…I don’t think a sacrificed cow will be eaten. If it was to be eaten, then it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. I don’t know anything about South African cultures, but aren’t sacrifices usually burned?

Burnt sacrifices are from the bible – Leviticus etc.

South African sacrifices are always eaten. People can’t afford to throw away hundreds of dollars of perfectly good meat.

I’m an atheist (and I think religion gets too much of a look in in our public life in South Africa), but I’m tempted to support this, if only because I’ve heard so many white people moaning about how it’s “barbarous” and “savage” to kill a cow.

It’s worth noting that absolutely nothing has been settled. No World Cup officials have agreed to this, or even made a statement about it. It’s just some traditional types, and I suspect they’re basically trolling.

The concept of the ritual itself isn’t really that different from the Christian rituals you’d have to put up with anywhere else; the real tragedy here is that the sacrificed animals’ corpses will probably be wasted.

…I don’t think a sacrificed cow will be eaten. If it was to be eaten, then it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. I don’t know anything about South African cultures, but aren’t sacrifices usually burned?

Oh no, that’s not something to be worried about – it will definitely be eaten.

Oh but really as a vegetarian I can say that there are animal sacrifices at stadiums all over the world at every event in the form of hot dogs. Not much difference. How ’bout we just stop slaughtering animals all together especially in the name of an imaginary friends called god.

I couldn’t agree with this statement more except for one part. Don’t you see the hipocrisy in calling out the omnivores and superstitionistson their unnecessary animal sacrifices when you eat dairy (and presumably eggs)?

The only way to end the unnecessary suffering and slaughter of all animals is to end the commodification of non-humans. And the only way to accomplish that is to adopt abolitionist veganism as a moral baseline.

As an atheist and a vegetarian, this offends me, and I think it’s sick and wrong. As a (very) amateur anthropologist, I feel like we shouldn’t interfere or stop another culture’s traditions.

I really wish they wouldn’t do it and I’ll be angry if they do, but it’s not really our place to stop them.

I encourage you to read this:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Myth-Lierre-Keith/dp/1604860804

On the petition site a link was added where you can view the method of slaughter, for those who prefer more detail before signing.

Thank you for your blog entry
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Stop-2010-World-Cup-Animal-Sacrifice

Sincerely,

Okay, I love beef! I do not, however, love blood and gore. And, no, I would not want my six year old grandson witnessing this. If he cares to when he’s older, that’s up to him.

If I had to butcher my own, probably would not happen. Fortunately, I don’t have to. It comes all nice and neatly wrapped in nice, sanitary plastic. Hmmm, on second thought, I guess I could learn to slaughter my own if it was that or no meat. Fortunately, I will most likely never be forced to do so.

For all you silly vegetarians/vegans, why is life more precious just because it bleeds? I’ve news for you — you have to kill to eat. Those plants you relish aren’t living their natural life cycle out either. Doesn’t matter if said life cycle would be short if it went unpicked. You still have to kill to eat.

That said my grandson just got a lesson in where his meat comes from. I like to imitate Freddie Prince’s “Looking good!” to encourage him when he combs his hair and dresses neatly and that sort of thing so I was searching for a You Tube clip for the line from “Chico and the Man” (which I didn’t find) but one line on a clip I played, Chico says “Is a pig pork?” Grandson said, “Ewww, no,” and I said, “Yes.”

He says “You don’t eat pig.” I said, “Sure I do. So do you.” He looks at me funny and I say, “You like pork?” He nods and I said, “That’s pig.” “You like ham?” He nods, and I told him that’s pig. Same for bacon and sausage (all of which he loves). I was casual about it and he seemed to think about it a sec shrugged and said, “Okay.”

That does not mean he also needs to witness a pig being slaughtered in order for him to enjoy pork, ham, bacon and sausage. Get real. It may be natural for the son of a butcher; it isn’t for a kid who hasn’t been subject to it for six years of life.

However, I am going ahead with cooking the pork chops I had planned tomorrow night when his Mom’s working. We’ll see how that goes. If I remember, I’ll keep you posted but I suspect it will be okay. We’ve already had this discussion with chickens and fish and he still loves them. In fact, he goes fishing with his Dad.

….

I LOVE it when atheism and vegetarianism come up as a topic!