beastie
/ˈbi sti/
1. Chiefly Literary. a small animal, especially one toward which affection is felt.
2. Facetious. an insect; bug.
3. Canadian Slang (chiefly Alberta) . construction worker.
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John looked at the animal through the scope of the small
pellet gun. His tiny hands
trembled. Even though the rabbit was
facing away from him, he somehow knew it was aware of him. And yet, it stayed where it was, nibbling at
the grass. John lowered the weapon.
“I can’t
do it, dad.” He said quietly. “I just
can’t.”
“Why
not?” His father asked.
“I just
can’t is all.”
“Now
son, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.
That rabbit’s going to be our dinner tonight you know.”
“It is?”
His
father nodded. John mulled that thought
over. He came to one single conclusion: He did not want to eat that rabbit. How could he eat something that might be
related to the rabbits his teacher kept in the classroom? He really liked those rabbits. And the only difference his young eyes could
see between those and the one in front of him was that those in the classroom
were white, grey and black, and the one in the field was brown.
“I don’t
wanna.” John said again. “I don’t wanna
eat a rabbit.”
“Why
not? It tastes just like a lot of the
other things you eat.”
“I don’t
wanna eat something that was alive.”
His
father sighed. He wondered why his son
had said that. He had never had that
problem when he was John’s age.
“There’s
nothing wrong with eating an animal, son.
We do it all the time?”
“No we
don’t.” John replied.
“Yes we
do. Lots of the things you eat came from
an animal. Hot dogs come from
animals. So do hamburgers.”
The
child’s eyes opened wide. He did not
know that. He also began to worry what
else might have come from an animal.
“Does
pizza come from animals?”
“No. But pepperoni does.”
How
could that be? John loved pepperoni
pizza and hot dogs and hamburgers. He
had no idea they came from animals though.
“Does
it really?”
“Mm
hm. Pepperoni and hot dogs come from
pigs and hamburgers come from cows.”
John
had never seen any of those animals before.
He had seen pictures online and read about them in school, but never in
person. But he could see the rabbit. He thought about the rabbit being made into a
hamburger instead of a cow. He did not
like that thought.
He even started to wonder why anyone
would want to eat something that came from another animal. It did not make sense to him. Nobody could be that mean. But, then again, it was his father saying
it. His father knew everything. His father
was never wrong. That meant it had to be
true. Tears started welling up in his
eyes.
“I…I don’t…I don’t wanna eat
anything.” He whined. “I don’t wanna eat
animals.”
His father felt a pit form in his
stomach. The family tradition was
supposed to teach the boy how to be self-sufficient, and about the food chain
and the like. While it would not make a
true hunter, it was certainly supposed to teach the value of eating meat by
showing him where it came from. Instead,
it had turned him into a vegetarian.
The
rabbit heard John’s cry and ran off. The
boy’s father sighed. It would take way too long for them to find another
one. And even then, John might not want
to shoot and eat it.
“Okay,
fine. Let’s go back to the camp and we’ll
take about it with your mother, okay?”
“Okay.”
John said, wiping away a few tears.
The boy
followed his father back to the camp site.
John was thinking about all of the animals he had eaten. He promised himself that no more would be
killed for his sake.
**************
Let it be known that I am neither a vegetarian nor a vegan. I have a diet that definitely includes the consumption of animals. And I, for one, am not ashamed of it.
Send to Jane
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