Mammalian Prejudices

It's been said that as humans we have certain prejudices towards other mammals. If you want people to give money to a fund that is bent on saving a forest, you put the monkey or the deer on the paperwork, and not the spider that may be critically endangered yet absolutely vital to the ecosystem.

The cuter the spokes-animal the better.

In a similar regard lies veal. I've met plenty of folks who refuse to eat veal because of the treatment of the calves. I usually refer to veal as baby-cow just to remove the semblance of euphemism. These people refuse to eat veal on principle.

Nevermind that most high-end veal is treated rather well, if not really allowed to move around a lot, and that really, what we're talking about is an animal that is bred for the purpose of being eaten.

In the foodie world there is the growing trend for heirloom products, and not just tomatoes. There is a burgeoning market for heirloom pork, turkey, and chicken. Old, nearly extinct breeds of those three animals have been brought back from the precipice. What brought them back?

That's the paradox of the heirloom protein trend: to save these rare breeds of animals, we eat them. The more we eat them, the more they thrive. Or "thrive". I guess that depends on your point of view.

In any case, I don't eat veal because it's always too chewy for me and hurts my teeth. Like foie gras, I think veal's overrated.

What really cracks me up is when people say, "Oh no, I don't eat veal. Can you believe how they treat those calves. I'll stick with the chicken."

Chicken? Is there any other animal on this planet as mistreated, abused, genetically modified, pumped full of water and steroids, and tortured in as great of numbers as the humble chicken?

Won't eat veal because of mistreatment, but still eats chicken...this is a very common person, but it seems like they haven't done their research. For many chickens every day is like The Island of Dr. Moreau mixed with Schindler's List. Jeeze.

Think of a number, the number that you'd guess would be the number of chickens slaughtered for food each day on planet Earth. What would your number look like if it was a gaggle of poultry clucking and shitting and going about their daily life in front of you? Would there be this many zeros? (The true number according to a recent article I read in National Geographic---)

28,000,000,000.

Twenty-eight billion, with a capital BILLION.

A day.

I, though, have no problems eating chicken. The thigh is the best part; dark meat with less sinew than the drumstick.