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From: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: net.veg
Subject: Re: Is a dead bird the best way to show your appreciation????
Message-ID: <324@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Jan-86 23:52:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ism780c.324
Posted: Fri Jan 24 23:52:43 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jan-86 05:37:54 EST
References: <421@decwrl.DEC.COM> <862@umn-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@ism780c.UUCP (Tim Smith)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 28

> And - in answer to the question of why it's okay for animals to
> eat meat and not man: Man has the option, the capacity to use
> higher reasoning and live by a morally higher standard.  Animals
> don't have those choices.
>
> [ killing animals for food vs. killing animals for furs ]

All this argument really says is that it is ok for non-higher-reasoning
beings to eat meat because even if it is not moral to do so, they do
not have the capacity to decide this.   This argument says nothing about
the morality of eating meat.  And how about the morality of killing
plants? [ note: no :-) ]

I see no inconsistency in eating meat but objecting to having animals
killed for their fur.  There are other substances that can be used to
make fake furs that do not involve killing animals, and are just as
good or better than animal fur both functionally and esthetically (sp?).
When the technology of fake food gets to where, say, fake steaks and
hamburgers can be produced that are as good as the originals, both
nutritionally AND in taste/texture, then it will be time to stop
killing cattle.  Similarly for other meat animals.

Wouldn't net.misc be a better group for this?  I would assume that
most people who read net.veg are vegetarians, and so a more general
group, like net.misc, would be more likely to get no-vegetarians
involved.
-- 
Tim Smith       sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim || ima!ism780!tim || ihnp4!cithep!tim