Doghead's Cosmic Bar
This is a science fiction character forum. Doghead's Cosmic Bar is an intergalactic bar run by your favorite bartender, Doghead. Stop in, have a drink, and get your talk on!
Posts 5,788 - 5,799 of 13,738
Posts 5,788 - 5,799 of 13,738
Not all whale-species are endangered.
Most working horses are sent off to the slaughter-house when they get too old or they break a bone or something which makes them incapable of doing their work. Eating the meat of the animal does mean that you're using the available resources more efficiently. It's a bit of a shame to let 100s of pounds of perfectly good meat go to waste because of sentimental reasons.
Most working horses are sent off to the slaughter-house when they get too old or they break a bone or something which makes them incapable of doing their work. Eating the meat of the animal does mean that you're using the available resources more efficiently. It's a bit of a shame to let 100s of pounds of perfectly good meat go to waste because of sentimental reasons.
I think that may be the connection in general: any animal we've made a connection with, we'll be reluctant to eat. Sometimes it may be a personal connection (pets, etc.), but it may also be societal. Horses are usually presented as the stalwart hero's companion.
Well, if we didn't do anything for sentimental reasons, we wouldn't be human anymore. Military commanders have been called monsters for sending out massive amounts of poorly trained troops as "cannon fodder", but to them it's just efficient use of their resources.
Not that I have moral problems with eating horse meat...I really don't care either way. Besides, if nothing else they can make cat food out of it or something.
Not that I have moral problems with eating horse meat...I really don't care either way. Besides, if nothing else they can make cat food out of it or something.
Yes, and I've never heard of a hero praising his noble steed and pointing to his cow. 
Donkeys, yes, if Shrek is anything to go by, but not cows.
Donkeys, yes, if Shrek is anything to go by, but not cows.
Hmm... supposing we applied the same argument to humans? (Not advocating this, btw. Just...food for thought. 
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Onyx: You have to admit there's a difference between people and animals. You wouldn't put a person who has to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair to sleep, but you would with most animals.
I grew up on a farm with about 30 sheep. Once there was a lamb that didn't get any milk from his mother, so I had to feed it from a bottle. The lamb followed me around like a dog and I really loved it. Two years later I ate it for x-mas dinner. I had a sentimental connection to that ram, but I didn't feel bad about eating it. It kind of was his purpose.
Maybe growing up somewhere where I helped slaughter a few animals every year has given me a slightly different view on it than people who havn't had such experiences.
I grew up on a farm with about 30 sheep. Once there was a lamb that didn't get any milk from his mother, so I had to feed it from a bottle. The lamb followed me around like a dog and I really loved it. Two years later I ate it for x-mas dinner. I had a sentimental connection to that ram, but I didn't feel bad about eating it. It kind of was his purpose.
Maybe growing up somewhere where I helped slaughter a few animals every year has given me a slightly different view on it than people who havn't had such experiences.
But is there really such a difference between people and animals? Do we really know we are more intelligent or somehow 'better' than them? I think it was Descartes who held the view that monkeys and suchlike could actually talk but chose not to in case humans made them work for them. 
If you don't believe there's a difference between people and animal, you should really become a vegetarian.
Monkeys (don't know exactly which kind(s)) have a DNA which is 99% similar to the human DNA, and this makes me think that they should be treated more like humans.
No matter if you're dealing with a human or an animal, they should be treated humanely. Industrial farms, chicken batteries etc. should therefore be illegal.
Monkeys (don't know exactly which kind(s)) have a DNA which is 99% similar to the human DNA, and this makes me think that they should be treated more like humans.
No matter if you're dealing with a human or an animal, they should be treated humanely. Industrial farms, chicken batteries etc. should therefore be illegal.
Humans also take extraordinary measures to stay alive at all costs, without even considering the quality of life they'll be having. There's total vegetables sitting around drooling all over themselves, with less intelligent thoughts than most animals, but somebody loves them so they keep on living anyway. What kind of love is that, to force your family member to sit on and on in a chair without understanding anything that happens to them, or ever having any hope of doing so?
Sometimes I think animals have it easy. Even though we eat them.
Sometimes I think animals have it easy. Even though we eat them.
Perhaps we are the ones who are less intelligent, afterall, if we are stupid enough to destroy the world in which we live in such a 'ghastly' manner, we must have no brains at all. Why cant we all live like wild animals and roam the lands once again?
I'm not sure whether people are better than animals; I was, I suppose, playing Devil's Advocate, sorry!
I can sense the topic of euthanasia arising. I personally think it should be legalised, provided it is controlled very carefully. I heard about discussions of a sort of will, where one can say they want to be killed if they reach a certain vegetative state and cannot express their wishes to die then. I don't know any more details than that, though.
I can sense the topic of euthanasia arising. I personally think it should be legalised, provided it is controlled very carefully. I heard about discussions of a sort of will, where one can say they want to be killed if they reach a certain vegetative state and cannot express their wishes to die then. I don't know any more details than that, though.
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