DID YOU EAT "BIRD" FOR THANKSGIVING?


DID YOU EAT “BIRD” FOR THANKSGIVING?

By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi



I have never thought that being a “bird lover” and being a “bird eater” could possibly be such a contradiction, until I read an article by Nicholas Lund on Audubon.org called: Decide How You Feel About Eating Birds.  Since we just had Thanksgiving and many of us sat down at our family gathering to eat our fair share of a turkey dinner, it’s a good time to think about how we feel about eating birds. 



As a “bird fancier” it is a well known fact that I love birds!  Watching birds in my own backyard is one of my favorite things to do and the feeling of peace that they bring to me is wonderful, so how could I possibly enjoy eating birds?  And yet I do enjoy eating them! I fry them, bake them, boil them, broil them and grill them!  Just like Bubba in the movie Forest Gump I could recite a list of all the ways that I enjoy preparing “birds.”  But, how can I have such mixed feelings concerning “bird love”?  Is my behavior just WRONG? Should I feel guilty and become a vegetarian?



I have also felt a bit miffed when I see a neighborhood cat come to my yard to snag a bird and I see it depart with red, yellow or blue feathers sticking out the side of its mouth!  Instead of showing shame as I glare at him, he seems pretty proud that he is bringing bird home for supper that night!  So is it any more right for me to eat a bird than that “kitty-cat”?



Cats eat up to four billion birds a year, but humans eat upwards of 8 billion chickens and 300 million turkeys per year, so should we point our fingers at cats because they enjoy birds, too?  Though cats are one of the biggest threats to our wild bird population, am I also a threat and a hypocrite?



So as I finish up my wonderful Thanksgiving turkey and contemplate this dilemma I will “Look at the birds of the air…” Matthew 6:26 and just maybe, I will put becoming a vegetarian on my New Year’s Resolutions list – after all, most resolutions wander by the wayside pretty quickly!

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E-mail: birdieofmississippi@gmail.com

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