Thursday, July 29, 2010

A defence of eating squirrels

From BBC News:

A north London grocery store is committing "wildlife massacre" by selling squirrel meat, an animal welfare group has claimed.

Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (Viva) accused a branch of Budgens of supporting a "barbaric and needless cull" of grey squirrels.

An independently-owned branch in Crouch End has been selling the meat for four months.

I think Viva is barking up the wrong tree here. There is far more cruelty involved in the factory farming of more conventional animals than there is in killing squirrels. They have a happy time leaping from bough to bough and playing with their nuts until their final moments.

No doubt Viva campaigns against factory farming too, but the outrage here is misplaced.

And when Jenny Seagrove says:
"What gruesome product will be next to grace our food aisles? Blackbird, field mouse or mole?"
she merely confirms that actors are usually more impressive when someone else writes their words for them.

Still, I suppose the advantage of electing yourself the voice for animals is that they are never going to turn round and say: "Don't patronise us, whitey."

Now read:

2 comments:

Lavengro in Spain said...

There is far more cruelty involved in the factory farming of more conventional animals than there is in killing squirrels. They have a happy time leaping from bough to bough and playing with their nuts until their final moments.

Which is also true of Spanish fighting bulls. With obvious differences of course. Bulls don't play with their nuts.

And on that subject, may I refer you to: http://lavengro.typepad.com/lavengro_in_spain/2010/07/what-a-load-of-bull.html

Ramona Andrews said...

I work on the BBC Food blog and we're asking if people have eaten squirrel and what they think of it.

The link is here if you're interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/food/2010/11/have-you-ever-eaten-squirrel.shtml

Please let us know your views.