Why I wouldn't mind trying Kangaroo

A few weeks ago, in my Fashion Ethics class, we were talking about cruelty towards animals in the fashion industry.  My teacher made a passing comment, about how they sell kangaroo meet at his local specialty food store, and how that creeps him out.

And in the latest House episode (on Hulu), Chase told the new, pretty girl doctor that he hunts kangaroo back home in Australia, as a practical joke.  The message the show made was that eating kangaroo is so ludicrice, no cultured person would ever seriously do it.

I find this all very silly.  Kangaroos are basically deer that hop.  They are herbivores, and are about the same size as deer.  And they are stupid.  In fact they are stupider than deer. And deer are pretty dumb.

I blame the reluctance to eat "cute" animals on Bambi, the Disney movie.  In Bambi, the deer were intelligent, with feelings and emotions.  Bambi cries when his mother dies, and is scared when the fire breaks out. However, in reality, deer are stupid.  They probably have emotions (most living things do), but that does not make them people.  

If a person chooses to eat meat (my professor does), then eating kangaroo shouldn't be any worse than eating deer. I wouldn't mind trying deer, and I wouldn't mind trying kangaroo. Our culture has become very clinical, and detached from nature. Many people don't realize that meat comes from a living animal. And sometimes those that do realize this choose to give up eating meat purely because they think the animals are too cute to eat.  They personify the animals and think that they are people.  

If someone chooses to give up meat, it should be a rational choice based on fact, and not an emotional response based upon myth.  Bambi is not a documentary.  It is a fictional story that is no more real that the glass slippers and fairy godmother in Cinderella.