If I were to look back at the beginning of this semester, I would simply say that my opinions have not changed on animals. I have always been a firm believer in making sure animal cruelty is put to an end. I was less conscious about how animals had felt at the beginning of the semester and it has made me realize that we, as humans, receive a lot of consequences due to our actions. Now, I am not saying I am a vegetarian, I do eat meat. But even then, I still sometimes think it is wrong. Your immediate reaction after you eat a meal is not going to be “oh my god, I just ate an animal,” your immediate reaction is going to be whether you liked the meal or not.

Most of the human population eats meat, that does not mean we support the suffering and extremity when it comes to abusing animals. I disagree with harming them, any animal for that matter. It is a touchy subject for people today when we talk about harming animals, when we talk about the harm done to animals, we as humans need to realize that we are doing this. We are a part of the problem, but we need to eat enough of certain foods to survive and we cannot control that. David Foster Wallace brings up a good point in his article… “Consider the Lobster”, “There are limits to what even interested persons can ask of each other.” When reading that quote, it puts this thought into our minds that even though we as humans, the ones who do eat meat; we see that it is still not okay for us to torture these animals just so we can enjoy a meal. 

If I were to answer the question “What does it mean to be considerate?” From my own perspective, it means you can do what you want, just make sure you’re not affecting anyone else around you. So, by eating meat I myself am fulfilling my hunger. Yes I am sure it upsets others but we unfortunately don’t think about the harm of animals while we are eating them. We honestly tend to just think about ourselves. If we look back at the article “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace, he talks about the harm we as humans do to lobsters. It kind of disturbed me when I read that article for the first time because I never really thought about what we actually do to the animals before we eat them. 

Wallace talks about how when cooking lobster, the lobsters are actually boiled alive. We don’t think about what we do to animals. Lobster’s can’t feel pain, which is why they are boiled alive. That is still cruel, we shouldn’t have to torture a living animal just so we can have dinner. “The nervous system of a lobster is very simple, and is in fact most similar to the nervous system of the grasshopper. It is decentralized with no brain. There is no cerebral cortex, which in humans is the area of the brain that gives the experience of pain”. (Wallace 504). 

Wallace talks about the pain of the lobsters, even though the lobsters don’t feel pain doesn’t mean it’s okay. Animals can feel pain, just like humans can. If we think it’s morally wrong to hurt and or torture another human why is it okay for us to do it to animals? A couple questions I can answer is, Just because you can eat/do something should you? Just because you can ignore pain, would you? We tend to notice pain very easily, if you are in pain it’s going to hurt, you are going to feel pain. You are going to address that pain, if we see an animal in pain, we should take concern to that, animals cannot talk. They can’t tell us they feel pain, we need to watch out for that and not ignore it. So, if we think that pain is a bad thing, why is it okay for us to cause animals pain just so we can eat them. 

I feel bad eating meat, meat is my favorite thing, as I mentioned before in my Favorite Food Essay I had mentioned my favorite food was meatloaf. Meat comes from animals such as cows, turkey, pig. Why do we think it is okay to eat meat if we are harming an animal? That is something I think about all the time, it’s hard not thinking about it because we are eating that animal. What we eat does not look identical to the animal we are eating, that’s why I think we don’t see as many issues with eating meat, chicken, or fish products. If we were eating meat that looks identical to an animal I think we would be more concerned about the harm we do to those animals just so we can eat them. That’s why it is harder for us to think about it like that, it’s not directly in front of our face. 

With my favorite type of food being any sort of meat product it is hard for me to talk about this topic without upsetting anyone and trying to get my opinion across. I love meat, but I believe that there are better ways for us to get meat. I believe that we shouldn’t have to torture them for us to enjoy a meal. I don’t understand why we can’t wait for the animal to die of natural death before we eat them. Instead we do some of the most unspeakable things to these poor animals. It’s honestly quite embarrassing to think about because I find animal cruelty disgusting, yet I still eat meat.

David Foster Wallace makes an excellent point in his article, he states “The more important point here, though, is that the whole animal-cruelty-and-eating issue is not just a complex, it’s also uncomfortable. It is, at any rate, uncomfortable for me, and just for everyone I know who enjoys a variety of foods and yet does not want to see herself as cruel or unfeeling” (Wallace 504). I would have to agree with what he says, it does make me uncomfortable to think I am eating an animal that once had a beating heart. It upsets me, that’s why we don’t tend to think about it. I believe we put ourselves first when it comes to food, food is there to fulfill our hunger, we need food to survive. If surviving means we have to eat animals for us to live, we are not going to think about what happens to the animals, it would make us feel guilty and it might make you lose your appetite. 

Looking back at my “Favorite Meal Essay,” I mention, “I love meat, it’s one of those things that if I were told I had to go vegetarian I would choose death over vegetarian, I know it sounds harsh but I cannot live without meat, I just can’t.” This would be true, reading it again it kind of makes me seem like an awful person. I have tried to simply live without meat, because of animal cruelty but I just cannot. This is because I have always eaten meat. My mother always cooks anything meat, or anything chicken. I have always eaten an animal in a meal, but like I have said before we don’t tend to think about eating the animal, we see it as a steak, or meatloaf. We don’t say we are eating, pig or cow, at least the people I eat with don’t.

If we were to wait until animals die of natural causes we would feel a lot better with ourselves after eating a meal instead of how it is now. Animal cruelty is a big part of today’s world, we hear about it all the time, especially on social media. Making us more aware of what we are doing. It’s uncomfortable to read all the articles, or see photos and videos of what is happening to these poor animals. We should not be doing this, we can come up with so many other ways for everyone and everything to be happy. If we find other things to do to change things for the better then we all need to help out and come up with ideas to put an end to animal cruelty but for us to have the privilege to eat what we want to eat.

From what I mentioned in the beginning, my views on animal cruelty have not changed, I am one-hundred percent against it. I believe I should be able to eat what I want without feeling a slight sense of guilt after I finish my meal. If we come up with better ideas for us to get food for ourselves but still eat what we want to eat, it would make our world a slightly better place, and make us better people.