Reply #6: I'm sorry, but the logic seems silly to me. [View All]

[heliarc]

Why would you accept cruelty committed on less intelligent animals and disapprove of that same cruelty committed on the more intelligent animals? Would you also agree that someone's intelligence should govern the amount of pain and suffering a human being should suffer in their lifetime? Or would you rather that all people intelligent or otherwise be treated with love and respect equally under law and practice?

In my opinion the methods here are what I argue against. It seems that killing these dolphins is terribly cruel and does not in any way take into consideration the animal's level of comfort or emotions the way that many modern abattoirs require for the killing of cattle. Practice is different, as we've seen from the recent discoveries about the treatment of downer cows who go under reported, but modern techniques take into consideration the comfort level of beef slaughter and the instantaneous killing of cattle. For more on this rare problem of compassionate slaughter, might I suggest www.templegrandin.com. Temple Grandin is a noted Autist who has designed many of the slaughterhouses in the country, and her techniques were developed largely to calm and ease an animal bound for slaughter, controversially bridging the conflict between efficiency and simple compassion for an animal who is domesticated for consumption.

Too often on DU I see this argument take the route of racism as respondents start to chastise the Japanese without realizing that there are industries just as cruel here in the states, that either perform similar or worse forms of animal cruelty. http://current.com/items/88847434_where_s_the_bad_beef Let me present this document of current brutalities here at home before this argument leads down that path... We are currently in a state of recall for beef produced in a number of California farms due to the introduction of downer cows into the food supply. A downer cow is one who cannot get up, either because of illness or because of genetic problems. Since the law states that downers should not be introduced into the food supply, farmers perform very desperate measures to get these cows to get up... Forklifts, prods and brands are used. These animals are supposed to be euthanized humanely, but in the effort to not endure losses farmers try anything to introduce then into the food supply.

And might I add that anything theoretically can communicate with you... I know people who swear that their dogs communicate with them... also that their cows do, or their cats even (though I still think the domesticated cat is below shrimp on the intelligence chain... can you tell I'm not a cat fan?)...

Squid communicate with phosphorescent light and travel in herds...,

So just because you can't communicate with it, you're willing to eat it?

I guess you think I'm a vegetarian... I'm not. I am a carnivore myself and I'm also an amateur chef. I just prefer that the animal that we as predatory creatures are destined to consume be respected in every regard. I often believe that the dinner table is a temple and that the animals we consume have been sacrificed for our health and for the greater cycle of living things. The problem with our species is that the division of labour has detached us from the very practice of butchery and taken this monumentally significant sacrifice that animals make for our health and survival out of the very stale and banal practice of eating. Nowhere in the states are meats produced in mass quantities with a real appreciation for the entirety of the animal... appreciating tripe as much as sweetbreads, as much as a cut of loin. There is a terrible environmental problem in this psychology we've created that forgets so effectively the true face of what we eat.