I've been thinking a lot about making the switch over to vegetarianism lately. Do you think that killing and eating other living things that can feel pain is ethical? Is it worse now than in the past because we don't really need to eat animals to live? Is taking eggs/cow's tard cum justifiable? Do the conditions that the animals are kept in make a difference to you? Post your opinions/experiences.
It's pretty hard to eat a well-balanced diet without eating meat. It's possible, but it's pretty hard and most vegetarians/vegans I know do seem to suffer some deficiencies in diet. Though if the alternative is eating BBQ specials pizza every night, well then it's easy to improve your diet by going vegan or vegetarian.
I've always found the case argued in the covenant of the wild by Stephen Budiansky to be a compelling one. To summarize it briefly and with at least a decade since last reading; Being domesticated is in some ways a far superior survival strategy for animals. Putting aside some of the harrowing industrial farming examples, how many cows would there be if we didn't make profit off them?
It is argued and I read this before I made a habit of researching what I read more extensively, so take with a grain of salt or even better; correct me if you have better facts; but the claim is made that in a good part of africa (I think it mentions northern africa, morocco/mauritania specifically), dogs are kind of semi-domesticated; they don't serve any purpose for humans, as either pets, hunting partners or guard dogs, but instead rely on man's mercy by cowering in front of humans. And are so allowed to live in essence under man's protection (Against more dangerous animals) and able to scavenge for food in villages and such.
Now forgive me for having this discussion with myself out loud, but immediately I'm skeptical; I've been to one african country, though it was far from morocco and mauritania and dogs were treated horribly. Also, I know that typically muslims don't like dogs because their prophet didn't.
It's like a dog getting treats when he does his business in the far end of the garden.. Have you trained the dog to do his business, or has the dog trained you to give it treats? I remember my neighbour observing that her husky over a couple of weeks learned to separate its shitting into 6 times during the day to earn more treats.
Well this is more of a meandering comment than I typically write. I really need to reread.
I think there is a significant moral difference between killing animals for food or goods (like leather) and say, torturing an animal. The intention for killing isn't to inflict pain. I think the further people live from animals the more likely they have these utopian ideas about animal welfare, which can sometimes be a surrogate desire to being more connected animals/nature.
One of the reasons for that is that we can not communicate with animals; we can not make deals with them, trade with them, conduct diplomacy with them, as such I can never regard the ethics of killing animals and humans equivalent.
And when animals are properly taken care off, it's a tradeoff that although the animal can't consent to it; it's easy to see that it is not bad a deal for animals to enter into if they did have the ability to choose so. Of course it's debatable whether they are typically taken care off well, but that's why I asked to put to the side that part.
