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Why not? Because...
Jul. 3rd, 2010 06:45 pmOver on LJ, jm_horse asks Why are most horse furs bothered about people eating horse meat? Since I put some thought into a response, I'll repost it here:
Other than that, we had a fairly relaxed day. The weather is beautiful except for all the mosquitoes lingering after so much rain. Tess went out, I wasted too much time twisting the Alpha into the latest configuration of stuff recommended by HP. They seem to be wrong about something, though. They have dropped support for the Mozilla web browser in favor of a port of the Seamonkey browser. So I upgraded to Seamonkey, only to find that it wants a huge amount of resources, runs slow, and cannot load the Java plugin for some reason. After exhausting all the troubleshooting tips they provided (not that many,) I backed down to Mozilla, where Java works fine.
On the whole, the Alphas are running well now. It has only taken me about a year to get VMS beaten into shape. They even talk to one another and share applications and windows over the net. Of course, having achieved this, I find that HP has just announced the release of OpenVMS 8.4, an upgrade. Probably won't be available to hobbyists for a while, though, thank goodness.
Gary stopped at the Marengo library, our local public library, this morning. He was looking for new audiobooks but found none. I went in with him and just passing by the shelf found two documentaries I couldn't pass up. A history of Werewolves (?!) and a PBS special on the lighthouses around Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. So I actually used my Marengo library card for the first time in several years. (Since I work at a larger library and can borrow there, I rarely go into the Marengo one.)
Your mention of it being "akin" to cannibalism is somewhat on the mark though not precise enough for me.
While I carry the burden of what most would consider an excessive reverence for animal life and particularly mammals, I do think it is clear that not all animals are equal in this respect. I feel much less concern over chickens and turkeys, for instance, though I do think they should be treated with some respect and not kept in tiny cages for their entire lives.
Certain animals, however, are more than "just animals." This comes from living in close enough association with them to have learned some of their communication modes and to have seen them as intelligent and emotional creatures, rather than just interesting automata. Most humans have a strong aversion (with cultural exceptions of course, but most) to eating dogs and cats. I believe this is because of the close personal associations and empathies we acquire with daily contact. Those of us who live close to the horse view him in the same light. My horses are friends and companions. They have feelings, humor, affection, and at least limited rational thought processes. They are quite intelligent within the limits of their needs. The very idea of eating one of them is completely unacceptable.
Interestingly enough, it takes more than just familiarity and association to bring this feeling forth. I do not have the same feeling for the sheep in my care, nor for the ducks (though I don't care to eat either one, the reasons are quite different.)
My grandmother, who was a farm woman and a professional butcher in her time, used to say that you should never give a name to anything you were planning to eat. This sums it up fairly well. Horses have names. They are people to me, individuals entitled to their natural lifespan (which is substantial, up to 40 years or more under ideal conditions.) I would no more eat a horse than I would eat my sibling. And I am inclined to fight just as hard against someone else who wants to eat horses or sell them to slaughter for meat as I would fight someone who wanted to do that with my siblings.
I am not able to view animals in the impersonal manner with which a carnivore must see them. It goes against my nature. My horse comes to me willingly, and expresses affection and trust. How could I betray her in that way? By extension, how could I justify any similar betrayal by anyone else?
Other than that, we had a fairly relaxed day. The weather is beautiful except for all the mosquitoes lingering after so much rain. Tess went out, I wasted too much time twisting the Alpha into the latest configuration of stuff recommended by HP. They seem to be wrong about something, though. They have dropped support for the Mozilla web browser in favor of a port of the Seamonkey browser. So I upgraded to Seamonkey, only to find that it wants a huge amount of resources, runs slow, and cannot load the Java plugin for some reason. After exhausting all the troubleshooting tips they provided (not that many,) I backed down to Mozilla, where Java works fine.
On the whole, the Alphas are running well now. It has only taken me about a year to get VMS beaten into shape. They even talk to one another and share applications and windows over the net. Of course, having achieved this, I find that HP has just announced the release of OpenVMS 8.4, an upgrade. Probably won't be available to hobbyists for a while, though, thank goodness.
Gary stopped at the Marengo library, our local public library, this morning. He was looking for new audiobooks but found none. I went in with him and just passing by the shelf found two documentaries I couldn't pass up. A history of Werewolves (?!) and a PBS special on the lighthouses around Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. So I actually used my Marengo library card for the first time in several years. (Since I work at a larger library and can borrow there, I rarely go into the Marengo one.)
