I beg to differ
I wish to introduce - to the best of my lame english - the rationale behind the "loony" vegan / vegetarian population - as I see it.
I suppose there will be no disagreement in the point that animals suffer throughout their lives in the industurialized factory farm (please see
"meet your meat"). I also suppose there will be no disagreement that being slaughtered - no matter how "humanely" it is done - would definitely kill one's day.
The rules of supply and demand dictate that the exsistance of a demand for meat - results in production. The industry's aim is to supply exactly the demand, and not a gram more - because a superfolous gram of meat will not be sold, and is pure loss.
true - one person's consumer's habbits are negligable. but 2% of the population? 4%? and what about more?
This is more or less the same as election: One vote is meaningless, but 2% make one a winner or a loser...
By eating meat - or should I say - buying meat - one actively supports an industry that is no less than cruelty and death to animals. There is no way around it.
The question at hand is, hence:
is it worth it? is hurting animals to such an extent justified? If eating meat was a condition to survival - than one could easily claim: "I eat meat to survive, and hence it is my life against the animals'".
However this claim is easily contredicted. Unlike cats, for example, which are carnivors, and inevitably start suffering of defficiency deseases shortly after being avoided of meat -
Humans live well on a balanced vegetarian diet.
Every diet has some tradeoffs. However all in all it appears a balanced vegetarian / vegan diet compares
favourably with non vegetarian diets.
If it is not a matter of survival, what is left then? habbit? pleasure? These are basicly driven from culture. Most of the readers would think it is disgusting to eat dogs and cats, for example, while in certain civilizations in the far east it is a delicacy! The culture and habbit there make them see dogs as a delicacy. They, on the other hand, may wonder how can "we" eat a "cute animal" such as a rabbit! (or cow)
Is huring animals an inertic act? not if it is not done for the purpose of self preservation. but if it is indeed not a matter of self perservaition, how can it be justified unless, simply "animals are not inportant"..?
oh yeah - that's right - animals are not important, or - at the very least - their suffering and hurt is only marginally important - Thats the only way one can justify taking their very lives away - for a non-essential momentary pleasure, isn't it?
That's not new, guys. Throughout history, there always have been those who are "inferior" - down to a point where their interests, suffering, and lives - are meaningless. question is: can this view protect itself philosophicly for long? I doubt it. Prof. Peter Singer, in the first book aimed at the general public in bioethics
"Animal Liberation" demonstrates how seeing animals as means of production, or "goods" or things - cannot really pass even the most basic moral test.
If that makes me a loony, than I can only say:
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."