A "reformed" vegetarian

From the Detroit Free Press - Female butchers find themselves on the cutting edge (ha. get it? cutting edge? creative).

Did you know:

"Butchering is primal. It's really primal. One of my favorite stories is this butcher that we hired, we were sawing a veal in half ... and I was holding the legs and he was sawing it in half -- I felt like I was a cavewoman or something. It was pretty awesome."

In the primal, caveman days, 16-week old male calves housed in crates and produced by neolithic Holstein cows were called veal and cut in half inside a butcher's shop. They had butcher caves back in the day.

After the ancient custom of cutting a baby calf in half, the "reformed" vegetarian ran through the streets of San Francisco naked, spearing anyone who got in her way - you know, just trying to stay in touch with her primal cavewoman roots. Sarcasm aside, primeval in the middle of San Francisco is not possible. Being lost in the woods with only the clothes on your back and alone with a hungry mountain lion - now that's primal!

One customer has this to say:

We were all sort of deciding to go vegetarian and (her husband) was having a hard time with it and he was, 'All right, I'm going to go humanely raised, humanely slaughtered animals.'

There is no such thing as "humane slaughter" - the two words are antonyms. Watching your herdmates die, hearing their screams, and then having your throat cut is never going to be lumped in with hugging puppies and helping grandma cross the road.

If you are so inclined, please write a letter to the editor at the Detroit Free Press:
editpg@freepress.com or letters@freepress.com

Keep it to under 250 words. Include your full name, address and phone number. Avoid the sarcasm used in this post.

Topics to consider:
- Writing about a vegan diet which is healthier than a meat-based diet as well as environmentally friendly and kind to animals.
- Writing about the incongruity of "humane" and "slaughter", emphasizing that no matter the size of the slaughterhouse, an animal's life is needlessly ended to sate a want, a taste, not because we "need" meat. Not to mention that the animal needs to be transported (very stressful) and hears, smells and sees the slaughter of his/her fellow herdmates.