An interesting
topic that has come up in the recent years. It is the
notion that
animals deserve
respectable treatment from us
humans because they too are
living beings, or to the more
radical advocates of this, they deserve the same
rights as
humans.
I can understand the part on respectable treatment. But that only goes as far as not causing unneccessary pain to the animals. What is proper? Is raising a herd of cattle for the sole purpose of slaughtering them for meat improper? I don't think so. Humans are omnivores. Those four pointy teeth we have, the incisors or something, are there for the purpose of tearing flesh apart. If we weren't supposed to eat meat, they wouldn't be there. We have two ways to do this. We either go out and hunt the animal down, kill it, gut it, and eat it. Or we can capture some, breed them, feed them to get them all nice and fat, then kill it and eat it. Now, which animal has an easier time. The one out in the wild, exposed to the elements, subject to predation, disease, famine, drought, natural disasters...... the list goes on. Or the one that sits there and eats. Easy choice.
Is it wrong to kill an animal? If it serves a purpose for us humans, no. If it is out of sheer maliciousness, yes. The 15 year old shooting rabbits with a shotgun for no reason is wrong. Killing an animal in the abattoir then eating it is not. Why? Because we are another species and it is a way for us to subsist. It provides the same results as hunting, but it is much easier and a lot faster. It's called surivival of the fittest. Do lions have any hesitation whatsoever when it kills an antelope and eats it? No. I don't see cats hesitate when they chase mice and eat them.
The destruction of habitat has been a complaint laid by many animal rightists. Yes that is wrong and in no way do I support it. But compare this. In developing countries, governments are kicking the poor out of the slums, knocking their homes down, to make way for industrial infrastructure. Some governments, such as China, provide better housing for them (from slum to apartment house with running water is definitely better) as well as monetary reparations. Some don't. That is very similar to the destruction of animal habitats. Animals have been living in the wild all their lives. Those poor souls haven't. The shock for them of being forced from one place to another is probably a lot worse than the animals.
There was a famous case in Australia a decade ago. In Perth, Western Australia, a factory trained pigeons to peck at buttons according to the type of buttons passing through on the conveyor belt in order to sort them. In return, they provided a spacious aviary with food and water for the birds. The RSPCA sued immediately claiming animal abuse. The factory had to hire humans at minimum wage to perform the job. Isn't that more cruel? The birds don't care as long as they have food and water. They have no respnsibilities. They don't get bored. Humans do. Seems like the RSPCA places more value on pigeons than humans, and that is plain wrong.
I have heard many people say they will never eat meat again after coming out of an abattoir. Why? Too gory? I've been to one, and I have no qualms about eating a nice, juicy steak at the dinner table. Truth is, all the gore is nasty, but we all have those blood and guts in us too. If there was an animal that you can kill with no visual nastiness, and you go to the abattoir and look, when you come out, you wouldn't stop eating it.
I should do more research because this issue is too complicated, but this is all I can come up with off the top of my head.