I'm a heavy meat-eater and that's probably not going to change in the near future, but lately, I've been thinking of if my lifestyle is right or wrong. My view is becoming shaken for the following three reasons.
1. We use our power to enslave and force animals to be our food. I'm pretty sure no animal wants to be killed to be served as human food. It's safe to say that cows, pigs, chickens, etc. are all converted to food against their own will. Obviously, this is not fair to the animal. What makes it right to force another creature to be our food? Because we have power? Intelligence? I don't think these really are justified reasons to enslave other species.
2. The treatment of most farmed animals is inhumane. The first reason doesn't really convince me much, but this one does. I don't feel sorry when animals have decent lives and are killed painlessly, but that's not the case most of the time. Animals are typically put in dangerously crowded areas with very little room to walk around in. In some case, animals are killed brutally too. For example, there's been a few videos that showed chickens being slaughtered by having their necks cracked before being thrown aside. There's plenty of examples like this, but I don't think you might me to list them all (though I will if you ask). This is not how animals are supposed to be treated and it really makes me sick to to know I support this madness.
3. We have other alternatives. Number 1 and Number 2 would be acceptable if they were our only options to survive. But that's not the case. There are plenty of vegans with extremely healthy and capable bodies. One of my track team members didn't eat meat and he was in excellent shape. I've never heard of someone going vegan and experiencing any health issues as a result of it. One the other hand, one of the leading causes of death, heart disease, is can be caused by a surplus of fat from meaty foods. If we have a perfectly reasonable option to not put animals (and ourselves, in some cases) through unnecesary suffering, then why not choose those options?
- - - Here are some responses that I know I'm bound to hear, so I'll reply to them beforehand.
It's natural for humans to eat meat. Firstly, this is debatable as many believe that humans were meant to be solely plant-eaters. I personally don't think it's natural for humans to eat maet. Regardless though, that doesn't warrant anything. Plenty of *natural* actions have been abandoned as humans developed civilizations and used their intelligence to decide what's right and wrong. So saying something is natural is not an excuse for a being capable of higher order thought.
Animals have inferior intelligence, therefore, their lives are not valuable. This really could be a subjective thing I guess. For me though, inferior intelligence does not warrant slautering of other animals. If some super-intelligent alien race invaded our planet and decided to enslave and eat us, I'm pretty sure most people would think that's wrong. What's the difference with animals? After reading this, some people might respond with the following...
There's a certain level of conscoiusness that dictates whether a life is valuable or not. To that, my question would be: What is this level based off of? I can understand creatures with very liittle consciousness like insects, rodents, etc. being considered unvaluable. They have a very low sense of awareness. However, what about the more intelligent animals, specifically mammals like cows or pigs? They are aware of their surroundings, they feel pain (especially the pain from being cramped in most modern farms. What level of consciousness is necessary for a life to be valuable
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I realize that most of these points are pretty subjective. I'm not trying to make any objective claims or any moral absolutes here. I'm just stating my opinion. What do you think?
