Learning to be a Dutiful Carnivore

Jane Legge: Learning to Be a Dutiful Carnivore

Dogs and cats and goats and cows,

Ducks and chickens, sheep and sows

Woven into tales for tots,

Pictured on their walls and pots.

Time for dinner! Come and eat

All your lovely juicy meat.

One day ham from Percy Porker

(In the comics he's a corker):

Then the breast from Mrs. Cluck

Or the wing from Donald Duck.

Liver next from Clara Cow

(No, it doesn't hurt her now).

Yes, that leg's from Peter Rabbit

Chew it well; make that a habit.

Eat the creatures killed for sale,

But never pull the pussy's tail.

Eat the flesh from "filthy hogs"

But never be unkind to dogs.

Grow up into double-think-

Kiss the hamster; skin the mink.

Never think of slaughter, dear,

That's why animals are here.

They only come on earth to die,

So eat your meat, and don't ask why.

(Illustration by Pawel Kuczynski)