Yes, I am one of those people who removes spiders from her home by taking them outside.


I cringe when I see dead animals on the road and sometimes even say a little prayer of hope that they are frolicking in some bucolic heaven where they are loved and there are no cars to hit them nor hunters to shoot them.


And yes, I consider my dog and cat my son and daughter. I wept when I came home one day several years ago to find that my little fish “Winston” committed suicide by jumping out of his bowl.


I once caught a flounder (by dumb luck) on a fishing trip and felt guilty for weeks.


Go ahead, laugh at me. I can’t help my love and empathy for all creatures great and small.


So when I was stuck behind that truck stuffed with those poor feathery creatures, it’s no wonder I felt pangs of guilt.


Because while I was feeling sorry for them, it occurred to me that I have chicken breasts in my freezer that I planned on marinating with fresh basil that week.


It’s those moments that I feel like a hypocrite, some sort of barbarian who should consider being a vegetarian. I have a couple of friends who are vegetarians and I admire them immensely.


But I thought how much I love roast beef and cheeseburgers. (And yes, I ate the flounder and it was great).


At that moment I felt very appreciative of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman and an associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Grandin designed livestock-handling facilities, keeping in mind ways to reduce stress and pain for cattle before they are sent to that big pasture in the sky.


And then I thought of Kahlil Gibran’s passage in his famous “The Prophet,” about eating and drinking:


“But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship...


“When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, “ ‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.


“ ‘For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.’ ”


Am I rationalizing? Probably.


But until, or if, I ever get the conviction to become a vegetarian, I can only hope the meat and chicken industry continue to find ways to make slaughtering and transporting animals as humane as possible.


We owe it to our most vulnerable friends.




Patricia Poist is a staff writer for the Living section. Write to her at: ppoist@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus