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Eating "sentient" beings.

I killed a fly today, please forgive me. I know someone that ate a chocolate covered ant.

...and stop referring to Rabbit Stew. I think it's beef, or chicken, maybe some squirrel.
 
thaiboxerken said:
I think the point the author is trying to make is that other animal species are sentient too, so we shouldn't eat them either.
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Well by technical definitions I belive they are sentient, but not sapient. I thought sentient was defined as having sense's. So all mamals are sentient, it is just that most people mean sapient when they say sentient
 
Rabbit said:
I killed a fly today, please forgive me. I know someone that ate a chocolate covered ant.

...and stop referring to Rabbit Stew. I think it's beef, or chicken, maybe some squirrel.
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I have eaten fried grasshoppers and know people who have eaten live ants
 
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thaiboxerken said:
Who knows? Maybe the author thinks they shouldn't. However, how would we stop all animals from eating each other? We can't reason with them, really.
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My bold. I think this says a lot. Even though animals are sentient (able to sense things) that does not make them intelligent.

Even amoebas can sense things. Does this make poisons that kill them evil? I don't believe so......

If you work with animals you quickly discover that their minds do not work like ours. I don't think this makes them inferior but they are different.
 
ImaginalDisc said:
If you have no qualms about squishing a roach in your pantry, and roaches are much more closely related to lobsters than ducks are to us, you should no qualms about eating a lobster.
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Well, killing a lobster, anyway. I'm not about to eat any roaches, either. Incidentally, it's not true that lobsters are more closely related to insects than ducks are to us. Not sure why this matters, though.

I don't have any moral objections to eating lobsters, but I'll never understand why that stuff is considered a luxury item.
 
bob_kark said:
So, when we release all the cows, pigs, chickens, etc... across the world wouldn't they be eaten by predators, hit by cars, starve to death, and so on? Why not just treat them well, feed them, keep them safe for most of their life and just eat them? Wouldn't that actually be more humane?
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Great points. I like it.

I'm don't agree with the author, btw.
 
mumblethrax said:
Well, killing a lobster, anyway. I'm not about to eat any roaches, either. Incidentally, it's not true that lobsters are more closely related to insects than ducks are to us. Not sure why this matters, though.

I don't have any moral objections to eating lobsters, but I'll never understand why that stuff is considered a luxury item.
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Because it is expensive. Before there was transportation to permit is being a luxuary item, lobster was very very cheap. Mass. had laws saying that you could only force your servents to eat lobster 2 times a week, and also had prison riots because the prisoners where fed up with getting lobster all the time.

What is a luxary item is much more about how expensive it is than its innate properties
 
mumblethrax said:
Well, killing a lobster, anyway. I'm not about to eat any roaches, either. Incidentally, it's not true that lobsters are more closely related to insects than ducks are to us. Not sure why this matters, though.

I don't have any moral objections to eating lobsters, but I'll never understand why that stuff is considered a luxury item.
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Well, ducks and humans are in the same phylum, and roaches and lobsters are in the same phylum. Technically, by taxonomic terms, the human-duck distance is about the same as roach-lobster, so you're right. Not sure what more detailed genetics has to say.
 
ponderingturtle said:
Because it is expensive. Before there was transportation to permit is being a luxuary item, lobster was very very cheap. Mass. had laws saying that you could only force your servents to eat lobster 2 times a week, and also had prison riots because the prisoners where fed up with getting lobster all the time.

What is a luxary item is much more about how expensive it is than its innate properties
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I always suspected as much. I can't eat a plated lobster. I can't look at it. Crabs, the same way. They are nothing more than spiders...I'm convinced of it.

I must admit to liking crab meat in small quantities in salads and such but I don't like thinking about it. Freaking spiders!
 
ponderingturtle said:
Because it is expensive. Before there was transportation to permit is being a luxuary item, lobster was very very cheap. Mass. had laws saying that you could only force your servents to eat lobster 2 times a week, and also had prison riots because the prisoners where fed up with getting lobster all the time.
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Sure, I've read that before. And when the transportation infrastructure developed to the point that fresh lobster was available inland, demand went up.

But why? I mean, of all the things to ship inland. Of all the things to imbue with prestige status.

(This post is at least 90% facetious.)
 
A lobster was the first thing I killed for food. I still feel guilty.

I don't think I could ever hunt.

Kill, yeah, but kill and eat? I'll leave that to Tyson.
 
Rob Lister said:
Hense the counter argument to their supposed sentient status.
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Huh? Sentient means having sensations. That they are not rational enough to take into account other creature's interests (or even their own) does not automatically imply that we should not take into account their interests.

bob_kark said:
So, when we release all the cows, pigs, chickens, etc... across the world wouldn't they be eaten by predators, hit by cars, starve to death, and so on? Why not just treat them well, feed them, keep them safe for most of their life and just eat them? Wouldn't that actually be more humane?
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Probably. It's not neccesarily the most humane thing to do, but it's probably better than doing nothing. However, the difficulty is that we do not generally treat livestock that way, and it is debatable whether it is feasable for us to do so and get enough of a profit to make the farm sustainable.

That said, I do eat meat.

Apollyon said:
If plants had little emotive faces like in a Disney cartoon, would there be a subset of people who would starve themselves to death?
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There exists various movements such as fructarians (who only eat fruit, in that it falls from plants on its own rather than having to be actively killed) and freegans (who eat whatever they want, but try not to pay for it; in that once something is killed you might as well eat it, but they just don't want to encourage the killing or the food industry). So it's quite possible to hold that opinion and not starve to death, although yes, strange people.
 
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Only people who can afford to eat whatever they choose can afford to be this "sensitive." I'll eat just about anything you put in front of me, and I'll thank you profusely for it.

I do stay away from things like veal and pate, but it's purely philosophical.

I can't afford to eat that stuff in the first place, never mind any objections I might have (and I do) to how it's "made."
 
UserGoogol said:
Probably. It's not neccesarily the most humane thing to do, but it's probably better than doing nothing. However, the difficulty is that we do not generally treat livestock that way, and it is debatable whether it is feasable for us to do so and get enough of a profit to make the farm sustainable.

That said, I do eat meat.
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Chalk one up for animals are delicious.
 
UserGoogol said:
... freegans (who eat whatever they want, but try not to pay for it; in that once something is killed you might as well eat it, but they just don't want to encourage the killing or the food industry). So it's quite possible to hold that opinion and not starve to death, although yes, strange people.
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I'm a Freegan? :jaw-dropp everytime i go to the supermarket, the chicken is already killed, so I might as well eat it....

Couldn't we all just be Breatharians?
 
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