I've pretty much stopped watching nature documentaries on TV because when an animal, say, a rabbit, is presented, and I see it born and then frolic and so on, I can't help developing feelings for it. Then -- and it usually doesn't take very long for this to happen -- a predator comes along and tears the animal limb from limb before utterly devouring it. Which may be the way of nature, but is also a bummer.
Plus, I don't appreciate the heaping serving of hypocrisy that comes with the TV's portrayal of meat consumption. Other animals are shown gnawing at still-twitching carcasses but when it comes to humans, we instead get an entertaining chef finessing a stainless steel knife atop a marble countertop and well-dressed diners sitting at candlelit tables. We never see the terror in the cow's eyes, we never see the slaughterhouse worker hauling off his vat of offal.
That is because the process that puts veal on a china plate or a cheeseburger on our little plastic tray between the french fries and the diet coke is a disgusting one, and to accurately portray it would make us seem savage. And who wants to be a savage? Denial is easier to swallow.
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