Our scientist-in-residence finds his love for meat is endless.
WHERE DOST THOU LEAD ME, MEAT?
by David Berrigan

Aug 30th, 2012

We just got a cat, 12 years after our first cat died.  Fritz (the cat) is fun and he has made me reflect a little on my relationship with animals.  My first cat (Megara), was eaten by a dog in 1973.  All we found was the tail.  At that time we lived in the country and kept goats and chickens.  The goats were a bit like pets, especially the kids.  I especially remember frolicking with Alfalfa’s triplets in the field next to our house.  Eventually we ate the kids and slit the chickens with some raccoons.  One of my chores was going out into the woods, cutting brush and dragging it back to the goats pen.  I once found a snake along the way, a machete was in my hand and I chopped the snake into pieces.  I like to eat meat.  I have had dog (maybe), roadkill, snails, kangaroo and most bits.  I enjoy liver and tripe, but not pancreas.  In 1971, we were traveling in Ireland and a farm we stayed at had a cows head on the kitchen table.  The farmer cut me off a piece of cheek. From 1982 to 2005 I did research on animals; fish, flies, frogs, beetles, zooplankton and mice.  I raised them, measured everything about them, counted them (in the millions), froze them, gassed them, broke their necks, cut them into little pieces and flash froze their parts in individual vials.  Now I study humans, but I learned how to be a scientist through my work on animals. I know I went too far with the snake, but I wonder about all the rest.