Why do we eat some animals but not others?

Animals I can remember having eaten, in addition to the usual store bought stuff:
  • Bison (American Buffalo)
  • Water buffalo
  • Wild bore
  • Deer
  • Moose
  • Antelope (the American one, pronghorn)
  • Goat
  • Mountain Goat
  • Cariboo
  • Bear
  • Kangaroo
  • Chamois, in Italy
  • Horse
  • Rabbit
  • Probably dog...
  • Racoon
  • Possum
  • Guinea Pig
  • Squirrel
  • Nutria
  • Porcupine
  • Pheasant
  • Grouse, sage and blue
  • Duck, a variety of wild and domestic
  • Geese, wild and domestic
  • Doves, morning and ringneck
  • Alligator
  • Turtle, a number of different species
  • Rattlesnake
  • Frog, a variety
  • Dub, a large desert lizard in Kuwait
  • Too many fish to list, including lots of shellfish
  • Ants
  • Mealworms
  • Grasshoppers
  • A couple of other kinds of bugs
Probably missed a few. Can't think of a meat I would not try, if I got the chance.
 

Alligatorob said:
Animals I can remember having eaten, in addition to the usual store bought stuff:
  • Bison (American Buffalo)
  • Water buffalo
  • Wild bore
  • Deer
  • Moose
  • Antelope (the American one, pronghorn)
  • Goat
  • Mountain Goat
  • Cariboo
  • Bear
  • Kangaroo
  • Chamois, in Italy
  • Horse
  • Rabbit
  • Probably dog...
  • Racoon
  • Possum
  • Guinea Pig
  • Squirrel
  • Nutria
  • Porcupine
  • Pheasant
  • Grouse, sage and blue
  • Duck, a variety of wild and domestic
  • Geese, wild and domestic
  • Doves, morning and ringneck
  • Alligator
  • Turtle, a number of different species
  • Rattlesnake
  • Frog, a variety
  • Dub, a large desert lizard in Kuwait
  • Too many fish to list, including lots of shellfish
  • Ants
  • Mealworms
  • Grasshoppers
  • A couple of other kinds of bugs
Probably missed a few. Can't think of a meat I would not try, if I got the chance.
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you will never go hungry! I do know how to cook grass in many ways :LOL:
 
I guess if you're not that hungry, you get choosy with what you eat. When you're starving, it's whatever moves, or grows. I'm not an adventurous eater. I went to a famous Chinese buffet in Montreal, CA. All the signs were written in Chinese, and French., neither which I know. When I couldn't figure out if the tray was octopus eyes or, beef, I just couldn't eat it.
 
hollydolly said:
I have eaten (as well as the usual Beef, Chicken, Turkey Lamb & pork...)... Pheasant, Partridge, Rabbit, Kangaroo.. Crocodile, ostrich, Boar Horse ( the latter was unknown to me at the time).. frogs *ugh*... l''escargot (snails)... and no they don't all taste like Chicken.

the one that came closest to tasting like Chicken was crocodile which is a whie meat.. the rest all taste very gamey.. and strong.. very little fat on Kangaroo or ostrich

My grandad always had a pot of Rabbit stew on the stove...
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I've eaten most of those also since I was a child except for crocodile. All game meat was served and fowl of all types. I think it's what you grew up with and what you're taught to accept as normal for consumption. After having a pet rabbit, I could never face a meal of rabbit anymore. I could not eat dogs or cats either.

I do still like escargot which I've been eating since childhood. But I've never had a pet snail.
 
Humans for the sake of health would be wise to generally limit their animal meat consumption to limited fish, reptile, and bird species. Especially in this era of human overpopulation stressing environments and species.
 
I eat mostly plant based dinners with a small piece of fish or chicken.

I recall that when I was in Ostend, Belgium years ago, I had a 5 course meal where the main dish was pigeon. The whole meal was very good.

As someone else said, it can be psychological for some and that includes me. I have to divorce myself from the meat by not thinking it was a living/breathing thing before being slaughtered and ending up on my plate. I like lobster but would not like to see it being dropped alive in a pot of boiling water.
 
I've found all the comments posted interesting and agree with whoever said "it was all psychological". :)
I can't add much to the discussion therefore, except to say I enjoy some types of meat taken from sheep and cattle etc., but feel unable to eat other parts of them. I can very happily eat kidneys and liver, but not heart, and I've no real explanation for this!
 
Those are very good questions and points Chris. I grew up eating poultry, fish, beef and pork. My mother even cooked rabbit at least once. I live in N.J. and a diner in the area was serving frogs legs. I was told they taste like chicken but couldn't bring myself to eat them. I've eaten things I never thought i would such as octopus, which I first had in a salad that a Hispanic co-worker/friend offered to me. I agreed to try it but I had to eat the larger part of the tentacles because the smaller parts reminded me of a creature who's name I can't even stand to type! :cautious:

I stopped eating pork after reading about the trichinosis ......(same word I won't type). And I used to "put a hurtin'" on BBQ spareribs. After being bored with food I went back to eating pork briefly. By the time I was in my early 40's, I had stopped again and never resumed and had started cooking beef spareribs. I know in some places, they consume snakes, eels and things of that nature. I can't see myself consuming those. I've heard of people eating horse meat and even chocolate covered ants...nope. My son is totally against eating shrimp (says they are related to roaches) but until a couple of years ago when I read how most shrimp we eat are farmed/"raised", I still ate and enjoyed them.

I think deer are so cute and rabbits too, so I can't see myself eating those at this point. I hardly eat beef anymore either. I always thought that if I worked on a farm and I had to tend to the animals being raised there, I would not be able to bring myself to eat them.
 
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Hardly anyone would eat meat if we had to do all the dirty work - killing, skinning, plucking, gut removing, blood draining, etc.
Even then, we still have to disguise meat so it doesn't look or smell like what it is - by marinating, seasoning, etc.
 
If modern humans had to dispatch even a modest number of animals for the meat they eat like our ancestors did, there would be few mammal meat eaters. I caught and cleaned many fish as a kid that did not bother me at all. As a young adult I loved trout fishing in the High Sierra. In my 30's I increasingly changed my primary interest to photography with less time available for fishing. For the last three decades, another factor has been that I dislike killing fish. Looking at such creatures, I can see how they are struggling to escape and have fear in their eyes. However as someone that infrequently eats animal meats and expects to continue to do so, this Earth creature will continue doing so to fish because it gives me more serious appreciation for what it means to take the life of another creature for the sake of necessary nutrition.

golden_pan.jpg
 

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