If people find body parts on movie screens repulsive, how can body parts in an oven be appetizing? To find out, we created a challenge for self-proclaimed carnivores. See if you can determine which of these pictures are of “meat” (animal body parts) and which are of human body parts. The answers may surprise you.
1.
Cow (“shin stew”)
Freeimages.com/Csaba Moldovan
2.
Human (gnarly leg wound)
3.
4.
Lambs (heads)
FreeImages.com/Thom W
5.
Cow (cooked beef tongue)
6.
Chickens
FreeImages.com/aurileide alves
7.
8.
9.
Pig (heart)
© iStock.com/mawear
10.
Cow (ribs)
FreeImages.com/Mauro Iplinski
11.
Human (tumor removed from liver)
12.
Cow (heart)
© iStock.com/gionnixxx
13.
Human (cancerous liver tissue)
14.
Cow (ribs with horrifying ooze)
15.
Pig (stomach / “pork belly”)
16.
Human (tongue)
17.
18.
Oyster
Oyster on a plate | Priscilla Yuen | CC BY 3.0
We “eat” with our eyes before we eat with our mouths, so here’s to hoping you didn’t find yourself getting hungry looking at a freshly cut human. The unappetizing truth is that most animals not only have the same physical parts as humans but also have the same capacity to feel pain, fear, love, joy, and hope. And all animals—human and otherwise—value their own lives and don’t want to die.
Fortunately, each of us can easily feed ourselves without taking someone else’s life.
Because no matter whom the body part belonged to, humans don’t need to eat it.
So if the photos above have your stomach turning, fear not: “Butchered” plants don’t look nearly as gruesome. See?