Was This Meat-Loving Dad Wrong to Make His Vegetarian Deal With Rotting Meat?

The title sounds bad, but I think once you read through this post you might think differently – and vegetarian or not, you just may find yourself on the father’s side.

This man isn’t an avid hunter, but he does hunt deer on his property once a year. He believes it helps control the population and also cuts down on his family’s grocery bills, which helps a lot when times are lean.

They use the meat weekly in their cooking.

I go hunting every year. I’m not a trophy hunter by any means I do it for meat and almost purely for economic reasons at this point. Taking a few of deer off my property once a year keeps my freezer stocked and the grocery bill way down which is important because finances can be tight sometimes.

As a little relevant background the bulk of the meat is kept in a large freezer in the garage and about once a week we pull out what we will need for the next week or so. Which means the freezer is normally only opened about once a week.

Their son recently became a vegetarian and the family is being supportive, eating meatless meals twice a week and making sure the other meals they prepare are acceptable to their son’s new diet.

My son (15) has decided that he is vegetarian about 6 months ago which my wife and I have no problems with. We started making meatless meals twice a week and made sure every other dinner was such that the meat was separate from everything else so he could still eat with us. This has been working great for the last 6 months with no complaints.

This has been working fine (as far as the adults knew), so it came as a surprise when their son unplugged the freezer.

The meat all rotted during the intervening week, leaving not only a stink but a ton of waste in its wake.

However, last week when I pulled the meat for the week out of our freezer in the garage he decided to come behind me and unplug the freezer. I guess he thought we weren’t doing enough to support his cause? He never spoke to us or complained about our twice a week set up prior to unplugging the freezer.

Well as you can imagine with a now unrefrigerated pile of meat in the summer heat it didn’t take long for the meat to start to rot and stink. The freezer kept the smell in for a while so by the time we finally noticed everything was completely putrid.

When he confronted his son, the kid said he’d done it so the family would be forced to go meat-free together.

OP replied he had no right to do something like that without speaking to his parents about his concerns, and without considering the smell, the cost of the freezer, or the way his impulsive decision would affect their monthly grocery visit.

He’s asked his kid to clean up the mess and possibly buy a new freezer; the kid thinks asking him to handle the raw meat is wrong.

I asked my son if he knew what happened and he proudly said that he had unplugged it on purpose and now we would have to be meat free.

I told him that he didn’t have the right to ruin a freezer full of meat and raise the families grocery bill without discussing it with anyone. I told him that as part of his punishment he had to clean up his mess. Meaning dispose of all of the rotting meat and either sufficiently clean and sanitize the freezer or purchase a new one out of his savings.

He called me the AH for making him interact with meat in any form. But he made the mess he needs to clean it up.

AITA?

Who’s wrong in this situation? You know Reddit’s got some thoughts!

From one vegetarian to another, the kid has a lot to learn.