It was not really a cow, but a slightly bovine-like critter, IIRC. I mean it could talk. One of the passages one tends not to forget, edged in your brain. Brilliant.

I never read the book, but I’ve heard the references. 😎

There’s a theory that the reason that Jews forbade pork etc is the sound a pig makes when being slaughtered (using the methods of the time). They scream just like a human would and the sound is just too distressing.

Or the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams), where the cow actually comes out recommending bits of its body! 🙂

There is a province in India that just passed a law making it punishable by life in prison if you kill a cow. Is there a happy in-between? 😉

Fish and ‘seafood’ is generally better when fresh, meat on the other hand -and game in particular-, improves with ageing, it ‘matures’. So you don’t have to fear the cattle-slaughter in the alley behind the dinner. It can conveniently be done at a distance, at the slaughterhouse.?
There must be some chemical/biological explanation for this difference.
It is probably also related to Jerry Coyne’s ‘controversial hypothesis’ that people generally prefer meat to fish.

I can see the rational for that. I know restaurants that keep lobster and trout fresh in tanks. I only hope they don’t adopt even more dramatic measures and keep cattle penned in the ally behind the dinner. 😎

Yeah – I got that too – that they didn’t actually answer the question.

If we didn’t love our cats so much we’d think they were horrible animals the way they play with their prey. I think they’re bringing the food home for later, and if it’s alive but disabled it stays fresh. :-/