My friend is a vegetarian and to be honest I'm a little worried about her. He keeps chanting Domine, Bacterium, Lactobacillus, Casei, Shirotai ... I think she's dabbling in the Yakult.
I've met a few vegans and only one of them wasn't a complete prick preaching from their high horse; the others were exactly that. Factory farming is pretty bad and we should we as a society should encourage organic farming/free range stuff more. Like Sterling, what really irks me is when people compare animal slaughter to the Holocaust and slavery. Humans have been domesticating animals for meat and produce for over two million years. Human rights don't apply to animals (clue's in the name). That's not to say we should treat animals like ****. We should respect the Earth and the other creatures on it but ultimately homo sapiens are superior to animals. I once questioned a militant vegan whether or not she despised lions as much as meat-eaters as the lion will hunt wildebeest in the wild. She said lions need to eat meat to survive and its part of their nature. I then said 'Don't you believe all sentient animals are equal to humans? Why don't you apply the same vegan standards to lions as you do humans?'. She had no answer.
Humans, as we would reasonably recognise them have existed for, at best, quarter of a million years. Proto-homo sapiens possibly up to half a million years. Either way, two million years ago our ancestors cranial capacity was not of a volume which would reasonably allow us to postulate the potential of domesticating other animals. Evidentially, the earliest we can demonstrate the possibility of domesticating other species is about 12500 years ago. Bone fragments found in human burial sites in the Middle East, dated to this point, suggest a selectively bred canine qualitatively differentiated from a wolf. It was probably called Wellard. Or Tyson. Or possibly Lil' Baby Fou Fou.
Yeah, you're probably right. I take your word for it. We've been eating meat for two million years though? Homo erectus hunter-gatherers?
Definitely. We've been hitting other animals with sticks for at least that long. No point hitting them if you're not going to eat them. Biologically, we split from the mammals that evolved into the modern ruminants around 50 million years ago. Meat has probably been part of our diet since before then.
What are these inhumane methods of killing? What's a humane method of killing? People would be outraged if cows were shot in the face with a shot gun. If I was given the option of being shot in the face or a lethal injection or execution, if take being shot in the face. You'd know **** all about it. Even a sledgehammer would be preferable. They should just be walked along in a stress free manner across a field and stealthily shot in the face, can't get any more humane than that.
Agriculture began to replace the culture of hunter gathering about 12,500 years ago As for eating meat, the fossil record suggests that it could be 2.6 - 3.4 million years ago. Eating meat may well have helped us evolve into what we think of as humans i.e. species with 'Homo' as a prefix;
We humans are capable of making an informed conscious choice as to what's best to eat for our species, the planet and ultimately other species. Lions are not able to do this so we are the morally responsible species.
So we're superior to all animals. That's my main problem with militant vegans. How they go on about eating meat being like the Holocaust. We have a responsibility to look after the Earth and other animals as the intellectually superior species but we also hold dominion over them.
Yes, superior in our intellect and brain size but not in our behaviour to other species. The Holocaust analogy refers to factory farming, they use it as it's a powerful image
So if they lack the ability to have morals and ethics, how can they be treated as equals? One of the vegans made the argument that you could say the same about disabled people. I don't really think he gets it, disabled people are still human beings.
Er, no I haven't. I believe humans are superior to all other animals. The question I asked the vegan was rhetorical as she told me all animals are equal to humans and eating meat was equal to murder. I was playing Devil's Advocate with her. Pay more attention when reading posts as you end up looking a bit daft.
It's still bollocks. Humans and animals are not equal. Like you said, we are the morally responsible species and intellectually superior.
