[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Where do you draw your ethical line how relative is it?
my hypocritical position is don't kill or make anything suffer unless you have to. the hypocracy comes in because i sometimes eat hotdogs and chicken sandwiches... but frankly if I lived alone (not w/ my mom) I probably wouldn't eat meat. It's easy enough not to.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I think it's pretty wrong to eat something that is basically like you, but with a smaller brain.
do cows and pigs have smaller brains?
the size of the brain doesn't have anything to do with how smart they are... if that's what you meant.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] most do exist in a stunning symbiotic relationship with not only algae, but bacteria as well.
oh oh oh ... let me see if I can remember the name... zoxanthelle?
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]People seem to thing we are a way way higher than any 'animal', whereas we're just apes with big brains that have evolved a thing called 'self awareness' which doesn't reach out beyond our own species.
IT DOES TOO!!! chimps, dolphins, and others. People alwyas underestimate other animals and we're always finding out they're much smarter than we think.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]AS far as veal, again, it all comes down to where you arbitrarily draw the line. ONe would think if I have a problem with the way veal calfs are treated
something kind of random... why do we value new life with no experience and not fully developed yet more than we do mature life that has more experience, thinks better, etc?
why is killing a baby worse than killing an adult? a (human) baby can't even see very well, etc.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Let's just say I draw a distinction between eating a cow that has had a life where it can run around and eat grass, play with the herd and so on, and a calf that has spent it's entire life chained to the floor of a box so it can't move.
most cows haven't had a life like that. They're kept in grassless/dusty places and are fed ground up cows, etc. Even pigs... which are smarter than dogs... or so I'm told... many times don't even get to mate. They artificially inceminate them and the babies never even get to feel grass beneath their hooves, are kept in huge places with artificial lights, etc.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]now I think catch-and-release fishing is pretty twisted. Big human torments little fish for pleasure.
me too. not to mention many of those fish die afterwards.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I feel that you should have respect for all living things. Whether it's a gnat, cow or even a plant. In nature there are hunters and the hunted. Some animals and plant must die so that life will go on. There is no reason to be cruel to an animal, for any reason. There are not put on this earth for our entertainment. Cows, chickens, pigs, ect, are going to die so that we can eat. I've worked in two slaughter houses.
I think you should respect life too.
but... nowdays we don't need to eat meat. I have no problem ith sharks stuff that have to eat meat to live, but we don't have to and we're just making animals suffer for our pleasure.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I've talked to people about what I saw there and I always got the same response, "So, they were going to die anyway."
I think that's messed up. So we should tourture people because they're going to die anyway? who cares what happens when we're alive since we're going to die anyway.