stile project: "the kitty video"

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So by now you have probably seen the video of a Korean man killing, cooking and eating a kitten. A reader e-mailed it to me saying that a friend brought it back with him from Korea where it is not uncommon for poorer people to eat dogs and cats. To us it seems like the ultimate taboo.

How could those godless Asians do such a thing to such a beautiful creature? Well, I'm sure Indians wonder the same thing about us, but you don't see North Americans shedding a tear every time a cow is slaughtered. (In India cows are considered to be sacred, and most Indians are vegetarians)

When's the last time you cried over a Big Mac? But... but... but... these animals are our friends! We live with them and they are part of the family! What, you don't think a cow feels pain? What about chickens, pigs, fish, lambs?

Now before you go and call me a hypocrite, I *do* eat meat. And yes, I found this video to be disgusting, and the first time I saw it I screamed out in shock. No, I am not totally desensitized.

Yet.

I really do love animals. A lot. Well, I guess not enough to become a vegetarian. Now you may be asking how I could post a video like that if I say I love animals? Just because I don't show something on the site doesn't change the fact that it happens.

I got quite a large cross section of responses to the video. As I was in bed trying to fall asleep I was thinking about this issue a lot. Of course the video is shocking and "wrong," because cats are so well loved in our society to the point where we consider them to be a part of our family, but for us to say it is wrong, it would just make us all hypocrites since most of us eat meat.

If you were starving and there was nothing else around to eat, you might eat a cat too. Didn't you ever see the movie Alive?

In regards to meat, we just go to the supermarket and get it prepackaged and pretty. Our society doesn't have to deal with the actual killing aspect, which greatly reduces the moral association to it. I'm sure if we actually had to kill the cows ourselves, a lot more of us would be vegetarians. When we see some meat we totally dissasociate the fact that it was once from a living, breathing creature that felt pain while it was being killed for our consumption. Hundreds of millions of animals are killed yearly just so we can fill our bellies.

To those of you that are writing me going "How could you?" Remember that I DID give you MORE than adequate warning. I CLEARLY stated that it was THE MOST OFFENSIVE THING EVER. I don't know how else I could spell it out for you.

Here are some responses that I got from you guys in regards to the video. You can come to your own conclusions. All I will say is that I do not condone violence against animals OR people, and to those of you that were not bothered by the video and/or found it amusing really need therapy.

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okay, bravo stile.

i agree with most of everything he's said here.

except for the last little bit about people who didn't find the video offensive/disturbing.

why should it disturb me? death is part of life. murder is part of life.

life feeds on life.

frankly, if you're going to eat meat, and live in some pretend world where you'd rather not see an animal be killed for eating, you are the one with the problem.

i see absolutely nothing wrong with someone being secure about their place in the food chain.

Yep.  I agree, more or less.

"Our society doesn't have to deal with the actual killing aspect, which greatly reduces the moral association to it."

Eaxactly.  I've got nothing but respect for people who can go out and hunt for food for themselves, and I've got something bordering on contempt for people who "don't want to think about" what's really in the hot dogs they're eating.

"frankly, if you're going to eat meat, and live in some pretend world where you'd rather not see an animal be killed for eating, you are the one with the problem."

This is just bang on.  If you can watch a video like that whilst gulping down Big Macs/bacon/chicken nuggets, more power to ya.

Personally, videos of animal cruelty and/or death bother me very much.  The last movie I can remember that legitimately shocked and disturbed me did so due to several brutally explicit, gory, and quite real animal killings.

*shrugs*

ever seen a cow being koshered?

I'm trying to remember the requirements...

http://www.ou.org/kosher/primer.html

All I know is that Manischewitz tastes damn good and that Matzah doesn't leave your bowels for weeks.

the way i've seen koshering done:

you take a cow, stick it's head through a hole in a wall, or strap it's head into a harness/stand, and slit it's throat, and let it buck and spurt until it dies.

how humane.

as if there's a polite way to kill something...