I am trying to identify the source for the following quote/anecdote
which has been attributed to George Bernard Shaw:
George Bernard Shaw once challenged a woman who mocked his refusal to
eat animals. "Madam," he said, "I doubt that you could eat that bird
if you had to kill him yourself."
I have tried many different internet searches (and a cursory
Lexis/Nexis Academic search)without success. I have also tried
different variations of this quote and searches excluding Shaw in case
this was not his quote/anecdote. There have been some current
writers/activists who have made similar type of statements, but I am
not looking for those. I am specifically trying to identify the Shaw
source or another classic source (in case it is not Shaw's). Shaw had
many quotes about vegetarianism in general but I am only trying to
find the source to this particular quote/anecdote. Also some
vegetarian websites may have posted this quote without sources (as it
may have just been circulated as an urban myth)- I would be interested
to know if someone has posted the quote as well but I am ultimately
interested in the original source.
Thank you very much. |
Clarification of Question by
torontotapir-ga
on
10 Jun 2004 08:38 PDT
The deadline for an answer to this question is Wednesday June 16, 2004.
Thank you
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
10 Jun 2004 09:00 PDT
There is a well-researched list of quotes about vegetarianism here:
http://www.quotegarden.com/vegetarianism.html
including several from GBS.
Might any of these be what you're looking for?
I suspect that if there *had* been a well-known quote along the lines
of the "kill him yourself..." quote, it would have appeared in this
collection.
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Clarification of Question by
torontotapir-ga
on
10 Jun 2004 09:31 PDT
In response to pafalafa-ga's question:
I have seen that website and similar sites but without success. It
does seem like a quote that would fit perfectly into those collections
so it must be more obscure or not Shaw's.
Thanks
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Clarification of Question by
torontotapir-ga
on
10 Jun 2004 10:33 PDT
Apparantly this incident may have occurred when the famous person was
at a dinner party, in London, and possibly tied a chicken to a chair
and held up an ax to illustrate the point.
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
11 Jun 2004 05:24 PDT
This isn't it, but it has some of the right concepts, anyway:
"If you declare that you are naturally designed for such a diet, then
first kill for yourself what you want to eat. Do it, however, only
through your own resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind
of ax." - Plutarch
Still looking...
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Request for Question Clarification by
pinkfreud-ga
on
12 Jun 2004 14:34 PDT
Here's a quote from Annie Besant, a religious and political activist
who was a contemporary of Shaw:
"Suppose that we had to kill for ourselves the creatures whose bodies
we would fain have upon our table, is there one woman in a hundred who
would go to the slaughterhouse to slay the bullock, the calf, the
sheep or the pig?"
http://www.europeanvegetarian.org/775.0.html
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Clarification of Question by
torontotapir-ga
on
13 Jun 2004 06:49 PDT
That was a great quote on the exact same theme. Yes, I have seen that
before but thank you anyhow. Unfortunately, I am looking for a source
specifically of that dinner party anecdote/incident. It may just have
been an urban myth but I have heard it mentioned in conversation
before a few times and I am searching for a credible source.
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