What is a Meat Animal? [View All]

Wikipedia has a list of animals used as meat animals around the world, with links to articles about who eats each animal and where. Just about every animal is eaten somewhere in the world, and some of them are ones you wouldn't expect to be on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meat_animals

In some cases, an objection to eating certain animals is common in one culture, but the animal is eaten in another culture. Horse meat and dog meat are two examples of such animals. The objections seem to arise from the keeping of some animals as pets or companions in one culture, which can afford to do so, while they are not kept as pets in other cultures. In the case of dogs and cats, we feed our companion animals the meat from other animals. It takes a particular affluence to be able to give food to an animal. In many places, meat is scarce and none is available for pets. In others, there is a surplus of meat, so it is economical to feed it to pets rather than reserve it for human use. A particular animal may be tabu in one culture, while it is readily used in another culture as food, sometimes even in places very close to each other.

In other cases, certain animals are not eaten for religious reasons because it is believed that they are unclean or are some sort of religious totem and protected due to that. Cattle, for example are not eaten by most Hindus in India, but are eaten by other Indians, who have no such religious prohibition.

In the United States, we rarely consume goat, but it is widely used as a meat animal in much of the world. Presented with a dish prepared from goat meat, many Americans will find themselves unable to eat it, despite its popularity in subcultures within the United States. Rabbit, also a very popular food animal in much of the world, faces similar prejudices in the US among many, although it is relished by many Americans.

Which animals we eat and do not eat appears to be almost entirely a cultural issue. Perhaps we err in condemning the consumption of particular animals in places with a very different culture than our own. Perhaps it is inappropriate for us to do that. Imposing our particular cultural norms on those with different cultural norms seems to me to be a little off the mark, and somewhat inappropriate.