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If animals were discovered to be nearly as intelligent as humans, would it still be ethical to eat them? Farmers often talk about how stupid chickens are and t
by xexers 17y ago
If animals were discovered to be nearly as intelligent as humans, would it still be ethical to eat them?
Farmers often talk about how stupid chickens are and they, therefore, have no problems eating them. But yet pigs are smarter than most dogs and we eat lots of pigs (but almost no dogs). Where does the line get drawn?
- jrmurad 17y agoThis seems to be common knowledge about pigs. What makes them smart? I've spent a lot of time with pet dogs and maybe an hour with pigs (livestock, not pets) on my Aunt's farm. I saw no evidence that pigs have intelligence or personalities like dogs. What should I have been looking for?
- shellerik 17y agoIn my experience pigs are easier to train than dogs (they learn more quickly) and are less easily distracted. I trained pigs for 4-H and showed them at the county fair. I could walk a pig around with just a cane to tap it and keep it going the way I wanted. Bringing my dog to the fair would likely take all of my strength trying to hold the leash. Dogs require acclimation to novel stimulating situations or they forget their training. Pigs don't seem to care. The interesting thing to me was that if we forgot to feed them they would always seem to be able to take apart the fence and get out to eat. The patriarch got out and visited the other pens before he passed away which reinforced my feeling that they treated each other like family. Read the first google hit for pig intelligence if I haven't already gone on too long on the subject.
- logjam 17y agoI've been a vegetarian the last 10 years or so....grew up eating meat, and became a vegetarian for ethical, rather than health reasons (although I believe firmly that a vegetarian diet is healthier for people and the planet). For me, the issue of eating animals doesn't spring from a consideration of their level of intelligence - otherwise, I guess it could be open season on many of us. I personally grew to feel it is wrong to harm sentient beings.
- biohacker42 17y agoHow we keep animals alive aside, do you think any form of natural death is better then a quick kill? Predation, sickness, old age? How common do you think is a painless, old age related, death during sleep?
- jauco 17y agoSo you'd rather be killed now with a pin driven into your brain, then live out the rest of your life?
- Psyonic 17y agoHunter Thompson did
- biohacker42 17y agoWell I might contribute something to the world, that is neither my flesh nor my bones, maybe a poem or a song or a widget, or a scientific discovery. What would anything in this world, that's not human, contribute besides its flesh and bones? Joy to man? I in no way advocate killing people's pets. But to answer your question, I would rather die quickly sooner then slowly in agony later. I would much rather die quickly much sooner, them be ripped apart by predators, or die of starvation or a horrid disease, or exposure. And as to dying now, I have a distinct concept of now, and while animals can plan for the near future, I've never known a dog who's plotted for years.
- logjam 17y agoYour examples of "contributions" seem a tad myopic and species-serving, if not merely self-serving. Apply your line of reasoning to the range of capabilities seen in humans, and see where that leads.
- biohacker42 17y agoSure they are myopic, I'm human. But I was not talking of capabilities, but of things, anything, that transcends the flesh. Cheetahs are faster then humans and birds fly, etc, but that's not what I'm talking about. Or to put it another way, do you think that death, pain and suffering cease to exist when you're not eating animals? Do you think living in the wild is like a happy frolic in the park?
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- jamesbritt 17y ago" ... would it still be ethical to eat them?" Still? Why do you think it's ethical now to eat animals, given what we already know about them?
- xexers 17y agoI was sort of just speaking for humans as a whole. Personally I don't think it's ethical. I'm a vegetarian.