A story about pork

There used to be a stock keeper near my house when I was a child. They raised several pigs in the pigpen. I thought the floor of the pigpen was always covered with dirty straw. So I didn’t like pigpens so much. But the stock keeper said that pigs liked clean places. So I thought it was important to keep the straw new and clean every day anyway.

I thought that the stock keeper probably used to sell the pigs at a market as pork. The pigs raised by him knew that they would be killed for pork someday. That days would come sometimes. The pigs screamed and shed tears when they were killed. I could hear that screams even in my house.

One day, I had dinner with my family like usual together. The menu was yakiniku(steak) at that time. My mother said this pork was raised by the stock keeper. I didn’t want to eat the pork because they were living pigs before. “I hate to eat pork, absolutely!” After argument, I decided to eat pork reluctantly. I ate the pork fearfully. It was very delicious. I ate the pork with saying and shedding tears “I’m sorry, Buta-san(pig), you are very delicious. Thank you, Buta-san.”

This was my first memory for eating pork. The pig contributed for me to having a good time with my family.