Not even when I spotted a half skinned frog as it ran away from a street vendor onto the middle of a street in Shanghai. Friends wince when I describe it, they won't even want to look at the picture. Me, I stopped, locked in and stared at it for as long as I could, until I myself was nearly to become roadkill.
The lifeless body, the act of slaughtering, the feel of muscle, flesh and skin never get to me. Perhaps I have snapped too many soft squishy earthworms with my little hands to register that tactile experience as negative. Perhaps my little brain never had time to hardwire it - too busy looking for the others before they all disappeared further into the ground.
The waste gets to me though. But animals are already drained of their blood by the time it is bought. So in both the very un-Lady MacBeth like manner and otherwise, I have little blood on my hands to worry about.
However, I sense this may all change.
Today, we went to the game dealers to pick up some whole pigeon and rabbit for the butchering course tomorrow. These were bought whole so people can skin them as part of the course.
6 pigeons and 6 rabbits in a box, in the car |
Wild rabbits - cheaper and better than battery chickens. |
It could have been the fact there were feathers everywhere, or that there were different dead animals, or I just went up too close to have a good look. All I know is, I am a bit spooked and more than a bit scared to hold the pigeon or the rabbit.
Deer... |
...O dear. |
Now will I be game enough tomorrow?
Let's see.