What is Unsafe?

Re: What is Unsafe?

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Hi Jamie,

You only get to see the dirty stuff if you run the video backwards.

Gary

Re: What is Unsafe?

Andy in Raleigh

>I am what my coworkers call a "flexatarian". I do eat some meat, but I do feel bad about the way we treat animals and I will choose not to eat meat when there are other alternatives available. Mammals are the ones that bother me the most. They tend to mate for life, grieve for their losses, play when they are young and do other things that indicate that they think and have emotions. I have much less sympathy for seafood, especially shrimp and other "water bugs". Besides appearing to have little or no thought or emotion, they are typically harvested after a normal life.

Anyway, I think we should try to treat them with a bit more respect given the sacrifice they are going to make for us. BTW, while I agree we are omnivores, I don't think we are natural predators. How many meals can you get from a rotting corpse? The "meat" that most other primates eat are things like termites.

Re: What is Unsafe? Further off TD's topic

Arch

>(We are far from the original question and now border on politics, religion and ethics. I wouldn't be surprised or upset if Russ does his duty to this woodturner's forum and humanely deletes my post.)

Dinyar I believe that there are cases that justify _prompt capital punishment and I would likely believe in cruel and unusual punishment in kind if a sane person committed a horribly heinous crime against my family.

That said, I for one, applaud your courage in stating your convictions about the ethical treatment of animals and I suspect that you speak for many here who aren't quite brave enough to go against the flow. Nobody knows why or if we need to eat other creatures, but eating or tanning and otherwise using them after they are dead doesn't seem to me to be an ultimate mistreatment. I don't need to belong to PETA (I don't) to believe that the 'Golden Rule' applies to all living animals, wild or domestic.

I must have jumped the track. my soapbox braying has little to do with a woodturning thread about "What is unsafe". Safe roasting of a chicken on a spit isn't woodturning. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch

How many meals can you get from a rotting corpse?

Jay in TX

>...Let me check my deep freeze and I'll get back to you...

Re: How many meals can you get from a rotting corp

Andy in Raleigh

>That is the point - we need freezers to keep the meat from "spoiling" which makes it unfit for us to eat but natural predators can leave a kill out in the heat of the savannah for days and still eat it without getting sick and/or dying. We need mechanical slicers, grinders and knives because our teeth aren't designed for eating flesh. As I said, I do eat it sometimes myself and I do enjoy the taste of many meat dishes. But I don't kid myself about it being natural and I do feel some compassion toward the animals we farm to provide food.

-Andy

Re: How many meals can you get from a rotting corp

Jay in TX

>"That is the point - we need freezers to keep the meat from "spoiling" which makes it unfit for us to eat but natural predators can leave a kill out in the heat of the savannah for days and still eat it without getting sick and/or dying."

Andy,

As with all other things in the natural world, there is a balance. Predators primarily kill things for food. If they fail, then the attempt to scavenge, thus your point has a fatal flaw. Just because we're not scavengers, doesn't mean we're not predators.

"We need mechanical slicers, grinders and knives because our teeth aren't designed for eating flesh."

Andy,

I guarantee you that your teeth can bite through flesh. Ever bitten your tongue? That means your teeth were designed well enough to penetrate flesh. I guarantee you can bite through many of the hides that clothe animals in our wilds without anything but your pearly whites. Your teeth are made up of some that do the penetrating and slicing (incisors and canines) and others that process and grind the material to being processed (molars/wisdom teeth). We have ensimes (sp?) that help break down the flesh for our nutritional use from the second it enters our mouth till the time it exits our body as urine and fecal matter. We are omnivores. We can take advantage of fawna and flora alike. So, if your saying we weren't designed as predators or carnivores I'd say you are only half right, if that.

"As I said, I do eat it sometimes myself and I do enjoy the taste of many meat dishes. But I don't kid myself about it being natural and I do feel some compassion toward the animals we farm to provide food."

Andy,

I don't kid myself about the social engineering attempts made upon us. You ought not state things as fact without empirical evidence to support the assertion. I say this without malice, without pretentiousness nor an air of superiority. I was trying to make lite of a more serious and deep issue that I alluded to in the first sentence of this paragraph. Whether its PETA, the NRA, or the AARP...I don't assert opinions as facts when promoting my beliefs.

Jay...who is not a member of PETA, the NRA, or the AARP

facts and opinion

Andy in Raleigh

>Stating opinion as fact?

Which one of us is the pot and which is the kettle? I'm not completely sure, but I do have an opinion. ;->

The web is a wonderful place. If you search around a bit, you will find that a few professor types that have spent piles of our tax money and some agree with you and some agree with me.