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I would argue we treat pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) raised for slaughter much worse than these dogs. Yet I still eat bacon. Mor

I would argue we treat pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) raised for slaughter much worse than these dogs. Yet I still eat bacon. Moral consistency on animal welfare is really hard because we have so many blind spots due to how commonplace some practices are. There is definitely a push for ending things like cosmetics testing on animals[1], but I'm not sure we can or should stop testing things like cancer treatments on animals. At least not until we have viable alternatives. [1] https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/timeline-cosmetics-testing-animals https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/timeline-cosmetics-t...

stametseater 4y ago
> Moral consistency on animal welfare is really hard because we have so many blind spots due to how commonplace some practices are. That really depends on what kind of value system you're starting with.
StrangeATractor 4y ago
> I would argue we treat pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) Closer to toddlers actually. I'm not a vegetarian or animals rights activist or anything but I'm kind of surprised people eat pigs with how smart they are.
BobbyJo 4y ago
Is it really a blind spot if you're aware yet still continue to support the behavior? Seems like mental gymnastics to feel less bad. "Well, I'm not absolutely certain this particular pig was mistreated, so..."
aschearer 4y ago
Careful, one false step and you'll become vegan.
- valgor 4y ago
  Careful, one false step and your behavior will align with your morals.
- boston_clone 4y ago
  Why do you think people should be careful about becoming more ethical?
devb 4y ago
> Yet I still eat bacon. How do you rationalize that? Not many people admit to being aware of the way food animals are treated. I'm legitimately curious, not trolling.
- valgor 4y ago
  People like that don't rationalize it. You cannot win the ethical argument against eating animals. One simply ignores morals or does not care. And I don't mean this in an attacking way because we all do this to some extent.
  - stametseater 4y ago
    > One simply ignores morals or does not care. Third possibility: they have different values which you either don't understand or agree with.
    - jerojero 4y ago
      Under which ethical framework is it possible to justify industrial slaughtering of animals? When you say "some people have different values" you probably mean "some people have simply not thought it through". I really don't think there's an ethical framework that favours industrial meat production. But please surprise me. Now, most people have inconsistent ethics. Which I think is a different thing. I think most people that engage with the industrial meat complex simply ignore the ethical implications, that's actually quite easy to do and even more so when most people are just inconsistent when it comes to ethics. Sometimes people are utilitarians, other times they behave like deontologists and other times they will apply ethics of care. I believe we are constantly building our own personal ethical frameworks. And that's kind of what you're alluding to, but I also think it's important to acknowledge that consistency is important, and I believe if we really tried to accomplish that most people would be faced with a very harsh reality. It's a struggle but we should be more honest with ourselves and the rest.
      - Eisenstein 4y ago
Maursault 4y ago
> pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) You must really like dogs. Pig intelligence is vastly superior to dog intelligence. Pigs basically are as smart as children, with a full range of emotion. Seriously, stop eating them. Be an example rather than entitled to indulge horrid tastes. We can all live without.

stametseater 4y ago

> Moral consistency on animal welfare is really hard because we have so many blind spots due to how commonplace some practices are. That really depends on what kind of value system you're starting with.

StrangeATractor 4y ago

> I would argue we treat pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) Closer to toddlers actually. I'm not a vegetarian or animals rights activist or anything but I'm kind of surprised people eat pigs with how smart they are.

BobbyJo 4y ago

Is it really a blind spot if you're aware yet still continue to support the behavior? Seems like mental gymnastics to feel less bad. "Well, I'm not absolutely certain this particular pig was mistreated, so..."

aschearer 4y ago

Careful, one false step and you'll become vegan.

valgor 4y ago
Careful, one false step and your behavior will align with your morals.
boston_clone 4y ago
Why do you think people should be careful about becoming more ethical?

devb 4y ago

> Yet I still eat bacon. How do you rationalize that? Not many people admit to being aware of the way food animals are treated. I'm legitimately curious, not trolling.

valgor 4y ago
People like that don't rationalize it. You cannot win the ethical argument against eating animals. One simply ignores morals or does not care. And I don't mean this in an attacking way because we all do this to some extent.
- stametseater 4y ago
  > One simply ignores morals or does not care. Third possibility: they have different values which you either don't understand or agree with.
  - jerojero 4y ago
    Under which ethical framework is it possible to justify industrial slaughtering of animals? When you say "some people have different values" you probably mean "some people have simply not thought it through". I really don't think there's an ethical framework that favours industrial meat production. But please surprise me. Now, most people have inconsistent ethics. Which I think is a different thing. I think most people that engage with the industrial meat complex simply ignore the ethical implications, that's actually quite easy to do and even more so when most people are just inconsistent when it comes to ethics. Sometimes people are utilitarians, other times they behave like deontologists and other times they will apply ethics of care. I believe we are constantly building our own personal ethical frameworks. And that's kind of what you're alluding to, but I also think it's important to acknowledge that consistency is important, and I believe if we really tried to accomplish that most people would be faced with a very harsh reality. It's a struggle but we should be more honest with ourselves and the rest.
    - Eisenstein 4y ago

Maursault 4y ago

> pigs (which are comparable to dogs in terms of intelligence) You must really like dogs. Pig intelligence is vastly superior to dog intelligence. Pigs basically are as smart as children, with a full range of emotion. Seriously, stop eating them. Be an example rather than entitled to indulge horrid tastes. We can all live without.