Common sense would have dictated... Pet store animals cooked

Sorry, but this one just turns my stomach...

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer, via Cleveland.com (headline is linked) (found originally via Drudgereport)

Pet store animals cooked in school

Student prepares Guinea pig, rabbit

Friday, January 21, 2005
John Horton
Plain Dealer Reporter

Thompson Township - A Guinea pig and rabbit purchased from a Geauga County pet store ended up on plates at Ledgemont High School.
A 16-year-old student skinned and cooked the animals during a living skills class on Wednesday, prompting student and parent complaints to the Thompson Township Police Department and Geauga Humane Society. Officials at both agencies said they are investigating.
The incident may warrant animal cruelty charges, said Geauga Humane Officer Sarah Westman. She said it's illegal to needlessly kill "companion animals" raised for domestic purposes.
"Something irrational and wrong happened," Westman said.
Ledgemont Principal Beto Gage acknowledged that "misjudgments" took place but said the boy's actions are far from criminal.
The student - whose name was not released - described what he did in terms of harvesting meat to fix a dish for classmates, Gage said.
The principal described the boy as an active hunter. The Ledgemont district covers the rural communities of Montville and Thompson townships, where killing - and then eating - wild game is fairly common.
The hunt, however, usually doesn't take place at Pet Supplies Plus.
The boy went to the Chardon store and purchased the Guinea pig and rabbit after coming up empty in the great outdoors.
"My skin's crawling over this," said Linda Schempp, a spokeswoman for the pet store chain. "We sell our animals to be family pets - not food."
The student told Gage that he butchered the animals at home before bringing them to school and placing them in the class refrigerator Wednesday. His living skills teacher, Diana Stevens, sets aside that day for her students to prepare a meal of their choice, Gage said.
The boy had asked Stevens if he could catch and cook a wild rabbit.
She approved, providing he dress - or gut - the carcass before class, the principal said.
A few students became alarmed, however, when the boy took two furry carcasses out of a bag.
Stevens allowed him to skin the animals and go ahead with the food preparation. Those in the fourth-period class who didn't want to watch were allowed to go into an adjoining room, Gage said. Meat carved off the animals was cooked and then sampled.

... more at linked article if you can stomach it

emphasis added above

First, let me be clear on a few things. I'm a meat eater. Carnivore, omni-vore, whatever you call someone that knows that "Beef, it's whats for dinner" is all about. Meat, potatoes. Good ol' 'merican Food. I'm not a vegan, and am far from it. I chow down on Chicken, Pork, Beef, Veal, Fish and veggies even occassionally. So, I'm not coming at this from a Vegan point of view.

I'm also not a PETA type person -- well, perhaps the People Eating Tasty Animals kind, but not the People for the Ethical Treatment kind (the kind that steal research animals and set back the medical/scientific community in the process).

But... this story is just so wrong, in so many ways.

I'll give credit to the teacher for being somewhat common sensical enough to allow the offended students to go to another area. But, that doesn't excuse even allowing the student to bring in the animals (or animal carcasses) to begin with. If the student had brought in ready to cook meat, then it might have been a bit better, but, like the pet store owners, I'd rather have had that meat come from something the boy had hunted, rather than a domesticated creature.

Perhaps Living Skills is a class that really shouldn't be part of a public school curriculum, as it seems that something like this is bound to occur in such a class.

Anyway, I'm sure that more than a few pet lovers are not happy about this incident.

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