Wednesday, February 27, 2013

To eat or not to eat?



Browsing through weird Discovery articles I managed to stumble upon an article on 20 animals you could eat but most likely wouldn't, unless it was apart of your culture/region. This listed included common species such as squirrel (Which is extremely common in the Walking Dead as a food source), frogs, dogs, and cats but also endangered species such as sharks and whales. In most cultures its taboo to eat a pet, yet in other countries its a norm that cats and dogs be eaten. Squirrels are so abundant but very tough, but who would go shooting the neighborhood squirrels most people find cute and just abnormal to eat when we ourselves farm cows and pigs that provide substantial amount of meat?

 A lot of species die out because of the cause of habit destruction and disease that is helped spread by invasive species caused by commercial use. In this case, the article makes a comment about shark fin soup and how people will use just about any shark regardless of its status of population.

"A sampling of 51 shark fin soups from 14 cities around the United States found one soup made from the fin of the endangered scalloped hammerhead, and others containing fin from vulnerable and near-threatened species, including bull, smooth hammerhead, school, spiny dogfish and copper sharks."

More species become endangered just by consumption without proper time to repopulate referring to the fishing industry. Whaling from japan just wastes tons of whale meat because the population has grown away from the taste and more money is made by whale-watching yet Japan insists on keeping the whaling going.


The article also mentions how Montana has allowed motorists to eat roadkill which is completely stomach turning to myself and leads to the thought of how desperate people will just run over animals now to eat them or possibly become very sick from eating old roadkill. It doesn't appear healthy for people or the community of species that is subjected toa possible painful death if someone wants to eat it that bad.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/20-animals-you-could-eat-130222.htm

Sunni-Lynn Farias (1)

7 comments:

  1. If people were to start eating squirrels, would we really have a major effect on their population size? I assume the food industry would find a way to make it commercial, like our beef, chicken, and pork. We wouldn't necessarily have to hunt the squirrels ourself, but instead buy it from the grocery store.

    Kimberly Ty (3)

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    1. Yes I can imagine it would go through all the processes of becoming commercialized and then have even more animal activist groups arise.

      Sunni-Lynn Farias (1)

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  2. The idea behind eating road kill, I believe, is targeted at situations where people who hit a deer, for example, don't let all the meat go to waste. I DOUBT it would lead to targeted running over of animals, especially since the tastier ones are likely to cause severe damage to the vehicle.

    Mike

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    1. You never know considering there are a lot of cases where teenagers will just run over animals for the "fun" of it. But who knows what anyone is capable of.

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  3. This post reminded me of an article I read a couple years ago about a man who hunted and ate squirrels. I was shocked by the news, but knowing some people would eat roadkill, that wouldn't surprise me anymore!

    Fortunately, it is illegal to hunt animals within the city limits. However, if they are injuring your property, you can kill them. That was how this man killed squirrels in his backyard and ate them.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/food/urban_chow_boy_EKtwF01vNechm8IXYWXuRI

    Setareh Sepasi (3)

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    1. The loopholes of the law can be found and people can pretty much get away with murder, in that case the murder of squirrels. Its still weird even knowing human beings are capable of anything.

      Sunni-Lynn Farias (1)

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  4. Although an interesting idea, I don't think it would be practical to start using squirrels specifically as a source of food. It would either require the use of humans to hunt them legally or have industrial farming of them. If humans were to hunt them individually, they would have to be pretty knowledgeable on proper handling of the squirrel meat to make it acceptable to eat in regard to health. On the other hand, industrial farming of them would just not be practical because of how little meat would be harvested per squirrel. I think we are just better off relying on our typical farm animals for sources of meat (pigs, cows, etc...)

    Marshall Moini(2)

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