I have no problem exploiting animals for my own (usually nutritional) gain. Can't get enough of them. Lamb, escargot, duck, venison - you name it, I've probably tried it. I have no problem keeping baby animals in cages to keep 'em tender. I have no problem with boiling animals alive to lock in their inherent moisture. I have no problem forgoing cooking altogether and just eating the damn stuff raw. But there's one animal that I just realized I have a problem with mucking about with, an animal that, even by my standards, has been horribly abused for the last, I dunno, probably millenia.
Sponges.
It just seems excessively cruel somehow. This animal, picked by the millions, dried out and used to rub expensive creams and exfolients and god knows what into the skin of the filthy, soaking up dirt and grime just to be rinsed out and reused over and over and over again, or used to rub the caked-on crap from last night's dinner out of a pan. It seems so much worse than just eating something.
Since I realized this, doing the dishes of an evening makes me decidedly uncomfortable. I'm sure that contemporary sponges are entirely artificial in nature, but the very concept upsets me just the tiniest bit.
Maybe I'll go live in a tree for the summer to better understand my relationship with nature.
Probably not.