What is the long-term ethical treatment of meat animals?

Question

Suppose everyone became vegetarian. It seems likely that the various species of farm animals would become extinct, or nearly extinct---after thousands of years of breeding, they can no longer survive in the wild, and few if any will continue to be raised by humans if it is not economic to do so.

In other words, suppose you were an intelligent pig or cattle, and where faced with the choice of: (1) living for a while, then being killed and eaten or (2) having your whole species go extinct. Which would you choose?

Answer 1

Would you want to live under those conditions? Or would you rather die? Think about being locked up in a small cage where you can barely turn or lie down, being poked and prodded, overfed, underfed, etc etc etc etc etc..Do you think these animals feel one moment of contentment in there sad and short lives? It has more to do with the fact they arent living for awhile and then simply killed to be eaten. They are barely living at all, the conditions in which they are kept are horrid and uneccesary.
I think nature has a way of working itself out. It is for sure that domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, chickens would soon go extinct as a result of what men did to them. And soon nature would take its course, as was meant to be. We ourselves have been avoiding the rules of nature since the day we discovered the use of tools. Just because we are an "Intelligent" species does not mean what we do is right. Which can make you wonder what our role here is to begin with. Are we meant to dominate and consume everything in sight and within our ability, or are we meant to use our intelligence for what we deem as good and just? You tell me how you feel on that, because I already know the answer. My intellect is not present in order to destroy, and at this point needs to be put to some real use, as everything has been far to neglected for far too long.

Answer 2

Remember that these animals have been domesticated by humans - they're no more natural than having pink hair - cute, but just not natural.

My vote is to have some museum farms in a variety of places around the country, but to stop breeding pigs, cattle, and chickens on factory farms. It would be far better, in my opinion, to allow a few of these animals to live on in humane, natural conditions than to perpetuate them in these horrible conditions.

I guess I could ask you, if you had the choice of continuing the human race under severe slave-like conditions or becoming extinct, which would you chose. The only way you'd want to continue, I'd guess, would be if there was some sort of hope for liberation in the future. Factory farm animals have no such hope.

Answer 3

Humans *are* like really intelligent pigs or cattle, in that we are animals who can choose for ourselves and think deeply on these issues.

And throughout history, humans have always chosen freedom for themselves and all those like them, regardless of what horrible things the dominating and enslaving forces believed would happen to them if they were given such freedom. The bad consequences are never as bad as the conditions the people/ animals were initially are forced into.

For instance, you gave only two options, the enslavement/ torture option and the extinction option, so the question relies on faulty logic.

Answer 4

i would rather be free, no matter how short my life was, than live in a feedlot. most cows are not out grazing in pastures. they are raised and die squeezed in with hundreds of other cows.

i think that if something were to happen to humans, the domesticated cow will become the next buffalo. we would see a blend of breeds and the strongest of their future genetic line i imagine would roam open prairies and stampe majestically across our country.

it's kind of fun to imagine centuries into the future, that all the races that make up north america will have blended, and that they will be dressed in indigenous clothing, living close to the earth, hunting the sacred holstein that roams the grass range.

Answer 5

"Any *man* who would choose safety above freedom deserves neither." --Thomas Jefferson
I know that the mammals of which we speak aren't human but I think that they would agree with that statement. And I don't mean to overstep any boundaries but I think that The Creator would agree with that too.

Answer 6

First of all i dont understand vegetarians, because God said he made animals(meat) for us to eat to gain Nutrition,however he said to take care of his creatures .