Animals and ponerization

truth seeker

truth seeker

The Living Force
As we were watching a cooking show the other day, my boyfriend pointed out something I thought was interesting. He made the point that we don't really eat animals that are considered predators. This led me to the thought that the meat sold to us are usually female and their offspring (with the possible exception of fish). Is it simply because these animals are considered to be tamer or is there something more insidious going on? Just a thought.

note to moderators: I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in "What's on your mind?" Please feel free to move.
 
I think it is just a reflection of the fact that prey animals, by the nature of ecology, are more numerous than predators and more likely to be social animals as they are not competing for access to hunting territory. This, along with the fact that they can be fed more easily, facilitates them being raised for our consumption. Those predators which do fit these criteria and are also domesticated are few, and usually a social stigma becomes attached to eating them eg. dogs (in most cultures).
 
In my experience, predatory animals' meat doesn't taste as good. Save for fish, the meat of predatory animals tends to not be very tasty. Also, they are hard to catch! You can't as easily round up a bunch of land predators and harvest them for consumption.
 
truth seeker said:
This led me to the thought that the meat sold to us are usually female and their offspring (with the possible exception of fish).
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Hi truth seeker,

The above statement is wrong. The meat sold around the world would be equally from male and female
animals, although some females animals live longer for milk, eggs, and breeding purposes.

Prey animals are usually herbivores and predator animals are carnivores. A cow will eat about eight pounds
of grass and/or grain to produce a pound of meat. The carnivore must eat a lot of meat to produce a pound of
meat. I am not sure of the ratio of meat production in carnivores, but assuming it is eight to one, it would cost
64 pounds of grain to produce a pound of cougar for example. It would be very expensive to eat meat from predators.
 
In my town, we have a yearly event called the Mullet Festival. Several different vendors offer gator-on-a-stick and shark kabobs. Never really thought of eating predator vs. prey type meat
 
A bit of bush survival law (or myth, not sure which) here is never eat an animal that eats other animals. My impression was that if you were unable to sufficiently cook it then the meat of predators was more likely to make you ill.
 
truth seeker said:
As we were watching a cooking show the other day, my boyfriend pointed out something I thought was interesting. He made the point that we don't really eat animals that are considered predators.
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Well, if I'm hungry, I'll eat whatever I can catch, but I'm thinking a opossum is a lot easier to catch than a cougar. ;)
 
I guess that explains the stomachache I got after trying the gator....
I wonder why people in the southern states more than any other location eat stuff like snake, gator, sharks etc...?
It seems backwards, but.. if you could see the quality of people living in this area now, it certainly explains a lot! (I would say borderline evil) :evil:
 
ethnicsoup said:
I wonder why people in the southern states more than any other location eat stuff like snake, gator,
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Tradition of eating whatever you find under your porch first?

It seems backwards, but.. if you could see the quality of people living in this area now, it certainly explains a lot! (I would say borderline evil) :evil:
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I'm curious, do you have a scale for "quality of people?" 1Q, 2Q, 3Q, etc. ? :D
 
ethnicsoup said:
I wonder why people in the southern states more than any other location eat stuff like snake, gator, sharks etc...?
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I wonder why people in northern states eat things like msg laden Chinese take-out, twinkies and ho-hos, wonder bread and Miracle Whip. It seems pretty backward to me...

ethnicsoup said:
It seems backwards, but.. if you could see the quality of people living in this area now, it certainly explains a lot! (I would say borderline evil) :evil:
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The same can be said with more accuracy for the North - but that's just my opinion as a Southerner. I was 12 years old before I knew Damn Yankee was two words.
 
The same can be said with more accuracy for the North - but that's just my opinion as a Southerner. I was 12 years old before I knew Damn Yankee was two words.
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:lol: :lol: :lol:


My Dad often called folks who came up to farm country "Flat Landers", because they lived in cities with paved roads. :D

Quote from: ethnicsoup on Yesterday at 03:01:41 AM
I wonder why people in the southern states more than any other location eat stuff like snake, gator, sharks etc...?
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Growing up, we ate pheasant, quail, and squirrel, rabbit and lots and lots of bluegill and perch, because that was what my Dad could hunt and fish. I've tried elk, moose, bison, and bear....and I have to say that bear, being an omnivore, didn't taste too bad. I've had gator and rattlesnake, but don't care for them too much.
Maybe it has to do with what the animal eats? For instance, people can't eat polar bear, but they can eat brown and black bears. Its the diet of the animal that factors into whether or not you can eat it.....?

From what I've seen and read of different food ways, you eat what is most plentiful and easy to catch. When you live in swamp country, that means eating snakes and gators. (You left out frogs and snails though) ;) Personally, I think if you're going to kill an animal, you need to eat it, unless its very sick or very old and doing so is a mercy. (Excluding companion animals, I couldn't do that even if I was starving.) Whenever I've been invited somewhere and the people eat something I've never tried or am used to, I try it. It's that whole sharing food thing, its polite and a new experience.

That said, there are animals I simply cannot eat, because I consider them intelligent and too close to human beings: elephant, octopus, parrots of all kinds, whales of all kinds, dolphins of all sorts, monkeys, apes, cats, dogs, horses. (That's all I can think of at the moment.)
 
Combining my hill-william, ( yankeeized hill-billy ), heritage of coming from a deep Appalachian holler with years of experience living in Florida, with family still living in Florida, and wife being raised in Florida, I gotta say I don't consider Floridians as Southerners. Florida may be geographically south, but it's culture is unique. And people I know are proud to be Floridians. They believe themselves to be in a class all by themselves. Some are even arrogant about that. Yep, the southern style of good old boys & girls listening to country music are there. But there is much more. Take southern twang accent, for example. Many Floridians have a southern accent & many do not. More accents there than you can shake a stick at. Perhaps the accent depends on where the ancestors come from? Florida seems to me more of a melting pot, populated by groups from all around the world.
I'm not trying to say "bad" things about Floridians. I'm trying to say they are different, a culture unique unto themselves. Not necessarily a "bad" thing" either...

edit: It's been years since I've been there, but yes, Gator Turtle, & Snake can be found on the menu. Sitting on a bridge at night, with a fishnet & flashlight, shrimp jump into the net, to become dinner. But I still hate grits & hominy.
 
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