About meat.

Today I woke up to a nice sunrise. I thought this was going to be a good day. It was, partly, but I felt very tired and low today, for some reason. Some days are just like that I guess, you need to have rain to appreciate the sunshine as I say. And surely many others. 

I biked to my lovely rabbit kits, observed how many in each litter that had left their nests, discussed a little with Claude, and biked back. My supervisor is very stressed right now, she has an article for a conference with the deadline tomorrow, so she hasn't been able to spend so much time with me, although she's just 1.5m across the desk. When I told her that on Sunday, I have been here for a month, she put her hand against her forehead, and gave me french surprised eyebrow look. 

There has been some reactions to my project work, which I am very happy about. People write to, talk to, and ask me why on earth I work with killing rabbits. I do. In a way. Since these rabbits are production animals such as pigs, sheep or cows. Some people, especially in Sweden I might add (where we are not used to eating rabbit except for maybe in nice restaurants at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm), find it very hard to understand how one can eat a rabbit, as it would be for them to eat a dog or a cat. 

In France there is quite a different culinary culture from the one in Sweden (for one, food actually tastes something here, and people appreciate good products more than most parts of Sweden). Also, rabbit is a very cheap and green source of meat (green not being the colour of the meat, rather the low environmental impact). Because rabbits are forage converters that do not burp massive methane amounts, their droppings make little impact (especially since they eat half of it), they are easy to house, and they reproduce (very) quickly (even in nature). 

So what is the problem? The problem that remains is the cuteness of this animal. That is the disturbing part for people. But the thing is, people can relate more to the cuteness of a rabbit than the cuteness of a calf, piglet or kid (sheep offspring, that is). What I can assure you however, is that if you would pick up any of those animals in the age that my rabbits are now, they would be equally beautiful and cute. 

I love animals. All animals. And I wish what is best for them. Obviously, the best for the animals would be for them to remain alive. We can all agree on that. However, this is not the case, because these animals are bred because of the demand of meat in the stores, on the tables, in the burgers and in the dog and cat food. With the technologies, the massive imports and exports over the borders across the world and with all different economies, the human being could more than well satisfy its daily protein need from other sources than meat protein. But, we encounter a lot of arguments on this. 

"I almost never eat meat anyway, at least I only eat one kind of meat" 

So usually, this means either "only fish", "only chicken", or "only red meat"/"only light meat". This, I can't help finding a little amusing. This basically means that one kind of meat is supposed to be better than another. Especially red and light one? Anyway, we all agree on that everyone makes their own choices. What annoys me anyway, is that (from what I understand) these kinds of people find themselves to be "a little bit better" than others because of their active choice. I, at least, am sure that these are the kinds of people that stand in the store choosing between danish crown super cheap pork filet and swedish expensive pork filet, and the danish one ends up being the chosen one. "But I never eat this meat anyway so this time it doesn't make any difference".

" I never eat meat, why do you eat meat, you're a murderer, torturer, and a rapist"

Congratulations, you're a vegan. I actually pay a lot of respect to vegans. Because they have actually made an active choice that matters, and stand for their oppinion. However, too many vegans share too little information about meat production, and fail to deliver their thoughts in convincing, educating, and respectful ways. Sometimes, there are even lies, dramatic movies and misunderstandings thrown at people. This, I do not approve of.   

"Meat is good, I love meat, give me meat."

There are two categories in this argument group. 1) The same person that just said the above, will close its eyes very hard and cover its ears when being showed pictures of an abattoir, foie gras farm and/or a picture of the baby calf that is now a steak on its plate. 2) Will probably be a hunter, an agronomist, a farmer, a chef, or someone else that knows the "ugliness" behind the meat industry, and that will appreciate a good piece of meat that has been housed properly, fed properly, slaughtered properly, cut properly, and finally cooked properly.

I hope no one is surprised by which category I identify myself with. I love meat, but not all meat. Not in the way that the first argument puts it though. I love meat that has been housed properly, fed properly, slaughtered properly, cut properly and cooked properly. No. Other. Meat. The price doesn't matter. I can live happily as a vegan for 6 days a week, saving the money I would have spent on cheap meat products, in order to spend it all on a really nice, fair, and good piece of meat one day per week. 

So, to come back to the fact that I love animals, I love them so much that in their production life, they should be as happy and healthy as any cat or dog living in you homes. I think that, just because animals are production animals, they should not be valued differently from any pet. And that is why I do what I do today. I work with increasing animal welfare for production animals, so that they can have a peaceful, healthy and unstressful living, until it's time for them to get chosen from the À la carte or the store. 

It is equally hard for a farmer working with either of the production animals to let the animals go to the abattoir. I promise you, that all farmers love their animals and want what is best for them. I cannot speak for farmers that do not fulfil their jobs and thus are bad farmers, as I could never speak for a good person doing something wrong.

Pictures of happy rabbits. 

This one above fell asleep when I scratched it behind its ears. 

Bye for now!

P.s. I love my education.