Thursday, June 4, 2015

Aunts Who Work With Animals/Meat

When I went home for Memorial Day weekend, a lot of my aunts were visiting from out of town. I recalled at a family gathering that two of my aunt's happen to work in the meat packing industry, and are in close proximity of the animals that are killed to eventually become the meat we eat. I decided to ask them about it and their thoughts on the entire ordeal. One of them chops off the feet of the chicken, while the other watches the pigs. They both work in different states.
I shared with them what I've learned since being in this class, and how over time the human views of animals have changed greatly. However, the response I received was not what I expected. My aunts didn't seem bothered by the animals at all.
It was interesting how little emotion was put into their work. I had to remember that my aunts chose to have these jobs because of the hours and the benefits. Also, that my family comes from another country where it was rare to eat meat, and when you did, it was a big (usually happy) deal.
We are always blaming the people that work in these industries, but in reality we don't know their backgrounds. I wonder how much the perspective changes whether you were born here or in another country, or if your not necessarily from a stable economic background.

2 comments:

  1. This is interesting to read because in my family when i mentioned the idea of wanting to be vegetarian they seemed very bothered, insisting that I needed meat to get by and for protein and what not. They don't work with meat like your aunts do but when it comes to cooking they don't feel bad, its just food to them without adding any other emotion other that to it. In mexico there has been times when they have the goat or pig around and later thats what is being fed at our family party. Its interesting to see that many different cultures don't view eating meat in a negative way.

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  2. It is probably also much easier to work a job like that if you dont put emotion into the mix.

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