The day started out well enough – exchanged my 60gb iPod for an 80gb and got $70 back in the process (god love Costco’s exchange policy!). Got a new office chair, assembled it without incident and headed to a late afternoon meeting with a new client.  The meeting went well and then we headed to dinner with several other team members to a restaurant suggested by the client. 

I have a bad habit of waiting until half the day has passed before eating anything of significance.  I know this is bad for me, but I get wrapped up in getting things done and, when the trembling and anxious feelings that come with low blood sugar present themselves, I’m obliged to stop long enough to find something to eat (and, usually when it gets to this point, a LOT of something) in a hurry.  So, when I left for my meeting I’d only eaten a bowl of cereal and snacked on some mini rice cakes, knowing that we’d be grabbing dinner after our meeting.

I’d never been to a Hot Pot restaurant before and, forthe uninitiated, I’ll try my best to explain.  Hot Pot is a form of Chinese restaurant where patrons sit at large tables with gas burners on either end.  Then, servers bring large pots with a divider in the center which allows two different types of broth to be heated by the burners on the table.  These suckers heat up in a hurry and, in a matter of minutes, you have a bubbling mini-moat of chicken broth or satay.  Then, plates of raw seafood, thinly sliced beef, lamb or chicken and an assortment of Chinese vegetables are brought out.  Each diner has their own set of plates, soup cups, a ladle and chopsticks to pick up various items and plop them into the boiling liquids to cook.  A couple of minutes later, you fish the food out, top the items with one of the various sauces (peanut, soy, red curry) and munch to your heart’s desire.

This would all be fine and good were I not a) starving when we got there b) not the most gastronomically adventurous person – hey, I’m a Southerner, we like fried stuff and starch! and c) soft-hearted.  Were it not already bad enough that nearly all the items brought out were seafood and my body is a no-seafood zone, serious insult was added to injury when the server brought out a plate of prawns on skewers.  This would, again, not be a huge deal, but for the fact that when they arrived at the table, the shrimp were still alive and moving, in spite of the fact that they had been impaled on the skewers, apparently fresh out of the water.

One of the other people at the table picked up a skewer with a prawn on it, made a joking gesture about it still being alive and moving and proceeded to drop it into the boiling water.  Having turned my head away just before the skewered critter hit the pot, I was in a complete state of disbelief and had to look away as I almost started crying in front of a table full of nearly perfect strangers.  I was just shocked that people would do such a thing and, worse yet, think so lightly of it.

I VEHEMENTLY disagree with the idea that it’s OK to keep animals (be it pigs, chickens, cows, fish or other seafood) in cruel conditions just so that they are “fresher” when they get to the table.  What a bunch of crap!  It makes me sick that people would not think twice before doing this sort of thing.  I can’t even look at the tanks of fish in the supermarket which are so full of fish, they only have room to hover in one place, rather than any room to swim around at all.  I don’t understand how people can have no conscious about making choices to intentionally inflict pain, suffering and general cruelty on other living creatures for such self-serving purposes. Just who the hell do we think we are?

Now, before anyone starts to wonder, I am not a vegetarian, though I don’t think it’d be a huge stretch for me to become one.  But, I do make an effort to consciously appreciate the animals who give their lives for me to eat and I do make a choice to purchase free-range eggs, chicken and organic meat when I can.  If it came down to it, I would not eat meat if I had to kill the animals myself.  Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, but I could not look into the eyes of an animal and kill it.  Maybe the story would be different were I starving in the middle of a remote forest or other extreme situation.  Even then, though, I’d probably still have a really hard time with it and would likely have serious feelings of guilt. 

Needless to say, I will not be making a return visit to any similar establishments in the future and I would certainly never choose to dine with anyone who thinks sticking a wooden stake through a living creature before dropping it into boiling water is acceptable.  It’s so barbaric and it’s nearly 2007 for god’s sakes.  It’s things like this that make me think having a kid is a good idea if for no other reason than to teach at least one other person in the world to have respect for others – be it animals, plants or other people.

If we can’t do better than this as a species, the Earth best spit us out sooner than later.

In an effort to be a contributing member of my local community, I sent an email to the two local newspapers, the mayor’s office and the parks office to ask if they were interested in trying to get the community together to try to clean up the debris and damaged trees this week’s heavy snowfall has caused to Central Park.  To illustrate the need for an effort to be organized, I enclosed a link to the photo I shot which can be seen on the last post I made about the tree that fell in the pond from all the weight of the snow.  Who knows if they’ll respond, but at least I feel better at having made an effort to make something happen.

– Soft-Hearted Goody-Two-Shoes

 Currently Watching: Failure to Launch