Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[bennyboy]

My "moral sense" is telling me precisely the same things as your own. Nevertheless, I still don't feel a compulsion towards vegetarianism in the way that you do.

The distance a person draws that line of empathy varies greatly. Some are only capable of caring about their own feelings. Some are so horrified about the idea of the suffering of others that they wear masks to avoid hurting flying bugs.

I think very many people find animals, especially mammals, sufficiently similar in their makeup and behavior that their suffering evokes a moral response.

I was rereading the thread and caught something which really made me think-

And are these deaths really so compassionate and pain-free as we say? If so, why doesn't the US have bolt-gun-to-the-head as one of its death-sentence options?

Perhaps we don't have that option because we shouldn't have any options, really? Maybe the few ways that have decided to knock each other off /w the arm of the state are all bad ideas as well, all exceptions to an otherwise good rule. You can see why this doesn't really apply to agriculture, yes?

Given a child rapist and a placid cow, I'd prefer to apply the bolt gun to the first, and the state-sponsored sustained existence to the other. It seems to me irrational that people who are not productive members of society, or who have brought harm to society, have any protection at all, while animals which have done no harm are kept in inhumane conditions with little liberty or hope of pleasure, then slaughtered to feed a population that is already grossly overfed.