Killing animals to eat them is wrong, plain and simple
See, it’s these kinds of fanatical black-and-white statements that makes it hard to sympathize with vegan ideology, even as I agree with many of its tenets. Feeling sad for animals that die to be consumed is not a strong argument for it being wrong. Humans are animals just as any other, and if it is wrong inherently to kill something to sustain oneself, then we should kill off all carnivorous and insectivorous animals, so that they cannot kill and eat their prey.
ignorant vegan:
raping animals is wrong
you, an intellectual:
but animals do it! We’d have to kill all animals that do it, that’d be insane
enlightened ve-gone:
you’re right, let’s rape billions of animals
suggesting that animals eating other animals is bad does not imply that killing all carnivores is the correct solution to that problem. there is no solution to that problem which would save the lives of every animal alive today, so any solution to this problem must include the death of some animals. “continue letting animals eat other animals until we can find a real solution that won’t destroy the biosphere or genocide billions of living creatures” is a valid solution even under the strict idea that killing animals to eat them is always wrong
I do think we are not aligning in communication, and I think you’re misreading my tone. I did read your comment with the intention that you clarified here, and I saw that you were not vegan, but it’s hard to deny that Killing animals to eat them is wrong, plain and simple is a very hard-line stance that would typically be touted by vegan activists. I was more replying to that point itself than you as an individual in making that statement.
I disagree with the point that one cannot ethically kill an animal, and I also agree wholeheartedly that our consumption habits around meat are abysmal for the environment. I am in hardcore corn and dairy country, so I am well-aware of the consequences of our mass production of meat and grain. The Midwestern ecosystem is practically gone. Illinois at one point boasted over 20,000,000 acres of prairie, and today that total is less than 10,000.
Regarding the quotation, I was not saying that you felt that way. My reply is to the ardent severity of the claim that all killing of animals is wrong, and trying to arrive at a conclusion to that worldview that I think is in line with that thinking. I’m sorry if you thought I was trying to put that opinion on you, that was just me wording myself poorly.
Nor is vegan eating consequence free for life. Factory farming, much like factory meat in some ways, obliterates vast amounts and variety of life that previously resided in that given field. It is also contributing to rapid worldwide top soil decline, something no one seems to give a shit about. Ecological cattle raising could be a mitigation to both issues but some people have too much soy clogging up the brain to do their own thinking.
how could cattle raising ever be more ecologically friendly than farming? the cattle must eat, so we’ve just shifted the problem, no?
So cattle eat things that humans cannot and convert them into things we can. They poop and urinate to fertilise the place, graze in places not suitable for crops, churn the soil as they move about and it turns out plants needs to be grazed. All this is easily searchable information. Bear in mind I am not talking about factory cattle, which is a cruel and awful practice that probably should be banned.
This article lays out the argument pretty well for example.
