QUOTES
Chris DeRose, head of In Defense of Animals (source: World Magazine)
"Even if the death of one rat would cure all disease, that death would still
not be justified, because rats and humans are equal."
1983 Ingrid Newkirk, the US director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
"There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special
rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy"
TIME magazine (‘How Man Began’, March 14, 1994)
"No single, essential difference separates human beings from other animals.’"
GENERAL
I like animals. Really I do. I've never been inclined to hurt them, even as a little boy.
Truthfully, I'd say I've always been more the gentle type, never desiring to use fireworks,
a magnifying glass, or any other means of torture on any form of helpless creation, as some
of the stories I've heard about many a little boy. In contrast, I think that we should treat
all creatures as we'd like to be treated, or at the very least with respect for their
happiness, comfort, and general well being...
before we eat them and/or use their bodily resources for our benefit.
I know what you're thinking. "You're kidding right?" "You made that whole statement just to throw off your readers (all 1 or 2 of them) before the surprise ending." Nope. Creatures feel pain and they feel discomfort. They have nerve endings, and they are a living being that deserves as happy a life as a critter can have under most normal circumstances. However, as humans we are perfectly justified in consuming or utilizing them for our usage as well. While I'm sure some of you sissy PETA types are screaming "Contradiction!" while shaking your fists with all of the liberal aggression that your limp wrists can muster, hang with me for a minute or so and I'll try to explain my opinion from a Christian AND a non-Christian perspective.
DIFFERENCES
First though, I'd like to point out that there are many differences between us and the animal kingdom,
some of which are blatantly obvious or were taught in any standard science class, and others that you
might not have thought about before now. Feel free to email me with any additional ones that I missed.
We the people...
While all of the above could be attributed to our larger brains and superior thought capacity, there are other traits that are not linked to logic and improved thinking, and present what I believe are indications of what we call the "soul" (also stated on my "Why God" page).
We demonstrate a significantly greater sense of emotion. These emotions are usually contrary to logic and offer no significant benefit from a biological perspective, often times even hampering our ability for rational thinking.
In contrast to the animals, who are controlled by the environment and their natural instinctive appetites, we are supposed to CONTROL our environment and our natural appetites. Think about it, even if you don't believe in the morality of The Bible, you can certainly realize that we are supposed to remain in control of and deny the very instincts that we encounter on a daily basis.
For example of #2 above is when you're really angry or jealous, you want to physically lash out at someone, sometimes even to seriously hurt or kill them. Even if laws didn't dictate it, you know inside that it would be wrong. When you're hungry you want to eat, but if we let ourselves be free to eat anything and everything we want to or can afford to, then we'd all be severely overweight. When there's someone that you're attracted to, you want to have sex with them. Considering only biological restraint (the evolved instinct to not create more families than you can take care of), why not reassure your spouse that you'll use a condom, at which point he/she should have no problem with letting you sleep around? As long as the other person is primarily focusing their time on YOUR family, adultery shouldn't matter. Or, for that matter, if the man can afford to take care of several families at once, what's wrong with a little polygamy? Somewhere, deep inside, for some reason (God), it feels wrong. Yet these are all examples of our naturally present instinct, or perhaps our sinful nature and/or influence of the evil one, which we must resist. And that is completely contrary to the animal instinct, which guides their actions and promotes their very survival.
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
With the above in mind and believing, as a Christian, that the Bible is the word of God, which
states in Genesis 1:26(NIV) "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and
let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all
the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So according to the Bible,
we humans are the only creatures that are made in God's image (which would explain the above
differences) AND we are also given the right to completely and utterly rule all of the other
physical creations of His on this planet.
NON-CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
If you're not convinced by the Christian perspective, then evolution (if you
believe in it) should
also convince you that because we are the fittest and at the very top of the food chain, we have complete dominion through natural selection, survival of the fittest, etc, and
should therefore be able to devour and kill all other creatures at will.
SUMMARY
Either way, if cows, pigs, and chickens were left alone in the wild, they would not be able to
protect themselves very well (no defenses) or escape an onslaught by wild carnivores (not very mobile or agile).
Therefore, it seems to me that they were created completely for human consumption and should be
utilized as such. Heck, even if you still think that we're only equal to the animals,
then that would still mean that we can feel free to kill and eat them at will, because they
eat each other too.
So in conclusion, I say dig in!! But make my filet medium-well done, I prefer to take full advantage of that wonderful human discovery called fire. And please keep Bessie and Babe in as comfortable a farm environment as possible, at least while they're alive. Besides, I think it makes them taste better.