The Day I "Chicken-ed Out"

By ALISON KUMMER
PVPHS class of '03                                    

 

For the first seventeen years of my life, I was a relatively hardcore meat eater consuming either chicken or beef nearly every day. I always knew about the aspect of cruelty to animals, but I never really cared until one dismal day in cooking class.

It was “Meat Month” and we would begin learning to prepare different kinds of meat. On this particular day my class was going to begin learning about cooking chicken. At first, it was just another day in cooking class, and I didn’t have any issues with cooking chicken. After a short lecture on how to handle the chicken, along with certain methods of cutting them, my cooking teacher pulled out raw, freshly killed chickens from grocery bags, as if putting them on display. She told our class that we would be “de-boning” the chicken with special meat scissors. (De-boning is a process by which the bones and fat of a chicken are detached from the edible portions of the bird.) My group members were excited to learn more about the process of preparing chicken for our meal, but I couldn’t think of this experience in that way.

My group had our own chicken to cut apart. At the first sight of the cold, lifeless chicken, I felt thoroughly disgusted with myself and my teacher for making us treat an animal with such disrespect. For the first five minutes or so, I participated in preparing the chicken for our meal, but it wasn’t until I saw the blood and veins in the chicken that I decided to step outside of the room. My friend asked me if I was okay, and told me that I didn’t have to help prepare the chicken if I couldn’t handle it. “You don’t look so good right now,” she said, “so why don’t you go sit down?”

I just sat in my seat contemplating how I could have eaten meat for so long without knowing about the harsh reality these animals face everyday in slaughterhouses all over the world. To even think that my class was desecrating these animals even further was too much for me to bear. That was the day I decided to become a vegetarian; oddly enough, this was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made. This life-changing decision led to more thoughts about other animals that suffer such as baby cows, which are slaughtered for their meat known as veal. Tragically, these calves have barely lived before their lives are taken away from them.

Once cooking class ended that day, I instantly went to my counselor’s office in order to drop cooking. I didn’t think I could endure another painful sight of a dead animal killed only for the enjoyment of my taste buds. I have been a vegetarian ever since; although vegetarianism is a major lifestyle change, I am happier and healthier as a result of it. Not only do I feel great, but also I am not promoting animal cruelty. In my mind, that’s a winning situation for all.

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