Meat eating ethical?

[rexbeccarox]

There's also the issue of consent. Euthanasia is thought to be acceptable if the person to be euthanized gives consent. Animals can't give consent. This is why bestiality is immoral. The animal can't give consent to have sex with one of us.

Did I make the wrong choice by putting my cat down, then, when her tongue was bulging out of her mouth, and her belly was so distended she couldn't walk due to an infection? I mean, she couldn't voice consent...

[Anomalocaris]

That's a rather arbitrary distinction. Why limit ethics to humans? What's the big difference between an animal and a human that would entail that ethics is only concern when dealing with other humans?

Ethics is a human invention, justifable only on the basis of collective human convenience.

The difference between human and animals is human convenience is heavily and inescapably influenced by the relatively strong and pertinent instinct for reciprocity amongst other humans. There is little sign of, and little pertinence to, any instinct for reciprocity amongst animals.

[Confused Ape]

Humans aren't the only animals which feel stress, fear, misery and pain. Modern factory farming inflicts all these on our food animals and poultry. Many of them don't even get the kind of food they evolved to eat and this led to disaster in Britain.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease (encephalopathy) in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord.

The disease may be most easily transmitted to human beings by eating food contaminated with the brain, spinal cord or digestive tract of infected carcasses.[3]

A British and Irish inquiry into BSE concluded the epizootic was caused by cattle, which are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread.[7][8] The cause of BSE may be from the contamination of MBM from sheep with scrapie that were processed in the same slaughterhouse. The epidemic was probably accelerated by the recycling of infected bovine tissues prior to the recognition of BSE.[9] The origin of the disease itself remains unknown. The infectious agent is distinctive for the high temperatures at which it remains viable, over 600 degrees Celsius (about 1100 degrees Fahrenheit).[10] This contributed to the spread of the disease in the United Kingdom, which had reduced the temperatures used during its rendering process.[7] Another contributory factor was the feeding of infected protein supplements to very young calves.[7][11]

Factory farmed meat is also unhealthy. Before I post a link to the relevant article I'm just going to show where it comes from. I'm guessing this is a reputable source.

The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition is a

monthly peer-reviewed medical journal in the field of clinical nutrition.[1] According to the Journal Citation Reports, it has a 2009 impact factor of 6.307, ranking it third among 66 journals in the category "Nutrition & Dietetics".[2]

The journal was established in 1952 and is published by the American Society for Nutrition.[3] As of June 2009, the journal's editor-in-chief is Dennis M. Bier (Baylor College of Medicine).[4]

The American Society for Nutrition

is the principal United States society for professional researchers and practitioners in the field of nutrition, publishing three of the leading journals in the field. The Society is one of the constituent societies comprising the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Origens and Evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century1,2

Before the Neolithic period, all animal foods consumed by hominins were derived from wild animals.

Technologic developments of the early and mid 19th century—such as the steam engine, mechanical reaper, and railroads—allowed for increased grain harvests and efficient transport of both grain and cattle, which in turn spawned the practice of feeding grain (corn primarily) to cattle sequestered in feedlots (66). In the United States before 1850, virtually all cattle were free range or pasture fed and were typically slaughtered at 4–5 y of age (66). By about 1885, the science of rapidly fattening cattle in feedlots had advanced to the point that it was possible to produce a 545-kg steer ready for slaughter in 24 mo and that exhibited “marbled meat” (66). Wild animals and free-range or pasture-fed cattle rarely display this trait (11). Marbled meat results from excessive triacylglycerol accumulation in muscle interfascicular adipocytes. Such meat has a greatly increased SFA content, a lower proportion of n−3 fatty acids, and more n−6 fatty acids (11, 65).

Modern feedlot operations involving as many as 100000 cattle emerged in the 1950s and have developed to the point that a characteristically obese (30% body fat) (67) 545-kg pound steer can be brought to slaughter in 14 mo (68). Although 99% of all the beef consumed in the United States is now produced from grain-fed, feedlot cattle (69), virtually no beef was produced in this manner as recently as 200 y ago (66). Accordingly, cattle meat (muscle tissue) with a high absolute SFA content, low n−3 fatty acid content, and high n−6 fatty acid content represents a recent component of human diets (11).

There are places in Britain like parts of Wales and the Yorkshire Moors where sheep live more or less wild. They're rounded up once a year for shearing and a close eye is kept on them during the lambing season in case of complications. Other than that they live as nature intended. If everyone ate less meat there would be no need for factory farming and animals could be raised in a more humane way. The meat would be better quality and it would reduce other hazards to human health.

Intensive Animal Farming - Human Health Impact

[paulpablo]

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.

Well not all meat is made from cows, I only eat chickens, turkey and fish. I feel a bit guilty about it but they do have miniscule brains, it feels like it's really only one step up from killing a fly or insect.

I think cow and pig eating should be illegal personally. The amount of land it takes up, the methane gas produced by so many cows, the health aspects and so on is the reason why.

With chicken, fish and turkey being so tasty I wouldn't miss beef or pork at all.

[Losty]

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

What about "mmmmmmm cheeeese buuurger!"? Is that an acceptable argument?

[Duke Guilmon]

And some people like meat, but don't like to cause suffering, so they have a bit of a dilemma. I compromise by (usually) sticking with poultry as the highest form of life I eat, but I often compromise that, too. I'm an omnivore, but that also means I don't HAVE to eat meat. I've got a little tickle in my brain telling me that me the taste of something doesn't alone justify killing it.

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?

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

There's also the issue of consent. Euthanasia is thought to be acceptable if the person to be euthanized gives consent. Animals can't give consent. This is why bestiality is immoral. The animal can't give consent to have sex with one of us.

Did I make the wrong choice by putting my cat down, then, when her tongue was bulging out of her mouth, and her belly was so distended she couldn't walk due to an infection? I mean, she couldn't voice consent...

No, I think in such cases you could assume that the animal would prefer to die quickly.

But that case isn't like what you have with animals being killed for food. What you have in the case of meat production is preemptive euthanasia. You don't kill a young healthy adult human under the excuse that "if they'd live to old age, they would likely die horribly of cancer or whatnot." So, why do so with animals?

[Heywood]

The fact that they aren't humans nor pets.

So, if a superior alien race came to earth, would it be ethical for them to eat us?

Why does it have to be aliens? Is it ethical for a hungry human to kill and eat another human?

[KUSA]

So, if a superior alien race came to earth, would it be ethical for them to eat us?

Why does it have to be aliens? Is it ethical for a hungry human to kill and eat another human?

I think these fellows would vote yes.

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[BlackSwordsman]

There's also the issue of consent. Euthanasia is thought to be acceptable if the person to be euthanized gives consent. Animals can't give consent. This is why bestiality is immoral. The animal can't give consent to have sex with one of us.

Did I make the wrong choice by putting my cat down, then, when her tongue was bulging out of her mouth, and her belly was so distended she couldn't walk due to an infection? I mean, she couldn't voice consent...

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