| 29 January 2010
Posted in
KitchenMama
Have you ever bought a lamb chop and thought for a moment of Mary's cute, bouncy little pet who followed her to school one day?
I usually don't have that problem. I have no difficulty looking forward to savouring any juicy, flavour infused meat that might take my fancy at the butcher's. There's something about growing up with parents who, in their formative years, were raised on farms that squeezes out of you any second thoughts you might have about being a carnivore. Even though my parents could afford to buy pretty much anything they wanted, they have always cultivated a vegetable garden. When I was a child, they even raised a few rabbits for food which I enjoyed immensely.
Herein lies the quandary. Like any 6 year old, I wanted a small, cuddly pet of my very own. Our big, old dog didn't much care for games of fetch or long walks around the neighbourhood. So, without my parents' knowledge, I adopted one of the food rabbits as a pet. I can't remember what I named it; so, let's just call it Fluffy. It was big with fluffy (of course), white fur. It didn't mind being petted or picked up. That rabbit must have been bomb proofed because it would even hop along the sidewalk with me on our walks. You can imagine how popular I was with the neighbourhood kids: they thought having a pet rabbit was really cool! You can also imagine, I'm sure, where this story is going.
Then came the day when I went to retrieve my pet rabbit from its enclosure only to find it (and all the cages) empty. I knew right away what had happened to Fluffy. I found my parents and railed at them. But, what could they do? They hadn't known. At that moment, I vowed that in honour of Fluffy, I would never eat rabbit meat again. And I haven't.
Is it strange that my aversion to rabbit meat doesn't extend to any other kind of meat? Sometimes our convictions are formed purely out of specific, personal experiences like this one. I've met a few people over the years who had very similar experiences to mine. All of us basically still enjoy being carnivores.
As for my foray into rabbit ownership? Two 8 year old rabbits -- Twinkie and Jo Louis -- remind us everyday of who's boss.
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