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Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth
Personally I'd have no problem eating a pet if the situation presented itself, however due to my own attachments to the creature (or respect to another family) its simply easier to look elsewhere for meat. Having said that if I or my family were starving Rover would be on the dinner table as fast as I could fire up the grill.
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That's the thing... none of us are in a survival situation. If we were in survival mode, then sure... there is an argument to be made for eating animals.
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I've just never viewed killing and eating animals as an ethical question and besides being ethically consistent in all aspects of life simply isn't realistic and only serves to make life more difficult (if not make for stubborn/interesting discussions).
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It's not about being consistent in all aspects of life, and it's not about being perfect. It's just about trying to improve oneself one little bit at a time. It's not an all or nothing proposition, and being vegan is only a beginning I'm sorry to say. I am not perfect. Though I've 99.9% eliminated animals from my diet, I do not lead a packaging free life, and that's an area where I want to improve. It bothers me that every week a load of garbage or recycling gets picked up because of me (where is it going?). I don't know that the labour practices of the companies that supply my food are sound, but I try to act upon what I learn.
Lest anyone jump on this as "mental gymnastics" or "philosophical rigour," let me assure you that it's just a part of the regular reflection that we should all be doing about our place in the world. I find this process is getting overstated as an excuse not to do it - especially on this thread.
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That of course presumes that we even need to extend our concept of ethics to the animal world in the first place or at the very least weather or not the same moral values should apply. While I see no reason to be needlessly cruel to animals, I also stop short of consulting my book on ethics everytime I squeeze the trigger or tuck into a juicy steak. But thats just me, everybody views the world differently and it takes all kinds I suppose.
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Choosing not to kill animals is not a matter of extending our ethics to the animal world (if there even is such a division given that we are animals). Ethics is about how
we act.