Let me just say right now that, having had rabbits as pets when I was a small child (though too small to recall any memories of them, sadly) I could never bring myself to knowingly eat rabbit meat. If I were starving, and had no other food available, survival instinct would take over. But the chances of finding myself in such a situation are extremely low.

So rabbits are off my menu. Lately, as I find myself visiting Cleveland's West Side Market, I have become less and less inclined to eat pig meat; seeing the whole roasting pigs in those deli cases makes me think of human bodies in a morgue and I just can't bear to eat pig meat all that much anymore. Actually looking into the eyes of an animal I've eaten has a profound effect on my usually oblivious and apathetic taste buds. Yet it isn't long before I'm eating ham or pork chops. Mainly, I suppose, because it's been a little while since the visual trauma and hey, at least this time my food isn't staring back at me.

I think I've only tasted a crumb or two of lobster in my life. That's another animal I can't bring myself to consume. Knowing the only safe way to cook them is to scald them to death, which requires that the poor creatures be alive, I just can't do it.

Cow and bison, lamb, venison and poultry...no problem. I don't get to see their heads, eyes staring sightlessly at me through a butcher's deli case. I've eaten goat cheese, and drunk goat milk, but I'm not sure I could eat goat meat.

Gross-out time: I've eaten baked mealworms. The flavored ones. My aunt was working a booth for the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo at a bug festival, and she brought these packets of baked mealworms for the kids who came to the exhibit. My adopted cousin Lily, who is now closing in on age seven, loves these. I thought the mealworms rather tasteless, less substantive even than crisped rice. All I tasted was the flavoring. I've watched some travel shows where the host goes to Asia, and samples fried crickets. I admit, I'm curious to try them. Which is ironic, seeing as how if a bug flies into my mouth the taste revolts me.

So which animals would you eat? Which ones would you not eat? Why?

Moved from Animals and Pets...WHY?

The ANIMALS and PETS forum did not seem the best place for this topic. While it is about animals, the other forum is more about animal rights issues and discussions about pets and the animals that are our friends, those we raise and care for as pets...not those we consume.

Intentional "flaming/baiting" topics about animals, such as those we've seen being posted here lately, have been moved to the Steel Cage. (Go there for a few examples, if anyone is curious.)

Just as I could never eat an animal I'd raised as a pet, neither can I support discussing their consumption in the PETS forum.

What we eat is often more of a cultural thing, in my view, and in the view of many others, so that's why the topic is now in this forum, which is also about SOCIETY and CULTURAL issues. Our cultural practices in so many ways make up our societies.

To respond to your original post, Michael...

I only eat chicken breast meat, and it has to be organic. I do love fried chicken, but most of the time I grill it. Fish: I eat flounder, crab, and salmon. Shrimp...rarely. (Too much cholesterol).

In the distant past, I have eaten red meat, but I don't anymore for a variety of reasons, most of them similar to yours, Michael. I also no longer trust the feds to actually protect the public from Mad Cow Disease. I like some varieties of goat cheese, such as caprino, and feta cheese, which is made from goat's and/or sheep's milk, but I couldn't eat a rabbit, a squirrel, a sheep, or a goat if my life depended on it. I'd starve. There are things I simply won't do...and eating certain animals are things I simply won't do. I don't eat wild game such as venison, either. UGH!

Neither could I eat a mealworm!

I will eat whatever is there. Given a choice, I prefer to eat what I kill/catch.

There will come a time pretty soon, as soon as the economy crashes or war comes to our shores and we will no longer be able to go to the grocery store to do our hunting and gathering.

What, is it that people think that this easy life is going to last forever?

Know what I wont eat. Soy.

I would not eat any member of the Bush Family. Except for maybe Jenna.

TUT...you are such a....HAM!

When humans started using parts from pigs to replace human parts, I stopped eating anything pig. It is like being a cannibal.

I hear cows crying for their newborn calfs constantly because I live engulfed in a dairy farm, so veal is totally out of the question.

My dad had to tend lambs being sent to slaughter when he worked for the railroad. Lamb has always been off the list.

Pretty much I eat soy. I don't trust the farming industry, and couldn't eat anything I had raised myself.

Btw, the farming industry is a horrible polluter. Do we really want all that pollution so we can coddle ourselves? I know some do not care, but it is something people should think about.