Okay, so I'm reaching out to my fellow veggies because I'm hoping you all will understand. My husband and I got into a bit of a debate last night because we were talking about when we have kids. I am open to the idea of raising them to eat meat and allowing them to make their own decisions as long as they are equally exposed to a vegetarian lifestyle. This, however, led into the debate as to whether or not we will take our kids to zoos.
For me, I will sooner throw my money down the toilet and flush it before I would ever step foot in a zoo. I think they're inhumane, and they cost 50 x's more per animal to maintain than if they were in a reservation. My husbamd, however, has different ideas. He wants our kids to be exposed to animals and have the ability to see them and/or pet them because they wouldn't otherwise be able to if they lived in their natural habitats (isn't that the point?!). Too me, zoos are just as bad as circuses with animals, and he knows how passionately I am against the existence of zoos. I'm pretty sure my children will survuve their childhood unscarred without visiting a zoo. I want my kids to grow up with a respect for animals, especially those which should exist in the wild. I want them to be raised understanding why it's important that we don't contribute to those things.
Isn't the future compromise of raising my kids half omnivore, half vegetarian enough? The zoo issue isn't really something we can meet halfway on, unfortunately. It's either they go or they don't. The idea of money and time being contributed to zoos makes me sick, especially coming from my own family...
Thoughts???
Sounds like you feel pretty passionately about zoos!
ReplyDeleteI say stick with you guns on this one.
Me on zoos: Still deciding. I don't think they're right, but I'm not sure exactly how against them I am. Pretty sure I'll still go if my goddaughter wants me to take her there, just because she's more important to me than whether or not I agree with the idea of zoos. I would do pretty much anything for her, though... ;-)
Good luck with that, these are things that I struggle with too, how to raise my future hypothetical children wity my meat-eating boyfriend. Luckily, he's been eating less and less meat since I went vegan, so I'm still kind of crossing my fingers that I'll get him veg before we have kids... hahaha, yeah right!
Haha, I totally understand! It's really tough - because then if you "encourage" them to go veg, I think it makes them want to eat meat even more. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI really want to stick to my guns on this one, but he basically said he would take them anyway. Wouldn't that complete defiance upset you? I mean, he knows how important this issue is to me... Yet he would take them anyway, whether I like it or not? Ugh.