Do Animals Have Rights, Does It Matter How We Kill And Eat Them?

reply to post by ThirdRock69


Excellent video, Thank-you for sharing in this thread

Everything that has a start has an end, does the end matter? In a few hundred years, no.

I understand the ethics of not eating meat, I don't agree with them all.

I don't eat dog, horse, or pig. All are too smart for food. My dogs know and follow queues/commands/requests better than most humans, the same can be said of my horse (but he is a pushy 1,800 spotted draft who knows his size), and the intelligence of pigs is well stated... so I will not eat those animal/types of animals.

Cattle and chicken, they are raised to be food and in all my experience have little of what dogs/horses/pigs have, so they're food to me. Brains and personality goes a long way.

Derek

i didn't read all the replies but went through a few of them. i've been a vegetarian for half of my life. it actually started because of a boy i liked ( i was 21). i haven't turned back since. i have no desire to eat animals. i'm sure it tastes good but my guilt overrides my tastebuds. i love animals too much. i wouldn't put my dog on the grill.... any other animal seems the same to me.

i have 2 kids and after my divorce my ex husband decided he was anti vegetarian and did all he could to make sure the kids ate meat. he even tricked them. now they love it but my daughter feels guilty and every now and then says she'll become a vegetarian again. she doesn't last long because she's such a picky eater she doesn't have much left to subsist on. i think once she's older she will be a vegetarian. she loves animals way too much to continue eating them well into adulthood. i could be wrong but that's how i see her heading.

Originally posted by MountainLaurel

Originally posted by OmegaOwl
How is killing animals any different from killing plants?
Is it alright to kill plants because they don't move?
Is it alright because they have no brains?

Why is it alright to farm plants but not animals?

As far as we know plants don't experience pain and fear, so certainly it's different. As I stated earlier I still eat meat, but how those animals are "farmed" is a moral concern for me.

I stumbled across this interesting article while researching whether plants feel pain
I think you guys should take a look

www.nytimes.com...

Plants defend and struggle just as much as animals do.

reply to post by OmegaOwl


That was a facinating article, and actually a real "oh,ok, I get it now" moment for me. Having a horticulture background this should have been a "no-brainer". The fact that plants adapt, reproduce, and even protect themselves would suggest they have a "will to live", that's a deep thought.

I guess as I come full circle with this all in my own head I would agree with what others have said, "Respect all life around you, and be grateful to any life that gives you life in return".

Well i do care if the Meat in question was from a Happy animal.

The taste of a happy animal is FAR better then the taste of a depressed one. I know that many people donot think that animals Possess the ability to feel depressed and or happy but since humans are animals too i guess that question answers itself.

Depression also often causes the immunesystem to work improper and the animal may be subjected to more disease which will harm the taste.

So all ethics aside a happy animal is a more tasty. I donot like the kosher and halal slaughtering its really cruel and unecessary (i have seen it myself) i have also seen the "Humane" slaughtering of pigs in a german meathouse.

The pigs come in the cargo area where they are allowed to rest then are transported on a conveyor belt thingy that lines them up and transports them to the "shocker" a little device that sprays warm water on the animals and then gives them a high voltage electroshock which renders them unconcious. The pigs are then immidiatly bled out. all while some calming music is playing.

I know its cruel and i saw it it myself. the pigs there are quite and dont have the "OMG IM GONNA DIE!!!" expression that they have on different slaughterhouses. A halal slaughter however is just cruel and makes the animal taste bad.

So all in all. I love meat and i love it even more if the animal had a long, happy and fulfilling life.

reply to post by Inesophet


The "visual" of that just made me cringe, and that was even an attempt to be humane. It sucks that something has to die for something else to live, for myself I can only decide to be grateful.

Originally posted by MountainLaurel
So this is something I have pondered for many years, honestly my daughter brought this subject into my life when she was 8 years old and declared herself a vegetarian. She explained that there was no good reason to kill and eat animals when we could eat other things and live. She certainly had a point, and I was willing to modify meals to accomodate her beliefs, lol, although I must admit cooking for a vegetarian, especially a kid that needs protien isn't easy!

I continued to eat meat and explained to my daughter that I believed the natural order of things was that that creatures eat other creatures, birds eat bugs, etc. and mostly I still believe that to be true, but even as I said this, in my heart of hearts I could not factor out that animals suffer in a different way prior to human consumption, that does not mimic a lion killing a deer.

I'm very interested to hear others thoughts on this, what do you think? I'll end this post by giving a "shout out" to Lucille Ball, I happened to run across an old show this morning where she did a comedy routine about her moral dilemea of throwing a life lobster in a pot of boiling water, , lol, she hide the lobster to save him! That show was before my time, but seems she may have been an early animal rights activist !

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