should we treat animals as our friends, or eat them as we like?

Answer 1

Remember, people are animals too. Animals should be treated with respect, but there is a thing called the Circle of Life...other animals kill each other for food. However, Just because we eat animals doesnt' mean we have to treat them like nothing but food. Animals are our friends. It's okay to feel both ways about the subject..it's okay to love animals and eat them, that's life. However, I personally am against the suffering of animals. I don't believe in keeping and raising animals for food. I only buy and eat free-range meat. My family comes from a long-line of hunters. My husband is one out of 13 children, so his father hunts constantly, but he uses every single piece of the animal. He doesn't hunt for sport. He hunts to feed his family. That's the only meat I eat. We get deer meat and wild turkey and sometimes squirrel and rabbit, but the animals had their chances of living. They got to live long full lives in the wild. They weren't raised for food in cages and suffering. They were killed quickly and humanley, and not a drop of the animals were wasted. I personally am obsessed with animals and I have struggled with your same question. I used to be a vegan, but now I eat free-ranged meat...have you ever looked into that?

Answer 2

I think that a healthy dose of both would be the key. I mean, we cant keep every animal alive, we wouldn't get protein and other things.

However, if you just won grand champion with your mini rex rabbit at the fair, you shouldn't go home and decide you're hungry and eat him. Someone I know did that.

I mean, we have to treat some animals differently, like a cow is more expendable than a dog or a horse. And chickens are eatable and things like that.

I'm not a member of PETA but I do believe that animals need rights too. I mean, why would we sit and test makeup products on poor monkeys and dogs? They dont want the makeup! Its the people who want the makeup, so lets have some human test subjects test the new makeup product. There are some things we can justify, and others we just cant.

Its all in the eye of the beholder. This is a very hard question to answer without making a lot of people angry.

Answer 3

I think this is a simplistic way to view the question. Some animals have become man's companions - particularly cats and dogs who forged bonds with humans - initially to control rodents, clean up scraps and warn humans of intruders. These bonds grew into friendship and companionship. Similarly, horses served a specific non-food purpose - transportation, plowing fields, etc. So friendship and companionship formed in those relationships too.

Other animals have been raised primarily as livestock, specifically to feed people. Although somethimes people adopt these animals as pets, most farmers will tell you the relationship with these animals is rarely friendship or companionship because of the role they serve in human society.

Humans did change the natural order of things by domesticating animals. You can argue whether this is good or bad and that is a reasonable debate. But the animals that have been domesticated are now our responsibility - domestic animals have been changed so fundamentally they cannot go back to being wild animals. Whether animals are used for companionship, work or food should all be treated humanely. And this is an issue that many people and organizations are working to address today. To eat animals or not eat them can be a subject of reasonable debate, but while they are alive we have a responsibility to treat with them with dignity and respect.

Answer 4

everything needs to eat. I say treat animals fairly, humanely, and decently. Treat them as the miracles they are and appreciate they are here. Also eat them. Why not. We have been eating meat from the dawn of time. If you are christian the bible says god put the animals on the earth for humans. If you are an evolutionist... then how do you think we got bigger brains? meat my friend, protien help up grow this big brain, hunting honed our insticts and working together helped us form communications. Meat is good, I have a pet cow but I eat a hamburger.

Answer 5

Both

We kill what we need to survive
and some animals help us hunt
so they are our friends

or we can make friends with an animal
then eat him later when we are hungry

Answer 6

There are some animals that are raised to be eaten and others to be domesticated. I wouldn't eat a dog or cat but have no problems with beef, lamb or veal (sorry PETA people).

Answer 7

What kind of question is that?
I imagine personal preference and type of animal would play a huge role as to how edible it would be.

Answer 8

Depends on the animal.
I love my pets and don't eat them.
Yet I hunt/fish, when I kill, I eat it.

We raise cattle and we eat them...That can be hard, since you want to "bond" to it...but you can't, so we name them numbers that is there exit date or their ear tags.

Answer 9

like our friends, but u need 2 eat meat, so both

Answer 10

Treat them as our friends........but ill eat cows lol.