OPINION: Animal Rights Prof Says No Way to Consume Meat in Humane Way

By Gary L. Francione , Rutgers University School of Law - June 28, 2009

Comments(8) | (2)
Meat
I never fail to be amazed when I hear people—including well-known promoters of animal welfare—claim quite remarkably that animals do not have an interest in continued life; they just have an interest in not suffering. They do not care that we use them; they care only about how we use them. As long as they have a reasonably painless life and a relatively painless death, they do not care if we consume them or products made from them. I have discussed this issue in a number of essays ... Read the Full Article
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  • quantummechanik
    Well, then we're in a lot of trouble

    Because now there's nothing we can eat morally. Now vegetarians are on the same plane as the rest of us, morally.

    - quantummechanikUS June 29, 2009 4:14PM

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    • GLG
      Precisely My Point

      Time has a way of laughing at us when we are quick and harsh in our judgements of others based on what we know today.

      - GLGUS June 29, 2009 9:04PM

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      • quantummechanik
        I think the meat-wall

        would be a safer bet than cows, though. I mean, we can't know anything for sure, but we can all certainly agree that an animal that doesn't have nerves or a brain is less likely to be something that feels pain than an animal that does.

        - quantummechanikUS June 29, 2009 9:45PM

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    • kentuckydan
      Carrot Juice is Murder

      I am an omnivore, I have canines, nature constructed me to eat both flora and fauna EVERY partricle of life lives on a foundation of death, just the way the universe is constructed, Those who wail against it can do so because they are privaleged to live in the most prosperous time in human history.

      At least my food is dead when I eat it, When a Vegan crunches down on a juicy carrot, the still living cells of which it is constructed are psychically screaming

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

      Give Peas A Chance?!

      - kentuckydanUS July 2, 2009 1:23AM

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      • Desert Girl
        Sure Death is a Part of Life, Doesn't Mean We Should Kill

        KentuckyDan

        So if every particle lives on a foundation of death, and this is just the way of the universe, then does this justify not only the killing and exploiting of non-human animals , but also the killing of human beings? Because well, afterall, it's all just a part of the universe and death is an essential and natural part of it right? I don't think so. Humans suffer. Cows suffer too. We can choose to live and sustain ourselves with food that involves no violence.

        Carrots were thought to "scream" when an extremely sensitve microphone picked up a tiny noise the carrot caused when it was pulled out of the ground. Having no vocal cords, no brain and no nerve cells, how could this be? Science revealed it was a tiny amount of gas escaping the carrot as it was pulled out.

        - Desert GirlAU July 2, 2009 8:56AM

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        • kentuckydan
          Intra Species feeding

          While this occurs in some species, in most it does not. But yes it does justify killing of humans if the reason is to survive, Given a choice I wouild prefer to do the killing rather than stand on principle and be killed

          I do NOT ascribe to the philosophy of Gandhi when for instance he told the British Nation

          "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."

          Or his advice to the Jews

          Two years earlier, in the months before World War II began, Gandhi reacted to the outrage of the Nazi-inspired Kristalnacht (the national pogrom of November 9 to 10, 1938) by offering the following advice to German Jews for overcoming Nazi anti-Semitism: "I am as certain as I am dictating these words that the stoniest German heart will melt [if only the Jews] . adopt active nonviolence. Human nature ... unfailingly responds to the advances of love. I do not despair of his [Hitler's] responding to human suffering even though caused by him."

          - kentuckydanUS July 13, 2009 4:00AM

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      • mystykmouse
        Life lives off death

        This is exactly how i feel. What i believe. I will never be a vegeterian or vegan because it's a lie. You are still killing. You can't eat without taking a life. Plants are alive. They don't have eyes or look human so it's easier to kill them but it is still killing. I'm against creulty but i'm a part of the food chain. Something bigger may kill me for food while i'm out in nature but that's the way it is.

        - mystykmouseUS August 6, 2009 7:14PM

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