Kavekk the Ludicrous wrote:
I don't. If you think of an animal as more than a biological machine, which have to to accept that they can suffer, then to view its life as worthless is monstrous. When you not only accept that an animal can suffer but pour self-righteous indignation on people that cause said suffering for their pleasure you become an idiot. You're valuing the events of its life above the life itself. You are saying that the suffering the animal feels is not worth the pleasure of bloodsport, but that their life is worth less than the equally transitory pleasure of consuming its flesh.
Well, actually you're saying their life is worth less than any possible reason for killing them, but I felt like speaking specifically about meat eating.
That's fine, if you are a vegetarian. As someone who is extremely ill, and had to fiddle around with my diet a lot, I've had to become an amateur nutritionist in consultation with doctors. This has taught me that only extremely healthy, attentive and energetic individuals can afford to go on a time-consuming vegetarian diet without becoming nutritionally deficient in the long run.
Secondly, as a very amateur biologist, who watches weekly documentaries, it is clear that the majority of animals end their lives, not of old age, but of being eaten alive. Circle of Life thing. Unless you are a lucky Apex Predator, in which case dominance or territory fights, injury or illness is likely to take you out after a brief life full of starvation periods and semi-endless hunting.
I consider a humanely, properly treated ranging domestic animal in a varied and interesting environment who is killed as fast as possible before being eaten as having had a more valuable life than a wild animal who goes through the whole eaten alive to death thing.