My mom came home with live lobsters one time to cook for dinner. She'd only bought 2 and they were actually small - I think they were probably -barely- the legal weight minimum. Then again, this was back in 2004/2005 so I don't know what the fishing laws for lobsters were back then as far as weight goes. I -do- know that our local Wal Mart was one of the few left that even had a live lobster tank and actually had a flippin' -15- lb lobster in there. My mom was willing to pay whatever the store manager wanted for it, but they weren't going 'cuz it was a Valentine's Day drawing prize.

Anyway, she brought these lobsters home and within 5 minutes, I had the rubber bands off their claws and had them on the floor, playing with them. Totally inhumane, I realize now, considering they weren't in anything close to their natural habitat, but I remember my dad looking at me and he said, "You're not gonna eat these now, are you?"... I was 19 and nearly broke down in tears when they went into the pot.

I do appreciate our animal-related food resources, though. I think it's sad the way much of it is cultivated - cows being massed produced and fed corn & other things that aren't part of their natural diet to fatten them up, calves being kept in crates to keep their muscles soft so that we can have veal (which I don't eat), chickens kept in their own small cages for mass egg production and being de-beaked in order to keep the risks of pecking at themselves or each other to a minimum in spite of it being a natural instinct when they're under a lot of stress.

But sadly, all of those things are what keep costs down when it comes to the mass production of meat & poultry foods.

I would feel better if the whole animal were being put to good use in some way, but I think that that's just not the case in many processing factories.

I'm thankful, but I just try not to think about it in general.