Photo courtesy of ehoyer

I found this poem years ago in a book on vegetarianism when I was first reading up all about it.

It struck me as both amusing and rather to the point, as well as being well written.

Teach kids all about the cute animals but miss the bit on killing them for food. Hmm, it is rather a dichotomy, isn't it? Just for the record, I don't have a major problem with eating animals, but I do have a problem with the inherently abusive factory farming of them and the inability most carnivores have of dealing with the idea of killing an animal themselves and eating it.

LEARNING TO BE A DUTIFUL CARNIVORE

By Jane Legge


Dogs and cats and goats and cows,
Ducks and chickens, sheeps and sows
Woven into tales for tots,
Pictured on their walls and pots.
Time for dinner! Come and eat
All your lovely juicy meat.

One day ham from Percy Porker
(In the comics he's a corker):
Then the breast from Mrs. Cluck
Or the wing from Donald Duck.
Liver next from Clara Cow
(No, it doesn't hurt her now).

Yes, that leg's from Peter Rabbit
Chew it well; make that a habit.
Eat the creatures killed for sale,
But never pull the kitty's tail.
Eat the flesh from "filthy hogs"
But never be unkind to dogs.

Grow into double-think-
Kiss the hamster; skin the mink.
Never think of slaughter, dear,
That's why animals are here.
They only come on earth to die,
So eat your meat, and don't ask why.