But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no words

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Amokxy
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But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no words

Post by Amokxy »

I have been obsessed with the idea that humans are basically insane. I have a young vegan friend who, a few years back, went to an animal rescue farm. He was very young and vulnerable at the time, maybe 14, already a vegan, much abused at school because he was coming out as gay. A very sensitive child. He said something that always stuck with me. "The woman who ran the place was rude," he said, "but the animals were kind."

When I think of the way that humans treat other animals (and themselves and others!), I can hardly disagree with his assessment... in my personal experience. Do I need to post evidence of the way animals are treated in this world? This 'economy'? Are you kidding? To get this posted?

What i want to know is this: Do you believe that what we've given up, as humans, is worth what we've gained? That what we've lost in kindness and humanity is worth your cell phone? That thehe steak on your plate worth a life?

Would you kill that cow? For that steak? I mean personally, in person, would you murder that cow?

And then, enjoy it afterwards?
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Aristocles
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Aristocles »

Amokxy wrote:I have been obsessed with the idea that humans are basically insane. I have a young vegan friend who, a few years back, went to an animal rescue farm. He was very young and vulnerable at the time, maybe 14, already a vegan, much abused at school because he was coming out as gay. A very sensitive child. He said something that always stuck with me. "The woman who ran the place was rude," he said, "but the animals were kind."

When I think of the way that humans treat other animals (and themselves and others!), I can hardly disagree with his assessment... in my personal experience. Do I need to post evidence of the way animals are treated in this world? This 'economy'? Are you kidding? To get this posted?

What i want to know is this: Do you believe that what we've given up, as humans, is worth what we've gained? That what we've lost in kindness and humanity is worth your cell phone? That thehe steak on your plate worth a life?

Would you kill that cow? For that steak? I mean personally, in person, would you murder that cow?

And then, enjoy it afterwards?
no
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Albert Tatlock
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Albert Tatlock »

Amokxy wrote: Would you kill that cow? For that steak? I mean personally, in person, would you murder that cow?

And then, enjoy it afterwards?
I agree with you 100%, Amokxy. I enjoy steak far more if someone else has murdered the cow.
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Sy Borg
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Sy Borg »

Domesticated mammals have been bred and selected by humans to be pleasingly docile and manageable. Thus, they tend to be sweet and peaceful, far more beautiful in attitude than (most) humans, but not such stimulating conversationalists, which is why I am on this forum ATM rather than communing with the dogs.

As for the steak question, it depends. Many animals are far from kind, happy to tear its prey asunder as it struggles. Life itself is brutal, not just humans, and it has always been. Humans introduced the concept of mercy, although opinions vary wildly as to whom warrants human mercy. So there's a huge range of eating habits - from fruitarians, who believe that vegan killing of plants for food is immoral to those whose main diet is animal meat.

Personally, I eat meat on weekends and mostly avoid it during the week. I ate vegetarian for a while but found that my body responds well to meat; people's bodies are different and respond differently to different foods. So I worked out via trial and error an approximate minimum amount of meat I needed to feel good. However, I won't touch pork or veal due to the industries' reputation for callous cruelty to intelligent, sensitive animals.

Bottom line: Eating always involves death (harvesting kills many insects, rats and reptiles) so it's a balance between wellbeing and minimising some of the damage we inevitably cause in the process of living and surviving.
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Albert Tatlock
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Albert Tatlock »

Amokxy wrote: "but the animals were kind."
Try as I might, I can't, for the life of me, work out what this is supposed to mean. What do animals do that could be described as kind?
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Sy Borg
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Sy Borg »

Albert Tatlock wrote:
Amokxy wrote: "but the animals were kind."
Try as I might, I can't, for the life of me, work out what this is supposed to mean. What do animals do that could be described as kind?
It means they were gentle and had no competitive agenda with him - unlike bloody humans :lol:
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Burning ghost
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Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Burning ghost »

Absolutely and without question! I would happily pay extra if I could kill my own food personally.
AKA badgerjelly
Togo1
Posts: 541
Joined: September 23rd, 2015, 9:52 am

Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Togo1 »

Um... have you ever owned a cat? I'm very fond on them, but there's no useful sense in which they can be described as 'kind'.
Steve3007
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Joined: June 15th, 2011, 5:53 pm

Re: But the animals are kind: No death but for food, & no wo

Post by Steve3007 »

Being a bit of a towny, I've never actually had the opportunity to murder any of the various animals which I've eaten parts of. So I'm not sure whether I would enjoy a steak more if I'd killed the cow myself.

Anyway, I regard myself as a hypocritical vegetarian. I aspire to not eating meat, but frequently fail.
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