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From: mager@uw-beaver (Gary Mager)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: Vegetable Morality and Request for Recipes
Message-ID: <791@uw-beaver>
Date: Thu, 5-Jan-84 15:22:23 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.791
Posted: Thu Jan  5 15:22:23 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Jan-84 01:12:30 EST
References: <130@hou2f.UUCP>
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 24


              The only justifiable reasons for not eating meat are
     religious and personal preference. This bit about being not
     nice to kill animals is pure poop (like that word??). This
     mentality, I believe, stems from people who let their social
     conditioning spill over into areas where it does not apply.
     Or maybe they mentally put themselves in the same position
     as the animal and get emotionally hung-up. I often wonder
     how these people feel when a bobcat catches and kills a
     rabbit on some TV wildlife show. Maybe they don't watch
     these shows. Maybe they feel nature should get an *R*
     rating. 

What incredible logic!  Does that mean that whatever behavior occurs in 
nature is acceptable for humans also?  This creates a whole new morality
which would condone such natural behavior as killing babies, canibalism,
even biting the head off of one's mate (praying mantis).  There is a lot
of behavior that occurs in nature for reasons of survival and/or because
animals do not have the level of consciousness and morality that MOST
humans do.  Eating meat for humans is not a matter of survival, it is
simply a matter of preference.  We should not look to nature for judgements
of acceptable behavior.

            Gary Mager
            uw-beaver!mager