The farmboys over at Front Porch Republic have an excellent post today in which, in response to the question, "Should we eat our pets," they respond: "There shouldn't be any such thing as pets." Pets, they argue, are a symptom of our industrial age decadence.
Oh, and check out the Wendell Berry quote: it's stunning.
The author, Caleb Stegall, points out the etymology of the English word 'pet'. What he didn't take note of is that the Latin word for 'pet' is 'delicium', the root of the English word 'delicious.'
I'm sorry, but that just can't be an accident.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
4 comments:
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Thanks for the link. We've been having a related ongoing conversation in our house. We have chickens for meat and eggs. I refused to let anyone name them. I just didn't think I could eat something I had named. We ate steers we had named when I was a teen, but I just can't do it now. My sister-in-law and her husband raise steers and have no problem naming them. Somehow if it has a name, it becomes more of a pet to me.
ReplyDeleteOn our farm we named all of our cattle. Sloppy Joe, Mignon, Burger Boy, T-Bone........
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteSuch a simple solution. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it!
You gave me my laugh for the day, Anonymous. One correction to my previous post. I did relent on one thing-in addition to keeping some hens for eggs, we are keeping one rooster for breeding purposes-we named him Solomon.
ReplyDelete