Meat eating ethical?

[Duke Guilmon]

Instant kill sniper? Also meat is the only source of protein I can get. Soy, peanuts, and beans are basically GMOs, I hate seeds, and I am alergic to nuts. I also work out so what other source of protein is their for me?

I also have a nut allergy, and in past veggie threads, I've explained how I essentially have PTSD due to my fear of food from how many times I went into anaphylactic shock while I was a vegetarian.

It's too bad you don't like seeds, PFT; my sister found me these snacks called Somersaults, which are little nuggets made out of seeds and grains. They pride themselves on being nut-free, and they have as much protein as almonds. They're also fabulously yummy. My sister says eating them is like eating nuts. Too bad they're also filled with sodium, so it's not like I can use them for all of my protein intake.

------

Some of us can't NOT eat meat and stay healthy. PFT and I are prime examples of that.

---

Could the animal have been treated and if so would the quality of life be worth living?

No, but by that example, I was just pointing out the flaw in the logic that

-we don't euthanize people unless they give consent
-animals can't give consent
-but yet people euthanize their animals all the time.

It was just a poor analogy is all.

Well it is because I eat paleo (I am tpf by the way but I changed my user name)

[Minimalist]

The problem, as always, is extremism. Or just plain batshit crazy, if you prefer.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/26/ve...-products/

Police arrested a 23-year-old Casselberry, Florida woman Wednesday on charges of child neglect after she refused to seek medical treatment for her newborn baby because of her rigid vegan dietary beliefs.

According to Orlando’s WKMG Channel 6, Sarah Anne Markham’s pediatrician told her the 12-day-old was dehydrated and losing weight and needed to be admitted to Florida Hospital South Medical.

The doctor gave Markham medicine to help the baby, but she refused to administer it because it contained non-vegan ingredients.

[IAmTheeWallrus]

Anyone here know of good arguments against the notion that eating animals is unethical? Why exactly is it ok to cage a cow its whole life, slaughter it, and then eat it but it's not ok to cage a human its whole life, slaughter it, and eat it? What exactly is the difference that makes the former ethical but the latter unethical?

If your only argument is "Duhhhh cow tasty!" then please leave. Serious arguments only please.

I don't believe that either is ethical. Of course the domestication of animals falls into a bit of a grey area. Most people just don't want to know about it.
Out of sight out of mind. But if we look at this with an eye toward an Aristotelian view on virtue then it falls somewhere on the line between virtue and vice. The domestication of animals and agriculture have been called "the worst mistake in the History of the world" by discover magazine. Of course I'm prohibited from posting links cause I'm new.
But the moderator seems content to delete the links so I'll give it a rip.
http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-...human-race

As far as eating meat I think the evidence is in. We are meat eaters.
A million years of archeological evidence shows us that.

[ManMachine]

Anyone here know of good arguments against the notion that eating animals is unethical? Why exactly is it ok to cage a cow its whole life, slaughter it, and then eat it but it's not ok to cage a human its whole life, slaughter it, and eat it? What exactly is the difference that makes the former ethical but the latter unethical?

If your only argument is "Duhhhh cow tasty!" then please leave. Serious arguments only please.

Vegetarianism is a luxury afforded by our relative position in the food chain as a result of our ability to manipulate our immediate environment through technology. If the world as we know it ended tomorrow and the only thing left to eat was cow, all the vegetarians, pescetarians and vegans would either be in the line with the rest of us waiting for a slice of bovine-inna-bun or dead-inna-ditch from starvation.

Charity is the prerogative of the better-off, it's a vulgar display of smug superiority, IMO.

MM

[KUSA]

Vegans are fucking stupid.

[MJ the Skeptical]

I'm not a vegan but that's a stupid statement^

[fr0d0]

It's not ethical to treat any sentient creature differently to how we would treat ourselves. It's thought that oysters have no feeling, so eating them causes them no pain.

[bennyboy]

I can think of one very good reason to eat meat (and I'm speaking as a vegan, here): it may minimize the total death count, and minimize the total suffering caused by your dietary needs. If you don't have total control over your food production, then you can assume that all your grains and fruits are going to involve mass harvesting machines which kill voles and birds, mass use of pesticides which can very painfully kill frogs, snakes and birds-- and all this is not even counting the philosophical question of whether the insects themselves suffer or deserve protection.

It's true that most meat is probably a double-whammy, since it involves the direct killing of an animal as well as the indirect deaths of all the snakes, birds, etc. that went into producing grain to fatten the cattle. However, what about grazing cattle? It seems to me that cattle are much more careful about the way they deal with vegetation than 100-yard-wide threshing machines would be. Given adequate natural-grazing land, I'd bet that a pure-cow diet would represent a massive reduction in overall loss of life.

I think the only way to minimize our effect on animals is to go anti-nature: big biodomes, chemical fertilizers, giant vats of GM algae, etc. But for now, the real harm to animals isn't so much the food we eat-- it's the mass-industry means of production. A vegetarian who isn't also a large-scale gardener is probably indirectly responsible for almost as many deaths as a rabid meat-eater.