I’m Not A Vegan, But Why Do We Eat Baby Animals?

I’m not vegan. I’m not even vegetarian. Man, I love meat. I’ve eaten more than my fair share of burgers, wings, and whatever’s meat loving special that catches my eye. I just enjoy meat with all my meals.(ayo) But lately, I’ve been haunted by a very specific, very uncomfortable thought: Why are so many of the animals we eat babies? Veal is baby cow. Lamb is baby sheep. Heck I even found out that suckling pig is, well, in the name.  Why is veal a delicacy? Why is lamb somehow more refined than sheep? When did we decide that ‘tender’ and ‘young’ were synonymous with ‘better’ on a dinner plate? You don’t have to stop eating meat to find that… well… weird. And kind of upsetting. So how did we get here?

The Marketing of Innocence

We sanitize the reality of eating baby animals through soft, elegant vocabulary. The words “veal,” “lamb,” and “suckling pig” sound refined, fancy or even rustic, but none of them make it clear that they refer to baby… actually juvenile animals. The term “veal” is derived from the French veau, which means calf, yet few diners explicitly think of a baby cow when ordering it without prior knowledge. Meanwhile “lamb” conjures in our mind some innocent farmyard imagery, not a sheep that lived only mere months before it was slaughtered.

This isn’t just semantics. The words we use for food have real psychological consequences. Euphemistic names like “veal” or “pork” do more than sound appetizing. They help shield us emotionally from the reality of what we are eating. I’ve read that when animal-based products are labeled with their actual species names, for example, “cow” instead of “beef,” or “piglet” instead of “suckling pig”, us consumers end up feeling more discomfort and perhaps we end up more likely to reconsider our food choices.

A 2022 study from Bryant Research which I command + F through in order to “read” examined how people responded when standard meat terms were replaced with direct references to the animal. When participants were shown menu items like “grilled piglet” instead of “pork chop,” or “roast baby cow” instead of “veal,” their reported levels of disgust increased. More importantly, their willingness to order those items decreased. The study also found that empathy toward the animals increased when their identity was made clear, especially when they were described as young or infant animals. In short, the more a food name reminded people of the living being behind it, the harder it became to separate the meal from the moral discomfort (Bryant Research, 2022).

This pattern aligns with other findings in food psychology. A 2016 research paper that I did not read the entirety of and am only referencing because it was among the first results I found on Google, described how people create “moral buffers” between themselves and what they consume, and language is one of the key tools used in that process. When a menu says “lamb shank,” there is no immediate reminder that the dish was once a baby sheep. But if it said “young sheep shank,” that protective distance would collapse, and many diners would likely pause before ordering. (Appetite, 2016).

These subtle shifts in language have helped entire industries avoid scrutiny. It is easier to market “veal” than it is to market meat from a calf. It is easier to call something “suckling pig” and present it as elegant than it is to plainly state that it is a piglet who never reached maturity. Most of us do not just crave food. We crave comfort, familiarity, and emotional distance. Language gives us all three.

In short, our menu language shields us from uncomfortable truths. By labeling a baby cow as “veal” and a young sheep as “lamb,” the industry obscures the ethical implications involved. This vocabulary shift is not just clever marketing. It is a cultural tool that distances us from the lives…and premature deaths hidden behind those words.  And it has me thinking, damn maybe I could’ve studied this kind of stuff in school instead of international relations.

Ethics Without Absolutes

I am not holier than thou, I love meat (ayo) and will not stop eating it, but I do think it’s worth asking what it means when we choose to eat animals that have barely lived at all. Not to be dramatic or on some pseudo PETA activist shit, but like just to actually think about it for a moment.

A cow that lives a full life becomes “beef.” A calf barely living becomes “veal.” A mature sheep becomes “mutton.” But a lamb? That’s just a baby. Somehow we’ve decided that the younger the animal, the more acceptable, or even in some circumstances, the more desirable it is to eat. That feels strange. Not just ethically, but also socially. We wouldn’t eat a puppy or a kitten, even if the texture was perfect. (I’m talking to you guys Pinna and Nick) Most people would find that idea horrifying. And yet when it comes to calves or lambs or piglets, the conversation gets quiet. It’s like we know there’s something off about it, but since it’s normal, we don’t bring it up. Which is. a whole ‘nother conversation.

There’s also a kind of prestige built into it. These meats are not cheap. You’re not seeing veal or suckling pig on the dollar menu (which is now like what the $5 menu) at McDonalds or really any food joint. You’re seeing them at weddings, on white tablecloths, next to wine glasses full of what I wish was Dirt, 2025 (my blend… it’s amazing tasting). That context makes it harder to question. It makes eating a baby animal seem like something elegant rather than something uncomfortable.

I’m not saying there’s a perfect place to draw the line. I’m just asking why we’ve drawn it where we have, and whether that decision has more to do with tradition and presentation than with any kind of actual ethical clarity.

The Cognitive Dissonance We Carry

Baby animals are undeniably cute. I mean my mom (shoutout) sends me a video of a baby animal maybe 10 times a day, all sorts of animals, currently her obsession is with Otters and Goats.  We as humans scroll on TikTok or Reels and watch videos of lambs playing or piglets cuddling and feel a rush of warmth and affection. Yet many of those same animals end up on our plates as meals. That contradiction is difficult to ignore. Part of us wants to protect and care for these creatures, while another part accepts them as food. This split between empathy and consumption creates a cognitive dissonance that many of us carry, often without fully acknowledging it. It’s a reminder of how complicated our relationship with food really is.

Conclusion?

I’m not going full PETA, not even thinking about vegetarian anytime. I still eat meat, still love it (ayo) and probably always will. But I don’t think I can keep eating something if I know it was a baby. I mean I can’t bring myself to eat something really if it resembles the animal itself (shrimp, really any seafood, sometimes chicken gets me feeling like that too). I mean that all just feels different now. Maybe it’s because I’ve started paying closer attention, or maybe it’s because nobody really talks about it. We humans like to dress it up with fancy sounding words like veal or lamb, and that makes it easier to ignore what it really is.

Sometimes I picture someone like for example my friend Pinna, and he’s at a petting zoo and  absolutely losing it over a baby goat calling it the cutest thing he’s ever seen. And then a week later, hell, knowing him 2 hours later for dinner he’s ordering some goat curry without thinking twice. He never did that, but I wouldn’t put it past him. It’s not even hypocrisy, or a shot at him, trust me he’d kick my ass he’s a marine, (not the shitty John Cena movie) but it’s just how split our brains have to be to enjoy certain things without guilt. And man… sometimes I envy that blissful ignorance a lot of people have.

I don’t have kids, or nieces or nephews. But I used to have childlike cousins, they’re just what 15 or so now? Damn I’m old, but I’ve thought about what I’d say to a child if they asked what veal was, or why lamb is on a menu right after we just fed one from a bottle. I don’t really have a good answer. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe we’re all overdue to ask questions we’ve been trained not to think about.

I’m not here to change minds. I’m not even changing my own mind.  I was just sitting and thinking and  I’m just trying to sit with the discomfort. And if you find yourself doing the same the next time you open a menu, I think that’s probably a good place to start. #Borat2