A vegetarian almost cracks
BY STEPHANIE CONLEY
I’ve been a vegetarian for almost five years. I support PETA and I’m subscribed to their newsletter. I own two pet goats. And, the only time in all these years I’ve come close to eating meat was after watching a sheep get skinned and gutted at Green Mountain College.
It was a demonstration set up by Kenneth Mulder at the barn. When I heard about it, I felt disgust pass by, and when it was gone I realized I was interested. I thought—who knows, one day I may have to put knowledge like that to use. I do plan on living away from society one day and skinning a sheep, Kenneth said, was very similar to skinning a deer. In fact, deer is easier. The perspective I took was acknowledging that everything is temporary, and bragging rights about being meatless for five years wouldn’t save me from starvation in the wild. So I told myself, “It’s for my future!” and started the walk down.
They were hung from a tendon in their backlegs, three sheep in all, bleeding from the place where they were shot. I started doubting my decision, staring at the big brown one which was still producing yellow foam from its mouth. I covered my nose with my sleeve as the cutting started.
Now here’s when I began to notice a change in my feelings from my initial shock and disgust. The wool came off almost effortlessly, reminding me of nothing more harmful than peeling a tangerine. It seemed natural. And this is from a girl who won’t even eat animal broth in a soup! But I watched fixated. It was even cool how the girl doing the cutting snapped the leg bones by making a fulcrum with her arm. It made a hollow thud as she threw it into the wheelbarrow next to me. I looked down and felt passive acceptance. Not fear, not outrage. Just a sense that something was happening that was timeless and completely natural.
When the cutting and gutting, slicing and dicing, was finished, Kenneth asked if anyone wanted to cook up some of the innards right then over an open fire. I felt like a savage, like I was transported back to a time when people needed to prepare their own food in order to survive.
I stood around the fire and this was when I gave thought to actually trying some of the meat. My stomach may have grumbled, but suddenly, a louder noise brought me back to my senses. The clanging of the GMC bell reminded me that I’m not a wild being, I have choices I can make, and one of them is Chartwells and the delicious tempeh they were probably serving that night. I realized I was enlightened by the experience of the skinning. It was cool to see something so brutal yet natural, but until it’s necessary for my survival, I’ll stick with soy.
Short URL: http://www.themountaineer.org/?p=936
Posted by Stephanie Conley
on Nov 2, 2009 Filed under First-Person.
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