications then no it's not really ok to choose to eat some animals but not others.

But if it's for health or taste reasons then do what you like, there's no point in restricting your diet if it makes you miserable, as it did with me when I was veggie.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 9:50, 2 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

Moral implications
is easily the worst reasoning for abstaining from eating food. If you just don't like it, fair enough.

Actually no, "if you wouldn't kill it yourself" is the worst reasoning for abstaining from food. "I don't like x y z about the way they're treated" is the second worst.
( Kroney, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 9:54, Reply)

Well I don't know if I agree with the second bit
because I strongly disagree with battery chickens and I do think that if the animals are horribly mistreated before they die then it is a concern and something we should be endeavouring to stop, by refusing to buy those products.

However, saying 'if you wouldn't kill it yourself' is silly because I wouldn't want to be a high rise window cleaner but it doesn't mean I don't want clean windows.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 9:56, Reply)

Well the second bit
is quite possibly based in my deep rooted dislike of granola munchers. Their logic is often horribly flawed.
( Kroney, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 9:57, Reply)

I know that Swipey and BGB are both pescatarian
but that annoys me. If you're going to be veggie, then to me that means all animals, not picking the ones you like. I have a preachy friend who tells everyone she is veggie and won't eat anything from a plate if it has had meat on it, but she eats fish. She tells me this is because fish don't have an emotional lobe in their brain so catching and killing them doesn't hurt them. I think this is bollocks.

I also can't be doing with preachy vegetarians who get really arsey about it in restaurants. When I was veggie I was aware that I was effectively being awkward when we went out for meals, so I wouldn't demand to know if the chips had been cooked in vegetable oil or if there was gelatine in the desserts because I'm already being 'fussy', I don't want to cause the staff any more hassle.

But I can't really talk, I gave in after several years and nommed an entire tin of anchovies, followed by a huge steak. The next day I had all you can eat Chinese.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:02, Reply)

This is a brilliant end to being vegetarian
One of my friends stopped being veggie by eating a Big Mac. I told her she was an awful person.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:05, Reply)

My sister used to be veggie too,
but towards the end she broke with a McChicken sandwich or two every few weeks.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:07, Reply)

I think I told my friend
That the Big Mac eating made her worse than a vegetarian.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:08, Reply)

My brother was for 9 years.
When he finally cracked he went insane. I got a call once where I was told 'I've got a heart in my freezer'.

It was all a bit 'Albert Fish'.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:09, Reply)

haha

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:12, Reply)

I'd love to see a veggie go a bit mental
And just eat essentially a whole cow.
(PenguinOfDeath is Scottish, and most likely angry, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:12, Reply)

It's about choice.
Whey should what I choose to eat or not eat annoy you? I just hate the idea of an animal suffering while it's alive, whether it's reared for food or a pet.
( girlinthehole, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:06, Reply)

Sorry Blousie
I don't mean to be preachy myself, it's probably mostly because of my friend who is pescatarian who has a great many annoying qualities and she develops affectations just so she can be different, I feel the vegetarianism is one of them. She also claims she needs to eat fish or she'll die of anaemia or something. I'm anaemic, I just take iron tablets.

I know it's a choice and I eat all the animals so I shouldn't complain really, but I feel just as bad for fish that are caught in nets or by hooks and then killed, especially stuff like lobster where they are kept alive in the freezer until they are smashed over the head or boiled alive. Not that many of us will eat lobster on a daily basis!

I think if you're going to be veggie you should go the whole hog (ha, sorry), but you're right it is about choice and it's certainly not up to me what anyone eats.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:11, Reply)

I doubt crustaceans have the nervous system in place to suffer greatly, but that's just my guess.
I understand what you're saying but goddamit.....I miss chicken, even after all these years : )
( girlinthehole, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:15, Reply)

You've answered your own question so the new question is when you do eat chicken
How are you gonna prepare it? A simple roast or something a bit more fancy?
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:20, Reply)

I missed chicken quite a lot
I missed everything though. If it wasn't for Wiggy I think I'd stil be veggie, it was just that whenever he cooked tea he would make his and then he would make the veggie version for me and his would always look and smell so much nicer than mine, it got really depressing. The veggie choices are pretty good nowadays, I think I even had a fake chicken kiev, but there's no substitute for the real thing.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:27, Reply)

"I think if you're going to be veggie you should go the whole hog"
Presumably you believe that all meat eaters should eat all animals then and not have any emotional issues regarding cats, dogs or horses.
(Cave Duck, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:24, Reply)

well yeah kind of!
It's only really by chance that we've befriended cats and dogs over any other animals. Some people keep chickens, ducks and geese as pets and they wouldn't dream of eating them.

I've been to China, I've eaten dog.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:28, Reply)

I'd eat dog, no problem.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:30, Reply)

You and me both
not cats though. I freely admit that's because I like them as animals. The rest I don't give a shit about and I'll mange away all I like on them.
( Kroney, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:33, Reply)

Everyone was shocked when ostrich and penguin came up in the supermarkets
but I think the more they make it mainstream the less people will be bothered by it.

I don't think anyone in the West will ever think it's ok to eat cats though, we've kept them elevated to the god-like status the Egyptians first did.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:39, Reply)

And rat?
Sorry.
I'm just making the general point that for most people there is an emotional/moral element to deciding what they eat.
(Cave Duck, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:33, Reply)

I'm not sure I'd eat rat
but that's because they're a bit disease ridden. I think I would go on taste, I don't think a rat would be very tasty. Plus there wouldn't be much meat on it unless it was one of those fuck off dog rats.

Same with hammy hamsters, pointless to cook it, it's tiny. However, I did see on a travel blog that someone had eaten guinea pig in Thailand and it made me feel a bit funny. However, I think that was the photo, it looked like a skinned guinea pig. I don't like food that looks like what it used to be, I hate whole fish in restaurants.

I understand the point you're making though.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:36, Reply)

Not really. Anyone can pick and choose
If you want to be vegetarian, fine. Your choice. We all have the right to chose what we eat. But basically:

- don't preach on about it being healthier because it isn't
- Actually, don't preach full stop.
- don't even attempt to make your children be veggie. If you "can't bring yourself to handle meat" you shouldn't have bred in the first place and
- FFS don't be vegan. That is wrong. You have the right to choose, unless your choice is to be an idiot, at which point I'm taking your right to choice off you, forcibly if necessary.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:54, Reply)

My brother went off meat cause he hated bones.
At least he didn't try and pretend there was some noble purpose to it.
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:00, Reply)

The boy needs to discover the wonder of the Chicken Nugget!

( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:02, Reply)

I have a friend who won't eat meat because he doesn't like the idea of eating something that was alive
it makes him 'feel funny'. He also eats fish though and doesn't give a shit about gelatine, or whether or not there is meat in the same house as his veggie food.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:03, Reply)

I was against the awful way animals were reared.
There wasn't free range meat availabe when I became a vegetarian. I eat fish because they are free range.
( girlinthehole, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:00, Reply)

that's fair enough
I do as much as I can in that sense, in only buying free range eggs and I try and avoid any un-free range animals, but really I just do what the majority of the nation do, nom my steak with gusto and try not to think about the pretty little moo cows that don't moo any more.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Fri 1 Oct 2010, 10:04, Reply)