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On Compassionate Carnivores and Betrayal

Animal Person

There's no "compassion" in the process. It's impersonal and hideously ugly and the animals suffer greatly. Yes, I do think it's better to have lived a comfortable life and then be slaughtered than to have been tortured the entire time and then be slaughtered. It's cruel. No argument here.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

14): To the animals being slaughtered, it does not matter whether their killers are local or whether they will be eaten or displayed on a wall. Their suffering is the same. There are no “lofty pedestals” for those without compassion or empathy for other creatures.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Just days before Barbaro was humanely put down, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act was reintroduced in Congress. In an incredible juxtaposition to the fanfare of Barbaro, more than 100,000 horses were slaughtered last year in the United States and shipped to Europe and Japan for human consumption.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

The fact that geese mate for life, and that the mate of the poor goose that was slaughtered would step forward, was enough to make me swear off meat forever, if I hadn’t already. Doesn’t he realize that he does not have to engage in this voluntary activity, which causes moral conflict for himself and suffering for the animals?

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Prima Facie vs. Ultima Facie Wrongness

Animal Ethics

He clearly thinks that it is wrong to cause animals to suffer unnecessarily, but he appears to be somewhat ambivalent about killing animals (provided the killing is carried out humanely). I suspect that underlying his thinking here is a common rationalization that many of my students initially embrace.