An ethical dilemma.

OK, seriously. 

Today while I was at work I became part of yet another conversation about vegetarianism (two or three of us are vegetarians and we prepare food so it tends to come up a lot). Somewhere in the course of this conversation, one of my work mates told us that she knows someone who (wait for it...) raises, kills and eats her own guinea pigs.

Yes, guinea pigs. 

Apparently the idea behind this is that she only wants to eat meat that she knows for sure has been raised and killed in a humane manner. So, since apparently buying free-range isn't good enough anymore (which I concede, it's not - it's impossible to tell if something is actually "free-range" or not) she has decided to take matters into her own hands. But the thing that really got me about this conversation, though, was the fact that I seemed to be the only person who was completely and utterly horrified by this. 

Are you joking? How does she kill them? Is that even legal?  These made up just some of the many outraged questions I asked, but everyone else seemed to think this was yes, a little weird, but not totally unacceptable. "I can see where she's coming from," said the girl who told the story. I just stood there flabbergasted. What?

OK - I get the concept behind it. Only eat something if you know where it came from so you know you're being 100% humane. But seriously, guinea pigs? If you care about your meat that much - if you're so concerned about the welfare of animals that just buying organic or free-range isn't enough - why eat meat at all? It's like she's doing it just to prove a point. "Oh yeah, I only eat meat I know has been raised and killed humanely - I mean, I live on guinea pig meat, but still, aren't I ethical?"

Surely there are laws about killing domestic animals too? It's the same as doing this with dogs or cats. Exactly the same. You would think you'd need some sort of special license to be able to kill animals to certify that you actually did do it humanely. Wouldn't you?

I wonder if she names them. I wonder if she has a guinea pig killing station somewhere in her house. I wonder what she does with the skins. Urgh. 

Could you?