I just had an experience that makes me wonder why I am okay with eating meat. I have numerous house flies in my bedroom and I put out a sticky trap. I watched the flies struggle to break free from the trap and I felt so moved by their distress that I crushed them with a Coke can so they would suffer anymore. I even feel sad when I kill a spider while trying to bring it outside. I should just say 'fuck it' and become a vegetarian, right?
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Here’s the obligatory “you should be vegan, not vegetarian“ comment. But as a vegan who thinks about animal suffering a lot, I pondered what is the most cruel industry that isn’t vegan. I came to the conclusion that it was the dairy industry. Although you’d expect it to be the meat industries, I sincerely believe that it is the dairy industry because of what is necessarily entailed by it. There is sexual abuse and objectification of cows, the kidnapping of their children so we can have milk and that calf can enter the vicious cycle of torture, and this happens continually throughout their lives until they can’t conceive anymore, at which point they are murdered for meat. None of this world be justified in a human context, so I don’t see why it is ok in a nonhuman context. It‘s basic ethical philosophy: don’t cause harm where it can be avoided, especially if the slight pleasure gained doesn’t outway the immense amount of suffering required.
I say you're on the right track. I decided to become vegetarian after a fishing trip and seeing the fish dangling from the hook. I felt so bad. I also recalled a family member who worked briefly at a slaughter house telling his experience with cows and the fear they showed when it was their time. I don't touch meat any longer.
Depends what you mean by “should”, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the mistake is eating meat, the sensitivity to the flys may be the thing to be rectified. I would recommend thinking about this from both angles