@Robert Gentel,
Robert Gentel wrote:
This is a topic coming from the
discussions on whaling for me, but that is also influenced by other controversies such as the eating of dogs and cats.
If you believe that some animals should not be eaten, can you provide an abstracted criteria that can govern food ethics as it relates to species?
For example, if you don't think dogs should be eaten, try to think of the
why (e.g. they are intelligent, charismatic). Also try to see if this rule can be applied consistently (e.g. if intelligence is your rule and pigs are more intelligent than dogs would you stop eating pigs?).
If the matter is merely subjective and can't be objective (e.g. charisma) do you accept consensus as a criteria for the ethics? That is, if a quorum of society objects to a species being eaten based on subjective criteria do you accept this as a mandate for the authority needed to prevent the others from eating that species?
Hello Robert, It seems what we can't domesticate, we eat. Ha! I sincerely think there is a diet that is better for us; we just haven't found it yet. I care for humans more than I do for animals. Hard to imagine when one thinks of all the carnage us humans have caused, huh? That's why we have a tendency to love animals we can domesticate as we do. If it were a child vs. any animal, that animal is dead meat. Later if that child becomes contaminated and many do, and is then known as an adult, it's seems easier to think otherwise.
I think our "tastes" have become tantalized to the extent we don't have a clue as to what "tastes good" means. The same goes with "good tastes", ha! Delicious is where it;s at and nutritious is out the window. Yuck! Once we stop competing for those "taste buds" and get serious about nutrition, then we might appreciate that food we are meant to eat better.
I am not for eating domesticated animals. Not at all. Now they are loving surrogates; and will be as long as we are the savages we still are. We are a long way from having a real understanding of what "civilized" means.
Just a note, I have been told a cat cannot be domesticated; they only hang around because we feed them. They are natural predators. A dog will stay by our side no matter what. If we don't feed them, they would starve to death right there at our feet. No I couldn't eat a dog, but a cat; who would want too?
As far as those animals we do eat, cows, chickens, pigs, goats, lambs and fish, I can't imagine anything else they are good for. We use there meat, hide and hair to sustain us. If we didn't, can you imagine a world over run with them? If you say there are those who domesticate pigs (pot bellied variety that was popular at one time) then all I can say it "they" are a little strange. Who would want to domesticate a "pig"? I don't think I would care to give up my bar b q ribs.
As for as whales and dolphins, out of the question. They are good for something and until we find out what that is, if we ever will, they should always be protected until then. Talk about "family oriented". They could teach us a thing or two.
Once we put more emphasis on ourselves becoming more civilized, i think we might out grow our love for any animal and put that love where it rightly belongs.
William
