SNG,
Kay, point-by-point. ;)
And of course you're entitled to it. But there are many crueler species than us. A large percentage of spiders consume males directly after mating. Some flies hatch inside their mother and literally eat their way out, killing her in the process. All of this is completely "natural."
Yes, I agree, it is completely natural. They are not judging themselves more 'worthy' than other life forms and torturing them for the purposes of unnaturally lengthening their lifespan.
Um...I don't think this conversation has anything to do with corporate greed (I presume that's the kind you meant). But what do you think of efforts by humanitarian groups to distribute vaccines to the poor ;in Africa? Those vaccines were, of course, developed with animal testing....
Again, I agree. This conversation is not about corporate greed. I was referring to the selfish greediness of most of the people in western cultures who choose to ignore the plight of millions of people dying in the 'third world', which could be easily solved if we forced the governments and corporations to do the right thing. We could take care of hunger and injustice and save millions of lives. There will always be a new disease, a new plague, that kills people. There does not always have to be corporate greed and lack of compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.
As much as you don't like it, I do not feel that vaccinations are more important than an animal's suffering incredible torture. It goes to the heart of my thoughts on this ---- WE ARE NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEM. I see that as a religious-based, especially Biblical ethic, based on the Genesis account. My opinion.
I don't think this thread was about factory farming, but I agree that it's not the best ecological approach.
Agreed again. But it's also extremely cruel. Have you ever visited an factory farm? My ex-husband used to work at a chicken farm where they produced eggs. He had to quit, as he couldn't stand seeing the cruelty to the chickens any longer. It was disgusting, the chickens were put in a cage when young, and never left it. Their feed was on a conveyor in front of them, and they pooped out the back. Most of them didn't have a lot of their feathers, and they never even saw the sunlight.
With regard to your second point, though, how can you reconcile the fact that you eat meat with the idea that animal life is equally as important as human life? However organically grown they might be, surely if you really thought animal life was totally on par with human life, you wouldn't eat it, would you?
I guess you missed my point, and I could have been clearer. I should have said 'free-range'. I have killed and eaten, fish as well as birds, as other animals do. Yes, I admit I used a gun, and a fishing line, but I am not a very good predator, and was not trained from birth to hunt my prey as animals are. It does not bother my conscience to eat the flesh of animals that were raised in a natural environment, openly grazed, and quickly and humanely slaughtered. That's why I like to BUY LOCAL, because I know the farmers (her name is Maureen) (and my chicken farmer is Brian) and their methods. In my mind, it is more akin to hunting than the cruel, prison-like torture of the factory farm. Also, most of us consume far too much flesh protein, and the waste of food in our culture is as repulsive to me as is the whole concept of factory farming.
Or how about this? A dog starts attacking your child. Are you willing to kill the dog to save the child? Why? Isn't that a tacit admission that the dog's life is less valuable than the baby human's?
Your analogy does not fit. I am not torturing the dog because I think it has less value and its pain is not important, I am making a choice to save my child's life,,, which is the same thing a dog would do for its young.
tal
