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If cattle/livestock were sentient would you still eat them?
- Thread starter DragonSJG
- Start date
That depends. Since they can speak, form opinions, and have the general intelligence of a person, do they have the right to vote as well?
I... want to say no...
But I might be a bigger asshole than I think.
Also the word for this situation is sapient iirc. Sentience is just being able to feel/perceive things.
But I might be a bigger asshole than I think.
Also the word for this situation is sapient iirc. Sentience is just being able to feel/perceive things.
What do you mean "depends?" Would you have eaten black people before 1870? Are foreigners and permanent residents on the menu since they can't vote? I'll leave out women before they got the right to vote to avoid the obvious joke.
tldr?
I've drastically reduced meat intake, and the animal cruelty aspect is a big part of that. I pay the premium price for grass-fed animals and brands that (allege) treating livestock with more respect.
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based on the op, i think they meant being self aware, conscious, etc. Displaying human-like intelligence.
Hmm, my previous statement came off a lot more cannibalistic than intended. No, I most likely wouldn't consume the people or animals. Unless it is a formal dinner situation that I cannot get out of without insulting the host.
I made the decision not to eat anything with thumbs years ago since they are to close to humans and eating another human is weird, so yes I would....but now I might have to reevaluate my stance.
They are sentient, I think you mean sapient. No I wouldn't I already struggle with what I eat now which is not much. I have an arbitrary line in regards to degrees of sentience and ethical meat consumption, it tends toward pescetarianism but is not quite there yet.
I think I almost woke up the entire side of my airplane when I saw this in the middle of a trans-pacific flight.
You definitely mean sapience as sentience should already be enough to qualify for basic rights. Plenty of humans lack sapience including babies and the severely mentally handicapped and they obviously deserve not to be abused and slaughtered so you can enjoy a snack.
Na, sapience is too precious a resource on the cosmic scale when we have tons of still delicious alternatives like fish and poultry. The media they could produce alone would be some of the most fascinating shit and you'd never know if you're eating bovine keats or porcine kubrick.
Yeah I was like... cattle and all animals are kind of alive by default. Unless OP meant if a talking sirloin steak could guilt trip us out of eating it.
So... this threads sickens me a bit. Not targeting anyone in particular, just venting frustration at how ignorant most humans are to the sentience of other life, all because modern society makes it far too easy to create a completely clean break from the food we consume and how it's produced.
COW is an amazing film that released this month in the UK. It's all shot from the perspective of a mother cow, forced to be bred repeatedly, and have her calves taken away from her repeatedly, all to keep her in milk. And all because the majority of humans are too shitty to consider their impact on the environment and this kind of emotional impact on other animals, when we could all easily make the switch to an extraordinary number of dairy alternatives (oat milk is the most sustainable of them all so far, so start there if you want to make a positive change this year, and work down the list of alternatives until you find one that works for you).
EDIT: ^ These are European living standards for cattle too ^ It's significantly worse in the US system.
COW is an amazing film that released this month in the UK. It's all shot from the perspective of a mother cow, forced to be bred repeatedly, and have her calves taken away from her repeatedly, all to keep her in milk. And all because the majority of humans are too shitty to consider their impact on the environment and this kind of emotional impact on other animals, when we could all easily make the switch to an extraordinary number of dairy alternatives (oat milk is the most sustainable of them all so far, so start there if you want to make a positive change this year, and work down the list of alternatives until you find one that works for you).
EDIT: ^ These are European living standards for cattle too ^ It's significantly worse in the US system.
Is that a choice you have to really make? What grocery store is carrying monkey meat?
Fucking hell. Imagine if a human's consciousness was somehow transplanted into a cow. A quarter of those who have answered so far would still pay to have that person tortured and murdered.
I know what you meant OP but no I wouldn't
don't think I could selfishly ever go full Vegan but I'm cutting down on meat as much as possible more for environment reasons
don't think I could selfishly ever go full Vegan but I'm cutting down on meat as much as possible more for environment reasons
If they can speak and have that consciousness, then they should be granted personhood, and I would stop if that was the case for sure.
I don't mind giving it up now, what with all the alternatives. I'm more of a light meat guy anyway.
Just have done my livestock ethology exam. Its a pretty sad topic.
As my Prof said. Animals are not stupid, humans are just too stupid to understand.
As my Prof said. Animals are not stupid, humans are just too stupid to understand.
This premise makes me wonder how much more intense racism would be if we didnt have the ability to learn different languages
I couldn't, no. I'm cutting down on certain meats already but I feel no guilt eating it when I do because we can procure it humanely. We don't always do so but that's a separate issue entirely. But if the livestock have the intelligence enough to understand what they are and what will happen to them, I don't think it could be done humanely anymore. And therefore I wouldn't want it done.
There's something about food that causes people to lose their minds, diet is basically religion.
