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I Love Animals to Death

After all, I am one.

By KJ ThomasPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Cooking for myself is a spiritual practice I have. I subscribe to one of those produce delivery services, “Imperfect Produce” and it’s one of those environmentally sustainable services where they take items rejected by other companies and offer them at a reduced price to reduce waste. Being able to create what you want for yourself is a powerful source of independence and happiness. And lately I’ve been challenging myself to cook more meat.

It’s a good challenge. Meat takes more spices than vegetables do, and you have to cook it more carefully. You can’t just sauté it and throw a sauce on. You have to get a good sear. You have to cover it up to catch the moisture and cook it all the way through but not overcook it. You have to use your instincts and all your senses. You have to make a good marinade. You revert to your primal self.

Some people like to point to gorillas and other herbivore primates to argue against meat-eating. But humans aren’t gorillas. Anthropologists have a concept called the “Expensive Tissue Hypothesis” which analyzes the evolution of primate brains and digestive systems. A gorilla’s intestine is exponentially larger than ours is. It’s for digesting woody leaves and stems, and it uses the majority of its energy for digesting plant matter. Humans need energy too, and we, too, have a limited amount of energy for digesting our food. Our bodies have evolved big, buzzing brains and relatively short intestines. That’s why we need relatively simple, easy to digest foods like cooked foods and meat.

Our ancestors didn’t even kill the animals themselves like honorable hunters. The earliest evidence of primates eating other animals points to scavenging. After a lion or some other real predator got done with a kill and after the hyenas had taken their share, some little ape-person used to come along with a long stick to scrape the marrow out of the bones. We fed on simple, fatty protein, and we evolved.

If you want to make an evolutionary argument about the human diet, the anti-dairy people are actually in a stronger position than the vegetarians. Consuming the milk of another animal is actually a much more recent development in primate evolution than meat-eating, as evidenced by the prevalence of lactose intolerance to this day. Dairy consumption is linked to northern migration and the need for a reliable protein source during dry spells, cold spells, and situations where adventurers had gotten lost far from meat. Even so, if you care about what is and is not “natural” it’s actually very simple to discern if you should drink milk or not. Do you have the gene for digesting milk? Then it’s totally natural for you to drink milk. Your ancestors drank milk and survived to reproduce. That’s why you’re alive.

I thank the cows for their service, I really do. Sweet little piggies and chickens, even a goose one time. Your sacrifice will not go unnoticed. Animals who die as food for another animal are living in the circle of life, just like every other animal. It can be easy for us to forget about living in this big cozy cities like we do, but there are always big hungry cats and bears and wolves who would just love to chow down on our tender loving hearts. And they would be justified in doing so. And guess what, even if no big monster ever does eat you up, you are still going to die someday. And all the little animals you save by not eating them…. Still going to die too. So don’t forget to live while you’re alive. Everybody dies.

humanity
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About the Creator

KJ Thomas

I'm chasing after whatever this whole thing is building to. You can talk back to me here: https://agnostic.com/member/KJThomas and my profile artwork was made by my good friend Tabitha: https://www.instagram.com/tabithaslander/

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