Posted by
Dave Kooker on Friday, October 12, 2007 4:27:24 PM
Animal and/or Vegetarian activist/ often humor me. For some reason, activists always feel compelled to make a public statement and/or take the initiative to challenge me so they can validate their own personal worldview. I guess in their mind, making the gesture of caring and making sure everyone hears it is a valued more than actually living strictly to the stated idea of caring about the value of an animal’s life.
For example, I live in a wealthy historic neighborhood in Jacksonville Florida. The demographics is comprised of:
* Trust fund generations who do not have a Corporate America job but are involved in non-for-profit organizations to make them selves feel good about their existence.
* Service staff that cater to the Trust-fund generations.
* Alternative lifestyle(s)
* Young couples buying and renovating a house purchased from a trust-fund family that finally slaughtered the trust fund by drugs, alcohol, and uncontrolled spending. I fall into this category.
The secret handshake or code to be popular in my neighborhood society is to be a vegetarian and have a ‘Save The xxxxxxxxxxx (Name Your Animal Of Choice Here)’ bumper sticker on your gas-burning vehicle. Trust me, there are many Animal and/or Vegetarian activists in my neighborhood.
I also enjoy animals. I either treat them humanely as a pet or savor them at the correct temperature on my diner plate. I have a dog; my dog is my best friend when I do not have visitation with my son. I must admit that I do not like cats.
When I am in the mood for steak, I like to walk down to my restaurant of choice and order a large sizzling plate of beef fajitas and enjoy my diner on the outdoor patio. As the hot plate is delivered to my table, I always enjoy looking around to see who is sneering at me or who is going to make a smart comment about my menu selection. I don’t fault vegetarians for being grumpy. If I self imposed myself to only eating vegetables and grains, I would be grumpy also.
Typically it is some idealistic female college student who has to make a snide comment about the aroma of my steak fajitas and how can I eat an animal. It is animal cruelty to kill that animal for my diner. After a few exchanges in the past I have learned how to respond to these activists.
I always like to compliment the individual’s leather shoes that they are wearing which came from the hide of a cow. Typically I like to next compliment them on the fine leather seats in their vehicle. And if the individual is a female, finish the compliment about the makeup she is wearing which is probably made from fish oil and the shimmering effect of her makeup, which came from fish scales. If the individual is diabetic, remind them that their insulin came from a pig pancreas. Challenge them to make their pet cat or dog a vegetarian. Fluffy the cat and Spot the dog are not going to be happy.
The conversation always then turns to because I killed the animal first so I could enjoy my barbaric diner; the byproducts were already available to be used. Even if meat was banned from grocery stores, I seriously doubt these Animal and/or Vegetarian activist were going to give up their luxuries or beauty aids. If these guys ever considered all the products, which make their human life better, I suspect they would ditch the cause.
Here is an example of a vegetarian website that list products which are derived from animal products.
http://www.vnv.org.au/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=98
To Animal and/or Vegetarian activist, please make sure your lifestyle is animal free before you ask me to.