Do we have the moral right to kill animals for our taste?

Question

Just wondering, how ethical it is to kill animals to satisfy our hunger and taste buds! Do we have the moral right to kill animals just because we are a superior race. Isn't it a selfish behaviour?

If this is not, why one human race establishing its superiority over others by decimating the latter would be considered unethical?

Answer 1

The question is not, can they reason?,
nor, can they talk?,
but can they suffer?
--Jeremy Bentham
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all
evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still
savages.
Thomas Edison (inventor)
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mahatma Gandhi (statesman and philosopher)

To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable
in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the
latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man
who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly
butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to
refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable
crime.
Romain Rolland (author, Nobel 1915)

No,nothing really justifies bringing suffering upon another living being just for one's pleasure,especially when it is not needed.
I like the taste of meat?That doesn't make it okay.

Animals kill eachother in the wild,it is part of the food chain?Animals do not reason,they do it out of nature,they are programmed to know what food is,humans,however,choose what they eat.

We're at the top of the food chain,we have the right to kill animals for food?Just because another species is weaker doesn't justify us doing what we want with them.

Animals can't reason,therefore they should be eaten?Babies and mentally challenged can't reason,yet we care for them.

Animals aren't human,so they can't suffer?
Humans don't feel bad towards other humans because humans can talk,reason,or are intelligent,it is because humans are capable of suffering,that is why humans shouldn't cause harm to eachother,animals can suffer also,just like humans.

Man has been eating meat for a thousand years,that makes it okay.
No,it doesn't.humans have practiced slavery for many yearsmbut that doesn't justify it one bit.

I'm vegan but I'm pro-choice,deep down I do think killing an animal for food is wrong,but I'm not going to go up to someone and tell them to stop eating meat.

Answer 2

"Do we have the moral right to kill animals for our taste?
Just wondering, how ethical it is to kill animals to satisfy our hunger and taste buds!

- It's not at all.

"Do we have the moral right to kill animals just because we are a superior race."

- No, we have a moral responsibility not to.

"Isn't it a selfish behavior?"

- Absolutely

"If this is not, why one human race establishing its superiority over others by decimating the latter would be considered unethical?"

- This is a good question as long as you can get past the "we humans, they animals" way of thinking that is so common in people. Once past that, there really is no difference in doing the same thing to humans.

Edit:
@ PM, You miss an important part of this delemma becuase we have effectively removed ourselfs from the food chain. Factory farming is not part of the food chain, you can not compare human eating habits to a lion's. Lions do not intesively farm their food. A bear killing and eating a human is truly part of the food chain, but when this happens people scream for the bear to be killed. You can't have it both ways.

@ Badabingbob,

"Animals have no eternal nature."

- According to whom? Prove it.

"They may have some intelligence, personality, but they are just a resource like trees or crops."

- I would disagree, unlike trees and crops animals can feel love, pain, happiness, sadness, fear and joy. Animals have an interest in not suffering, therefore making them quite distinct from trees and crops.

"Isn't veganism a form of heathen earth worship??"

- No, many Vegans I know are atheist, or agnostic. Even if it was a form of heathen earth worship, and its not, how would that make any difference?

Answer 3

I am hungry for meat it is essential to my digestive system. Animals eat other animals all the time. I am an animal and I am hungry if a cow doesn't want to get eaten then it better figure out a way to avoid that fate. I am the bear I am the lion I am the walrus. Really your vegetarianism should be based on your blood type. With my blood type it is recommended that I eat 4-5 portions of red meat for a healthy diet. Some people only require 0-1 portions a week for a healthy diet. I actually believe I would be sickly if not for my meat intake.

Answer 4

I do not believe it is ethical. I am a vegetarian, I would never kill another animal just because I can. It is very selfish saying that humans are the superior race. We should be protecting the nonhuman animals from harm, not causing them harm.

Answer 5

you are 110% right. =)
no, we do not have the moral right to kill animals for our taste, it is completely unethical! and the most selfish thing humans do. people need to stop thinking they are so much better than animals. animals are actually better than US, because they rely on nothing but instinct to survive. they are innocent. we follow our selfish wants and will do anything to get what we want without a thought for other people, or animals, or the environment. i'm not saying every single person is this way, but compared to animals, we suck.

Answer 6

No I don't believe it is right to eat animals to satisfy our taste buds. I accept that people do it and I wouldnt openly judge them but deep down I don't think it's right. Animals feel fear and other emotions just like we do, and we put them through hell because we want to eat them! I love the film Plantet Of The Apes, as it shows humans being treated inhumanely by the apes who had evolved to be greater than humans. It really makes you think.

Btw veganism isn't about worship, it's simply accepting and having compassion for the world we live in. In an ideal world this wouldn't been seen as abnormal, it would be the natural way of life.

Answer 7

Absolutely not. It might not be so bad if the raising and killing of these animals was humane, but factory farming is hell for these innocent animals who think, feel and posess intelligence. Also, there is no way taday's meat can be healthy. The animals are on a steady diet of hormones and antibiotics. Most of them get skin diseases, respiratory infections, etc., yet the USDA allows us to eat these sick animals. It's disgusting and I will never eat animals again. Not to mention the toll factory farming takes on our environment!

Answer 8

This is a tough question, and it really depends on the individual's perceptions, which are in turn baed on his or her personal belief system.

If you look at it as a biological food chain, then it would be similar to say that there is no issues of moral rights. Just as we wouldn't fault a lion to kill a deer for dinner, we probably cannot say we are not right to kill a chicken for lunch.

However, if you see it from another angle, particularly influenced by your personal beliefs and perceptions, then it can still be immoral, because since we have better intellect, we should have higher moral values too and should still think about the value of lives, and whether we should really kill animals for survival.

I would tend to attribute it to evolution and food-chains, and as more of a man of science than a man of faith, I would tend to reconcile with the first paragraph I wrote - it's all part of a food chain.

Answer 9

It is selfish....but isn't that nature? Competition?

If cows could eat us you bet they would! Nature doesn't think twice.

People say, "oh god look we are killing these poor innocent cows!" But what would happen if you put a cow in the middle of africa with the lions? They would tear it apart limb from limb. Why? Because they are at the bottom of the food chain, they can hardly defend themselves and there is a REASON for that.

Answer 10

I don't think we do i don't eat meat because animals are just like humans even if they don't look like it they have a heart and they feel the same pain we do.