Eating meat-eating animals

[Curt 1]

Got a question for the sj brains, I didn't know the answer and have read a few things online (including vitamin A in livers meaning it is toxic and economic).

 

What are the main reasons for humans to tend not to eat meat-eating animals? Anyone?

 

Thanks!

[tsondaboy 0]

List how many meat eating animals you know that can be domesticated and you are close to an answer.

[brit-gob 9]

A number of reasons. There are more environmental toxins in the liver and fat cells of animals higher in the food chain. But the main reason is probably economic. Energy loss at each stage of the food chain, any area will support more herbivores than carnivores.

[spacefrog 0]

Well maybe we should change this thread to why don`t western people eat carnivores.A lot of cultures will readily eat carnivores and do. Dog, bear, cat, shark, (hell tuna is a carnivore) are all eaten by a multitude of cultures.

 

Another reason is parasites are more easily contractable from carnivores, in any shape or form they come in.

[thursday 1]

it's actually more dangerous to hunt and kill a carnie. THe rpized game are carnies as they have a lot more energy to stout up your puny skin fat and bone self.

 

Come winter, these meats are a real delicacy (puke.......)

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Just ask the dinosaurs.......

[thursday 1]

ask them what?

[daver 0]

 Originally Posted By: thursday

it's actually more dangerous to hunt and kill a carnie.

you aren't kidding! they are generally a wily folk. and never seemed very appetizing. what with their mullets and the tear drop tattoos.

[spook 0]

 Originally Posted By: daver

you aren't kidding! they are generally a wily folk. and never seemed very appetizing. what with their mullets and the tear drop tattoos.

are you talking about yourself?

[Tubby Beaver 209]

 Originally Posted By: thursday

ask them what?

dunno, I was very drunk when I wrote that last night, it seemed to make sense......now it doesn't!!!

[thursday 1]

You can still taste dinosaur meat. Croc.

[keba 0]

Jared Diamond would argue for Tsondaboy's case. We eat herbivores mainly because they are domesticatible, i.e. easy to herd, feed, breed and butcher. There are a lot of exceptions, of course, but it boils down to chicken, beef, pork and sheep in the west, with local variations. There is a chapter in "Guns, Germs and Steel" dealing with this very question.

[Rag-Doll 0]

I reckon it's a combination of reasons but it also depends on what situation you're talking about. Is it hunter gather Africa or is it the 21st century Western diet?

 

If the former and only talking about land animals I reckon:

 

1 Danger definitely, but it might be less of an issue than it initially appears to be. Hunting a lion is of course dangerous but so is hunting an elephant or giraffe. Hunting mega fauna is probably more dangerous than hunting just about any carnivore under, I don't know, say 50kg?

 

2 There are simply more herbivores around so they’re easier to find.

 

3 Herbivores tend to make better eating – there is more of their food and it is easier to get compared to that of a carnivore.

 

4 Herbivores tend to gather together, perhaps this makes it easier to catch one, particularly if you're throwing a spear - just hurl it into the group.

 

5 Carnivores are probably on the whole smarter than herbivores so they’re more difficult to catch.

 

So I reckon it is less to do with danger and more to do with a cost v benefit analysis. You simply stand a better chance of getting a better feed by hunting herbivores than carnivores. But there is no hard and fast rule though as it has already been said, lots of societies eat lots of different types of carnivores, some of them extremely dangerous. Tiger wine anyone?

 

For 21st century western diets –a social tradition derived from animals that have proven to be the most readily domesticated AND were good eating or better than others or had fewer other uses. Why isn’t horse a bigger part of the Anglophone diet? Do/did Arabs eat camel?

[soubriquet 0]

Camels provide milk and meat as well as transport.

[thursday 1]

and forms of entertainment

[Oyuki kigan 0]

economically its even more pointless than eating herbivores.

 

For one, what do you feed the carnivore?

 

Other animals, which presumable have to be raised and fed a ton of food. If it takes say, ５ or 6 pounds of vegetable protien to create one pound of chicken flesh, and how many pounds of that is needed to create one pound of carnivore flesh?

 

economically (and environmentally speaking), it is cheaper just to eat the plant protien directly.

 

An example of what you are talking about is similar to current salmon farming techniques, where it taked 4 pound of wild fish to produce 1 pound of farmed salmon.

[Rag-Doll 0]

 Originally Posted By: Oyuki kigan

economically its even more pointless than eating herbivores.

For one, what do you feed the carnivore?

Other animals, which presumable have to be raised and fed a ton of food. If it takes say, ５ or 6 pounds of vegetable protien to create one pound of chicken flesh, and how many pounds of that is needed to create one pound of carnivore flesh?

economically (and environmentally speaking), it is cheaper just to eat the plant protien directly.

An example of what you are talking about is similar to current salmon farming techniques, where it taked 4 pound of wild fish to produce 1 pound of farmed salmon.

How many pounds of wild fish does it take to make one pound of wild salmon? By that rationale it makes economical sense to farm them.

Being a vegie in the 21st cent works, but nothing beats dead animal flesh if you're stooging around in the bush with a spear. Pound for pound you're a long way better off eating meat.

[SerreChe 2]

Some people have died eating carnivores due to parasites and various diseaeses that end-up at the top of the food chain. Some chemicals are also found in larger doses. Mercury in large groupers is an example.