I can still be shocked

[Catherine]

You are so right. Every great thing we have invented has a positive effect and a negative one. We can't seem to create things that are only for good. Even medicines we produce to cure things also have serious side effects.

I agree with you that we are not superior to animals. We have more intelligence in some ways, but we have less wisdom. 
No matter how much we have, many of us are not happy. We don't know how to live simply and enjoy life and still do good things for others. Animals know how to live and be content with life. People would do well to study animals if they want to know how to live. Think of how a dog approaches a simple walk. It is probably the same walk he took yesterday and the same walk he will take tomorrow. A dog will still treat that walk as an adventure every time and step out with tail wagging and nose ready to sniff. I feed the guinea pigs the same thing every day. The pellets and hay are the same. Their plates of vegetables are usually exactly the same. They show the same level of excitement and enthusiasm for the meal every day. I have seen humans in a fine restaurant with a truly amazing meal who act bored with it and unsatisfied.
Hamsters know how to live happier lives than we do.

I am troubled by the casual attitude to eating a live animal. I had trouble believing what I was hearing and believing that it could be said the way it was. It must do something to a person's spirit when they take part in such bizarre cruelty.
It is troubling to think that I might be sitting next to someone like that on the bus and not know it. 
I am careful and look up a restaurant before I agree to go to it. I don't know what I would do if I encountered people eating live animals in a restaurant. I wouldn't stay, but what would I do or say before I leave. That is a question I can't answer. What should I do?