The Animal is Already Dead

“The animal is already dead, mum’s already bought it for the party, cooked a delicious curry, so there’s no harm in eating it.”

When I was first thinking about being more conscious of my meat consumption and talking about it with people, I used to say that I wouldn’t cut out meat entirely and would still eat leftovers. Seemed pretty reasonable and even more sustainable than wasting leftovers.

When the animal is already dead and ready to eat, what good is refusing it and just getting fries instead going to do? Wouldn’t it actually be more disrespectful to the animal to waste the food they have become?

1. Supply & Demand: You’re just a statistic

One of the hold-ups for me was not understanding that the weekly “big shop” at my supermarket is not an isolated event, but part of a continuous feedback loop that drives the entire supply chain.

When I was eating meat and buying chicken breast, I wasn’t paying for that specific chicken to be killed. But I was reimbursing the supermarket for the cost of killing it, and funding the slaughter of the next one.

Supermarkets aren’t just ordering a random amount of products every week. They run on incredibly precise inventory data. If I stop buying meat, the supermarket’s systems will register a drop in demand. They will order less from the distributor, who will order less from the slaughterhouse, who will in turn breed fewer animals next year. That’s buisness baby!

It is simple maths and supply and demand. My individual boycott might only represent an infinitesimal fraction of a data point, but over a lifetime, that data point adds up to thousands of animals that are never bred into existence to suffer.

I used to think, “Well, at least they got a chance at life,” and that I wasn’t actually “saving an animal’s life.” However, I personally wouldn’t want to be bred into existence just to suffer for a couple of years and then die, so I imagine they wouldn’t either. I also understand that while I’m not saving a life in the conventional sense, preventing a life of suffering is essentially the same moral outcome.

Does an individual actually make a difference?

It mattered to this one.

When looking at the massive capitalist machine we’re in, where factory farming is prevalent and society is conditioned to consume animal products, it can feel like I’m having absolutely no effect. However, I love the story of the old man, the boy, and the starfish. My individual actions won’t save all animals or even come close to dismantling the system, but my actions matter to the ones I do help. Isn’t that enough in itself?

2. The “Leftover” Loophole

But this logic led me to a much harder question.

What if I am at a family party, and there is leftover chicken curry (and there always is when when mum cooks for twice the number of people)? The party is over, no one will take it home, and it’s literally about to be thrown in the bin.

If I eat it, I am not paying for it and so I am not sending an economic signal to a slaughterhouse. Doesn’t eating bin-bound meat creates zero demand. Wouldn’t it be completely fine to eat the leftovers?

In an economic sense… yes. Some people (often called “freegans”) actually live by this rule. But I think I have more influence than I realise:

The Social Signal

Even if I don’t send an economic signal to a supermarket, I am sending a social signal to my friends and family. If my family hosts a party and sees me happily eating the leftover chicken curry, what happens next time? They will absolutely buy a few extra chicken pieces thinking, “Oh, he will eat the leftovers.” My attempt to eat to “ethical” meat just accidentally generated future demand.

The Bottom Line

Refusing to buy meat isn’t about saving the dead animal in front of me. It is about saving the animals that haven’t been bred yet. And refusing free leftovers isn’t about wasting food, it’s about making sure I don’t accidentally become the reason more animals are killed for the next party.

I already see the effects of my lifestyle. When people host me for meals, they make an effort to include plant-based options. For some it’s their first time cooking with tofu. In my mind, I’m paving the way for the normalisation of plant-based eating. If I believe in the logic that animal exploitation is wrong, then it feels good to know that my choices are influencing those around me in a positive way to reflect that belief.