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Guinea Pigs are not food!

petlover

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I am an avowed lover of all things small and furry and have been so ever since I was a child. As the proud owner of two beautiful and loveable guinea pigs named Snowball and Butterscotch, I was appalled and sickened by a news story that I saw broadcast on one of the local television stations. The story covered a local,trendy Uptown restaurant that is known for its unique cuisine. Imagine my horror when I discovered what the meal dejour was... It was roast guinea pig served on a bed of rice with an apple stuffed in its mouth! To see this lovable, defenseless, domesticated animal served as an entree turns my stomach. It's one thing to serve roast duck or steak, but to serve an animal that is a pet is disgusting!! It's the same as if I had slaughtered my friend's cat and served it to them on a platter, stuffed with rice. The restaurant manager's defense was that guinea pigs are served as entrees in South America. Well, this is North America and in North America we don't slaughter and eat our pets! I would go so far as to compare this to infanticide. Am I the only one who is disgusted and appalled by this?
 

Funnygpigs

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But, that is the catch of it all! You said that it is ok to eat duck, but not g-pigs. How is eating one animal over another OK? They both have feelings, and they both are living, breathing creatures. What about cows? Cows are suppose to be more intellagent then g-pigs, what makes it more ok to eat a cute, big-eyed cow? Either you eat meat or you don't. Its all about what kind of meat you eat that is accepted in a certain culture. In the Phillipins, they eat chicken fetus out of the egg. To them this is a delicasy. Here, in America, it is frowned upon. In Peru, they eat g-pigs like we eat chicken. And, it helps if you remember that America is made up of many sub-cultures, so we have people from Peru culture living in our country.

Also, I am sure there is someone walking by McDonalds and saying, "How discussting! Look at those people eating a cow!"

Ps. This post is going to be a field-day for anyone that wants points on LYs spelling game! I am wayyyyy to tired to use spell-check. I just finished a mid-term exam!
 

happie gurl

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Yea, I kind of agree with funnygpigs. Every animal we eat is cute and special in their own ways...but people eat them anyways. Thats why there are vegetarians, its for people that don't want to hurt any animal.
But, I do have to admit...it does make my stomache clench seeing a guinea pig on sombodies dinner plate. :sorry:
 

Piglet

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I agree with you 100% funnygpigs, well said. What is the big difference between eating a guinea pig and eating a chicken? They are both animals with probably the same intelligence and feelings. In my culture, it's frowned upon eating cows, but some guys on this board don't give a second to though to tucking into roast beef. I am a vegetarian and so eating any animal is wrong to me. BUT, I just don't agree with your post when you say it's ok to eat duck and not to eat a pig. When you're a meat eater - if you're prepared to eat a certain meat, then you should be prepared to eat anything including guinea pigs. Animals are animals
 
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Ly&Pigs

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Rabbit, is different, because they are very common wild animals (as well as pets), but it is the wild ones that are eaten.
Wrong. Tame rabbits are eaten as well. There are rabbit farms dedicated to raising rabbits just for eating. I knew of some people here in town that had rabbits they bred and raised and then sold to people to butcher and eat. They sure weren't wild rabbits. They sold off all their "stock" and no longer do this, which I am glad about.
 

Piglet

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Thats why there are vegetarians, its for people that don't want to hurt any animal.

I wouldn't agree with that either. When we drink milk or eat cheese, we are hurting cows. Some veggies still eat eggs and so we are still hurting chickens. Being a vegan is when you steer clear of harming animals. When you are a vegetarian is totally different - you will be harming them in one way or another


 

stitsy&codyPig

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I think eating cows is just as bad as eating guineapigs. They are both animals, and people with pet cows would probably say that it is not as bad to eat guinea is as it is cows. That is why I became a vegetarian because I think no animals should be eaten. The rest of my family still eats meat but that is up to them.
 

Piglet

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Same here - each to their own I suppose. I've given up on explaining why I am a vegetarian to everybody. All I get it criticism shoved in my face so my view is let people continue to eat meat. One day, they may realise what they are doing is not benefiting anyone.
 

Pigaroo Mama

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Guinea pig on the menu isn't a matter of right or wrong (unless you are a veg for moral reasons.) It's a matter of culture & what is considered acceptable in your area of the country or world.
I know they eat piggers in S. America, (I just try not to think about it.) because it is acceptable there. Just like they eat a lot of goat in Greece & S. America, haggis in Scotland(sorry Scots), dogs in Cambodia or beetles in Africa.

The point is, we don't eat piggers in the US, they are pets here, not food. Yes, there may be people from S. America in the area where this restaurant is... but I wouldn't go to India & expect to be able to get a nice, juicy hamburger.
 

petlover

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Thank You funnygpigs for your response it helped me to see that maybe I was looking at the whole situation with rather ethnocentric eyeglasses.What may be appalling to me may just be to another person dinner. I do agree that all animals can feel pain and I do feel that it is our responsibility to take care of them. I guess that I have never looked at a cow or a duck as a pet before. Personally I will probably not be eating roast guinea pig (or cow or duck) anytime soon, but that doesn't mean that another person can't!
 

Access

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You can look at this on a few different levels. Even if eating pigs were "OK" if it were based on tradition (which I don't believe it is), anyone who grows pigs to eat them is doing a horrible disservice to the environment and to our (shared) natural resources. The amount of resources required to get a pig to viable age for slaughter compared to the amount of meat produced by the pig itself makes growing these animals for slaughter a very wasteful thing to do. Cattle and other farm animals are much more efficent from a resources and food (meat) production standpoint. Think about how much you spend on your pigs per month, fresh bedding, fresh vegetables, hay, vet bills, etc. Would all that money PLUS other natural resources required be worth getting one serving of meat 3-6 months down the road? Hardly so. We live in a time where we are facing problems like overpopulation and deforestation and land depletion, (reputed) global warming, etc. and so we all have to consider the resources used and the gain they provide. To say it is OK for them to do based on their ethnic culture is like to say it is OK for americans to pollute and rape the environment and hoard the majority of natural resources on the earth for ourselves only b'cos that is our culture and the way we have lived for many decades. To deal with the problems of today all societies and cultures must become more efficient and more responsible stewards of the environment and limited resources.

Biologically cavies are much less efficient than other farm animals (ie. cows) b'cos they are vegetarians yet extremely small compared to other vegetarian animals. An efficient vegetarian digestive system requires a large gut (ie. cows have 5 stomachs and extensive intestines) while cavies being so small cannot fit a large gut within thier small body. This is basically why cavies eat so much and poop so much.

As for the other argument "OK based on tradition", if it was the koreans eating dogs or the chinese eating cats would people feel the same way? Things both these cultures have done in the past... I think you will find in talking to others that even those that follow the politically correct line can only take it so far.
 

CavySpirit

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Cattle and other farm animals are much more efficent from a resources and food (meat) production standpoint.

WHOA there cowdude (said with humor). I think you've got it absolutely completely backwards. I'll take guinea pig on my plate over a cow ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. We're not talking about eating pets and the resources that pets take. In Peru, it costs next to nothing to keep and raise guinea pigs. They run around all over the place and they're fed table scraps. Very low maintenance.

Cattle are the most wasteful food resource on our planet--I think bar none. The consumption facts are staggering.

In fact, I think the world would be a far, far better place if our meat source was guinea pigs--providing you had to raise, kill and cook your own. Enough of the slaughter by other hands and buying packages of death in the grocery store. Guaranteed there would be a whole hell of lot more vegetarians and vegans out there.
 

Solebomber

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I think I will pass on the Guinea Pig as the main course at dinner regardless of the feed to gain coeffiency(sp) , and I would have to agree that if everyone had to raise and process their own food there would be a lot more vegetables consumed than meat. I don't know that there would be more vegetarians or vegans at least not by choice but more due to the lack of ease at which to access meat since it wouldn't be available at the store.
 

C&K

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Think about how much you spend on your pigs per month, fresh bedding, fresh vegetables, hay, vet bills, etc. Would all that money PLUS other natural resources required be worth getting one serving of meat 3-6 months down the road?

Guineas being raised for food are not brought to the vet, the are cooked. They are not fed oxbow or KM pellets, and the only veggies they get are the scaps the humans won't eat. It is like guinea pig lab chow, the stuff is absolutely awful, I don't even think the one brand I looked at even had a source of vitamin C in it. But, the labrotories are not trying to raise healthy long lived GP's. They only need them around long enough to conduct there reasearch. Then they are disposed of. It would be similar with guineas for food.
In fact, I think the world would be a far, far better place if our meat source was guinea pigs--providing you had to raise, kill and cook your own. Enough of the slaughter by other hands and buying packages of death in the grocery store. Guaranteed there would be a whole hell of lot more vegetarians and vegans out there.
This is very true. However, if you look back at history, did having to slaughter your own reduce meat consumption? Where their more vegitarians in the 1700's, or 1800's then there are now?
 

dragon6483

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Piglet said:
I agree with you 100% funnygpigs, well said. What is the big difference between eating a guinea pig and eating a chicken?

I BAWLED when my first chicken died...he died of old age. He was as much of a pet to me as my piggies have been.
On a second note, I have beef cattle, they live a loving, good life, however short it may be. At least thier death is quick and they're not shipped off, it's all done at home. I love them and they get lots of hugs and kisses, just like everything else.
 

dragon6483

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Ly&Pigs said:
Wrong. Tame rabbits are eaten as well. There are rabbit farms dedicated to raising rabbits just for eating. I knew of some people here in town that had rabbits they bred and raised and then sold to people to butcher and eat. They sure weren't wild rabbits. They sold off all their "stock" and no longer do this, which I am glad about.

Yeah, the rabbit you get on your plate is most often quite far removed from the stringly little feral cousin of huck finn esque boyhood hunting adventures. Fluffy wuffy and those big ole meaty porkers are the ones you see on your plate. With that logic Piggies should be ok too because they have a feral cousin which is regularly consumed in central/south american countries because it's just that, a wild animal there.
 

Inrun

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Cavies-and-Kids said:
This is very true. However, if you look back at history, did having to slaughter your own reduce meat consumption? Where their more vegitarians in the 1700's, or 1800's then there are now?

Meat was much more rare and a far bigger luxury. People who raised cattle, and sheep and such if they did slaughter it themselves (which often did not happen with the larger animals) would choose the 'lesser' cuts for themselves. And the whole animal would have been used. Hence the existance of things like prarie oysters, pickled feet, and the whole variety of internal organs available to eat. Practices like this still go on in third world nations.
They aren't vegetarian per say, but it's not eaten in anywhere near the amount that meat is in 1st world nations.
As on the topic of how much cattle take to produce for slaughter purposes, it takes something like 435 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef. And thats simply to raise the beef to be sold. *shrug* And with fresh clean water becoming more and more scarce, we need to find better ways to raise beef, and for that matter, raise wheat/grain products. Agriculture (in Canada at least) is the single biggest user of fresh water.
 

dragon6483

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CavySpirit said:
Cattle are the most wasteful food resource on our planet--I think bar none. The consumption facts are staggering.

Chickens are up there too, if I remember all my animal science classes right. It takes something in the range of 30 minutes for food to pass through a chicken. Chickens are so bad you can feed thier litter to cattle (it is done) and the cattle can still get nutrition from it.
 

dragon6483

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Inrun said:
As on the topic of how much cattle take to produce for slaughter purposes, it takes something like 435 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef. And thats simply to raise the beef to be sold. *shrug* And with fresh clean water becoming more and more scarce, we need to find better ways to raise beef, and for that matter, raise wheat/grain products. Agriculture (in Canada at least) is the single biggest user of fresh water.
....but they don't contaminate the water to the point that it is unusable, it's all the chemicals that are difficult to remove from the water by lawn fertilizers, golf courses, urban runoff, and if we're pegging agriculture, herbicides and pesticides that cause the real water quality/shortage issues. Cow peepee, just like your dogs peepee, works its way through mother natures glorious water cycle. We all take quite a bit of water to live too lol, but what we don't drink we contaminate with our gasoline, our oil, our manufacturing gasses, our dishwashing and other cleaning chemicals, and our shampoo.
 

dragon6483

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Access said:
An efficient vegetarian digestive system requires a large gut (ie. cows have 5 stomachs and extensive intestines)

Cows don't have 5 stomachs, they have one. Thier single stomach, however, as a ruminant animal, contains 4 compartments. The Rumen, the reticulum, the omasum (sp?) and the abomasum, which work together to provide adequate break down of the cellulose in plant matter (the stuff that we can't digest (like, you know, you eat a bunch of veggies and you have digestional "issues")). Pigs are monogastric, not ruminant, so they can't handle the roughage. Chickens are also monogastric, but are birds so thats a whole nother can of worms (no pun intended), as they have other digestive mechanisms entirely. Horses, though subsisting on a large amount of forages like cows, are also monogastric (BTW, MONOGASTRICS include people like you and me), but have a modefied cecum in thier intestinal tract which serves to assist in the break down of cellulose.

WOW, now, pulling that out of nowhere from my animal phys classes, let's see how I remember all my terms correctly, let alone spelling, haha :)
 
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