Would You Eat a Dead Chicken?

How perception can shape food choices

I don’t really consider myself a vegetarian. I just rarely eat meat. Only when I think I will really enjoy it, or when it’s a key part of a dish. But apart from that, I’m more than happy with my veggies. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything by not eating meat.

By moving to different places around the world, I get to experience a variety of food cultures. And for some reason, my taste for meat got less and less. Why? My guess: dead animals hanging in local markets (and sorry if that doesn’t paint a pretty picture). Back at home, when I would buy some chicken — as my non-vegetarian partner loves his protein — to prepare for dinner, I would get some neatly packaged filets. Nice and pink. Makes it easy to forget that this meat used to be a living animal.

But here, that’s a little different. Here you see animals walking all around. I occasionally need to hit the brakes of my scooter as a random chicken comes running by and decides to cross the road (followed by a whole family of chicks, very cute). A few minutes later, though, I drive past a local food market only to see some dead chickens hanging there, ready for sale and ready to be turned into chicken satay. Eh… That could have been the mommy of those cute chicks I just saw.

At first, I didn’t really have an apparent reason for why I started to eat less meat. Of course, it’s better for the environment, vegetarian dishes are delicious, and there are enough plant-based protein sources out there. But I’ve come to realize that my fondness for animals is an important factor too — more so than I initially realized.

Why is it that I didn’t really have a problem with buying and preparing chicken filet that I bought in a supermarket, but seeing the whole chickens up for sale leaves me feeling a bit guilty — or disgusted even? Not entirely sure what label I should put on that feeling. What I am sure of, though, is that it makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

It’s all about perception, isn’t it? Do we call it meat or an animal? Do you buy chicken or ‘a’ chicken? (Actually, chicken is the odd one out here because chicken stays chicken. But for cows (beef) or pigs (pork), we start calling them different names once we turn them into ‘food’.)

The chicken filet I’m used to buying in the supermarket doesn’t even remind me of the animal it used to be. It has been prepared and cleaned, and sometimes it’s even cut into small pieces already. As a result, it doesn’t remind me of the animal much; it’s just meat in its packaging. This is exactly what takes the ‘animal’ out of the ‘meat’.

What if Western supermarkets started displaying whole chickens (head included) instead of cutting them up and packaging them neatly? This might make people think twice about their meat consumption. It would motivate me to do so, at least. Everyone has the right to make their own decisions, of course, but I’m curious how many people would make different food choices if meat was presented in a more natural way.

For me, buying a whole dead chicken is just a little too much. I don’t feel comfortable breaking down the dead animal and cutting through its bones to prepare the meat. But that’s just me; others might not have a problem with that. I am wondering though, would others be okay with taking it even one step further and kill the chicken themselves? Would people be willing to do that? Would you?

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