Humane Treatment
I was fascinated by the discussion of vegetarianism and vegetarian principles that we had during class Tuesday. I personally don't eat red meat, but I do eat fish and chickens, and it has nothing to do with my sense of sympathy for the animals. Instead, I disapprove of the environmentally detrimental practices used to raise many meat animals and the fact that, by raising more grain and less meat we might feed the world's entire population. Furthermore, I think that, in the question of eggs, we blew too quickly by the point that Pooja shouted out: U.S. eggs are not fertilized. By eating eggs, American vegetarians are not destroying some potential chicken life, they're destroying some potential garbage...
I also wanted to make a point about the idea of "humane" treatment of animals. Someone said that they thought all animals should be treated according to their "humane" standards, even though they might be varelse and not ramen. Ironically, that is what the piggies think they're doing when they murder Pipo and Libo. They believe that they are bestowing honor on their friends and allowing them to move on to the next stage of life, while the humans see their actions as cruel. Not, of course, that I think we should try planting pigs, but we might want to consider that what we believe is "cruel" does not necessarily translate into the animal kingdom...
posted by lennearb @ 10:23 PM
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