I’m not a vegetarian, but I would be if I could afford it – in both time and money. Call me soft hearted - there’s worst things I’ve been called. It does make me feel bad that an animal has to live in rotten conditions so that I can eat. I make an exception for chickens and turkeys – two animals that would probably go extinct if humans didn’t raise them. We’re talking about a couple of birds so dumb that they drown staring up at the rain after all.
That said though, the most horrid thing in my opinion is the live food that you have to kill and cook yourself. And the most tragic thing by far is the plight of the lobster.
Okay – so these creatures aren’t cute, fuzzy or something you’d want to snuggle like a cat or a dog. Ecologically they perform an important function of eating all the garbage at the bottom of the ocean. They’re kind of like a big cockroach. But that doesn’t mitigate the inhumanity that these animals endure in the process of being prepared for food.
Firstly consider that these shellfish are caught and for the most part kidnapped from their native environment and put in to a tiny tank with their claws rubber banded so as they can’t defend themselves. (I don’t know how many lobster farms there are, but I’m guessing there are a few.) Can’t really blame them for being upset can we? It’s pretty much a given that even the simplest of animals feel fear. This is why spiders and roaches run when you try to squish them. So I can’t even imagine what the poor lobster in the tank at the grocery store/restaurant is going through.
It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that a friend of mine from Maine pointed out something that made my skin crawl: lobsters lose freshness almost immediately uponst dying. Therefore you toss them in to a pot of water and boil them to insure the best taste. Now I’d seen this in movies and television before, but my friend had to relate to me how the lobsters often start thumping on the side of the pot in a vain attempt to escape their gruesome fate.
Even if I was starving on a desert island with nothing else to eat I don’t think I could do that. I would kill the lobster first and then cook it. The idea that anyone in 2007 America with a grocery store on every corner could still eat lobster like this makes me question humanity.
More bizarre still is that lobster is considered a delicacy. You can buy a lot of food for the price of a single lobster. Add in the fact that there is not enough food on the tiny creature to fill me up and amount of work it takes getting that tiny bit of meat out of the stinking shell and it’s just not worth it. Now consider most people don’t eat the lobster plain – they have to dip it in unhealthy melted butter.
Makes my stomach churn. But at least the high price would help preserve them right? Wrong.
Enter ‘Long John Silver’ the seafood restaurant that enables you to get cheap food on the run. Their new product: lobster bites a bite sized, batter dipped, deep lard fried artery clogger that you can smear with ketchup so you don’t have to taste it….which makes me wonder why you’d even bother eating lobster as opposed to say, a potato since it all tastes like tomato sauce anyway.
I’m sorry – I just don’t see the point of any of this. It’s quite ironic to think that a symbol of elegance in our society is the ability to eat what is basically an aquatic, junk munching, overgrown insect.
Jeremy Meister graduated with a B.S. in History from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1998 and a B.S. in Media Production from Missouri State University at Springfield in 2005. He is also a film director, producer and author of over seven feature length screenplays including 'Hollow Dogs' and 'Epic: the Autumn Gales', as well as owning his own film company: the famous LWC Productions. Jeremy is the former host and producer of the Conservative internet radio program "The Tzimisce Show". Presently he is working behind the scenes at Lotus Broadcasting on such shows as "The Mr. Sunshine Show" with occasional work for HBO and UFC. Contact him at LWC_Productions@hotmail.com or at myspace.com/quentonquale. For a complete list of blogs check out: http://tzimisce.townhall.com/Art for the people: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1888382/posts
