Norm Macdonald Thought This Was The Most Ethical Way To Consume Meat

For many people, Norm MacDonald was most known for his role on "Saturday Night Live" in the mid-90s. His impressions and the "Weekend Update" anchor role were just a couple of the many things fans loved about the comedian.  

However, what some people may not realize about MacDonald is that he was also a big fan of meat. In a segment on the "Today Show," MacDonald was referred to as a "big meat eater" while trying vegan swaps for various foods traditionally made with animal products.

According to Deadline, the comedian and writer died on Tuesday, September 14 after being diagnosed with cancer nearly 10 years ago. While he was certainly a good sport on the vegan "satisfying swaps" "Today Show" segment, it's clear from the video and MacDonald's own admission that he was a carnivore through and through.

Still, animal consumption is often a hotly debated topic. Arguments arise from both sides debating the ethics and morality of eating meat, per Grist. With that in mind, MacDonald didn't eat meat blindly; he was aware and open about the implications of an animal protein diet — and he had ideas about how meat consumption could be more ethical.

In a tweet from 2018, Norm MacDonald shared that he believed hunting was the most ethical way to eat meat from animals. "I see hunting for food as ethically better than shopping for meat," he wrote. Although, other tweets would suggest he's not a big fan of hunting — particularly trophy hunting.

The original conversation sparked from a tweet by British comedian Ricky Gervais about giraffe hunting. MacDonald explained that, in his opinion, hunting for food was different from hunting for the thrill.

Redditors discussed the exact same topic in a lengthy thread the same year MacDonald tweeted about hunting for food. "I'm a hunter, and to me, it seems like what I do is much more ethical than buying store bought meat," the original poster shared.

Factory farming — a term used to describe the practice of containing and raising animals for meat, purportedly in harsh conditions — is cited by many vegans and vegetarians as an unethical practice. Most of the time, this is the meat that makes it into grocery stores, per Live Kindly. Aside from the ways the animals are treated, these businesses are reportedly damaging the environment, PBS reported.

Hunting, for many, seems like a way to improve these two realities of the meat industry. It's probably less damaging to the environment, and the animals likely have a better quality of life. "Hunted animals have a horrible death, but at least, they had a beautiful life. Industrially slaughtered animals had a horrible death and a horrible life," one commenter wrote in the Reddit thread. 

While MacDonald didn't dive too deep into why he held the views he did, it's possible he would've cited reasons similar to these.