Last Moments Of Love For An Abandoned Dog

[Immortal]

kowenicki said:

Immortal said:
I can't say this isn't moving, but it just feels horribly hypocritical to feel bad about a dying dog and then go and eat some other dead animal's flesh for dinner. I'm not sure where to draw the line about which animals to care for and which to mercilessly butcher for dietary pleasure.

I think it is about the right to live a decent life.

I buy most of my meat from a village butcher that sources from local farms, I suppose these days it would be called organic. But what I know is that the animals have a good life and are looked after.  I have no problem with eating those animals.  I wouldnt buy supermarket chickens etc. for the very reason that they have a miserable existance. 

In other words, I have eatan animals that had a much happier life than this dog and the dog deserves some sympathy.

 

I see. So for you it's about not giving living beings a torturous existence. I suppose that's fair enough.

I'm not trying to argue anything - largely because I'm very unsure and undecided about this subject myself - but, even at a small, local farm, can you really be sure that these animals are having a pleasurable life? Even these farms are simply raising animals to be slaughtered, aren't they? Also, given that farms, too, are ultimately businesses, I would guess they have to maximise productivity as well. Meaning that they have to try and raise as many animals with as few resources as feasible. Sure, they'll probably treat animals in a more acceptable way than, say, factory farms, but do you have complete faith that the treatment of animals on smaller farms is sufficiently humane? Can we really set exact criteria for what treatment is acceptable and what is not when, at the end of the day, these animals are just going to be killed?

Please don't take any of this as provocation in any way; I'm sincerely curious as to how people think about these things so that I can eventually come to some kind of conclusion for myself.