This is why I really would like to be a vegetarian. But it presents challenges that I'm too lazy to overcome. In other words... it's just inconvenient.
Hmmm... when I go to Confession should I include "Forgive me Father, I ate meat every day this week"?
I share pretty much the same sentiments. (Absent the Catholic bits, but that’s neither here nor there.) For the moment, I’m trying to pursue (part of the time) an avenue in which the creatures I consume for sustenance and gustatory pleasure are treated humanely and dispatched quickly and without avoidable antecedent/anticipatory stressors. Since death comes for all of us (I rationalize), it’s coming unexpectedly soon is a lesser insult, and a “good death” might be a good trade-off. (Of course, all this is a set of concepts all of which raise the question of the extent of animal consciousness—are they actually at all aware of of their own necessarily impending death, and the fact that such means there really must be an end to their time existing as they currently are, etc., etc.?)
And then I remind myself that the vegetarian route should probably be full-on organic, no pesticides, etc. The death throes of organophosphate poisoning, or pyrethroid toxicity, are often brief, but also equally often ugly.
Of course, one can’t forget travel, either. It’s estimated that the U. S. sees about a million large animals (deer, elk, moose), several million more smaller mammals, and over 300 million birds killed by motorized vehicles, and not all of these deaths are swift, or painless. All so we can get ourselves (or our stuff) from here to there most expediently.
I guess there’s just no end to the problem short of treating every potentially sentient creature with kindness and respect, which probably necessitates universal speed limits of about 20 mph, massive changings in animal farming, and more. All of which is, as you said, inconvenient.
I truly don’t have a good answer, or at least not yet.
This is why I really would like to be a vegetarian. But it presents challenges that I'm too lazy to overcome. In other words... it's just inconvenient.
Hmmm... when I go to Confession should I include "Forgive me Father, I ate meat every day this week"?
I share pretty much the same sentiments. (Absent the Catholic bits, but that’s neither here nor there.) For the moment, I’m trying to pursue (part of the time) an avenue in which the creatures I consume for sustenance and gustatory pleasure are treated humanely and dispatched quickly and without avoidable antecedent/anticipatory stressors. Since death comes for all of us (I rationalize), it’s coming unexpectedly soon is a lesser insult, and a “good death” might be a good trade-off. (Of course, all this is a set of concepts all of which raise the question of the extent of animal consciousness—are they actually at all aware of of their own necessarily impending death, and the fact that such means there really must be an end to their time existing as they currently are, etc., etc.?)
And then I remind myself that the vegetarian route should probably be full-on organic, no pesticides, etc. The death throes of organophosphate poisoning, or pyrethroid toxicity, are often brief, but also equally often ugly.
Of course, one can’t forget travel, either. It’s estimated that the U. S. sees about a million large animals (deer, elk, moose), several million more smaller mammals, and over 300 million birds killed by motorized vehicles, and not all of these deaths are swift, or painless. All so we can get ourselves (or our stuff) from here to there most expediently.
I guess there’s just no end to the problem short of treating every potentially sentient creature with kindness and respect, which probably necessitates universal speed limits of about 20 mph, massive changings in animal farming, and more. All of which is, as you said, inconvenient.
I truly don’t have a good answer, or at least not yet.