Ethical Vegetarians?

Question

Ok I am interested in Ethical vegetarians view on this question.

What offends you more:

Mass production(battery farming) of livestock for consumtion

or

Someone hunting an animal in the wild(that has never been captive) to provide food for the table.

Are these equally bad or, is it variable.

Answer 1

The farming is worse, its complete abuse of the life of the animal.

No ethical veggie would eat even hunted animals though

Some people are particularly blind to what they type...

Nova said: "I'm against killing but i like meat" Be honest with yourself, you can't be THAT much against killing, can you ?

You also said "all beings are the same"...eehhhh ? Feel free to pop around to my house and we'll cage you up for 2 years before slaughtering you. I guess thats ok

Answer 2

I am not a complete vegetarian but I do keep meat consumption to a absolute minimum, mainly for ethical reasons. Personally, I don't have a problem with wild food. I would however not eat meat that has not been reared in a natural way IE free range/ land reared. I would also suggest that it is very unhealthy to eat this type of meat as the animals have not been given the opportunity to build muscle tissue, it is also likely to be fed full of antibiotics which they are fed as a preventive measure to prevent disease from being in an unnatural and over crowded area. I feel that meat should be a luxury item. I don't think humans are designed to eat meat and certainly not large quantities, you can tell this by our teeth compare our teeth to a vegetarian animal such as a horse or a cow, they are quite similar compared to meat eaters chimps are our closes relative we share I think it is 98% DNA or close to that they eat meat very occasionally but have some very well developed canines.

Answer 3

Both are offensive, because any unnecessary (humans are perfectly capable of thriving on healthy, plant-based diets) excuse for killing & torture is offensive.

Mass production is the among the heights of cruelty in treating sentient beings as mindless objects, but hunting down wildlife is no more commendable. In both instances, the animal would die a slow & painful death. When humans kill animals for food, they like to bleed the animal. This process can only happen while the animal's heart is still beating, while the animal is still conscious & feeling every tear of the knife. You see, most human meat-eaters have been conditioned to eat meat, but they don't really want to know where it comes from. So, they don't want their meat to be completely saturated with blood (we're talking more than the blood of "rare" steak here). If we were "meant" to eat meat, we shouldn't have to cook it, nor should we feel a natural revulsion to the un-bled flesh, but most humans do, don't they?

Answer 4

That's a complex question. In purely theoretical terms, I would say that mass production of livestock for consumption is cruel to animals and doesn't let them live naturally or even have a good quality of living.

Wild hunting, on the other hand, is seen as the "natural" way to eat meat, fowl, or fish - people hunt for only what they need.

But there are other points to consider in all this.

Using up land to farm animals takes up land that could be used to grow grains and vegetables that would feed many more people than the animals on that land. Then again, agriculture on a mass scale is also bad for the earth, as it depletes the soil of nutrients since we don't cycle our land use.

But, both the raising of livestock as well as agriculture are partly responsible for global warming (emitting nitrous oxide and methane into the atmosphere), so you could say that growing vegetables and farming animals are *equally* bad for that reason.

Of course, people need to eat, so there isn't an easy answer to any of these questions.

For me, personally, I try to tackle all of these complicated and related problems by trying to buy only organically raised meats (the animals are treated better and humanely) as well as wild-caught, non-endangered fish (the overfishing of our seas is yet another problem), as well as buying vegetables and other produce from local farmer's markets (to avoid the cost to the environment of food that is shipped over long distances, causing much pollution from the trucks used to transport it.)

Buying from farmer's markets (or organic farmer's markets, which a large number of them are), whether for meat or vegetables, also supports smaller farms who use less land and know the principles of cycling the land and use natural pesticides instead of chemicals.

To sum it up, hunting or farming animals are both bad for different reasons, and one can be considered worse than the other, but it all depends on which way you look at it.

Answer 5

mass production of meat is totally abhorrent to me.i've never been too keen on eating meat but i did because i sort of felt i had to. its hard to explain . i stopped eating any meat stuff that had been" messed about with " like sausages and burgers a long time ago. then i stopped eating meat that wasnt organic after reading hugh fernley- whittingstalls book about meat. a year ago i saw , on tv, a man in holland ripping the testicles from a piglet. without any form of painkiller. i can still see the little legs writhing in agony. i can still hear the squeals of pain. i can't condone that treatment of animals for the sake of a meal. im very happy with my food now. as for hunting? well. no to that too. but factory farms are worse far worse.

Answer 6

I've been vegan for 4 years. I changed for many reasons, but mass production was one of them. I walk past a slaughterhouse on my way to and from work. There are health benefits to not eating animal products, but for those that chose to do so and are living as hunter/gatherers, I have no problem. For me it's the hidden cruelty - my girlfriend is omnivore, but won't kill insects that get in her house. That's dual standards. Me - I do kill insects, so perhaps that's my double standard.

Answer 7

ok, I'm not a veggi.
but I think this is more a question of morals and ethics, than of eating behaviour.

I don't like battery framing or "animal mass production" - all beings are worth the same.
the worst about this way of "producing food" is that animals are slaughtered after a terrible life.

a hunter, only hunting for his/her own food is the most natural thing - you kill as much as you need. not more.

still, it is about killing - and I'm against killing. although I like my piece of meat now and then. regardless, if any veggy considers me a monster.

Answer 8

The only hunters I know do it for sport...I am against that. I can understand if it's for survival but in this day and age, I can't imagine there are many of us who actually need to do that...it's not like our crops got destroyed and there is no other choice.

Answer 9

Bless you for caring to ask this.
When you feel this love you know what is right and wrong and all creatures and all of creation see you radiant, how could this be a mistake?
Have a great day,
Nigel : )

Answer 10

both really,

the mass production of things is just sick
but hunting is too. most people dont hunt because they have to, its because they like to kill things, which, to me, is the same as sadism or a sociopath. same with the people who love to watch those peta videos about slaughter houses because they like to watch these animals suffer. i never understood it, and cant believe how sick some of the society is