are cows better off eaten than wild?
Just for fun:
Vegetarian and vegan arguments against eating meat often try to make the case that the animals have horrible lives (and deaths). But do they? Aside from the question of whether, say, a chicken consciously feels anything, how bad are things for them while they're alive and clucking? I think the basic grounds of this argument are rarely if ever explored. We must think about how bad these animals would have it if man hadn't domesticated them in the first place!
Lets think about cows, because they're amusing creatures, and imagine they have feelings.
- no fear of being chased and brutally eaten by lions, tigers, or bears (imagine the ulcers that caused)
- no worries about dying of dehydration
- no worries about finding food and avoiding starvation
- no mating competition (though this could be a con)
- travel the world; better landscapes than arid savanna
- really low infant mortality rates
- little to no death due to diseases because of full vaccination and heathcare
All in all, I think life as a domesticated cow really rocks compared to living the life of their feral ancestors. I'd rather much prefer it - someone brings me everything I need, mates me when I'm ripe, and takes complete care of my children. I don't get sick, and I get to see a nice green countryside. It's like a vacation, a socialist's dream. Instead of a Hobbesian world, artificial selection has made cow's lives social, rich, leisurely, and, well, short, but quickly ended.
Meat isn't murder, it's welfare - tasty, tasty welfare.
Vegetarian and vegan arguments against eating meat often try to make the case that the animals have horrible lives (and deaths). But do they? Aside from the question of whether, say, a chicken consciously feels anything, how bad are things for them while they're alive and clucking? I think the basic grounds of this argument are rarely if ever explored. We must think about how bad these animals would have it if man hadn't domesticated them in the first place!
Lets think about cows, because they're amusing creatures, and imagine they have feelings.
- no fear of being chased and brutally eaten by lions, tigers, or bears (imagine the ulcers that caused)
- no worries about dying of dehydration
- no worries about finding food and avoiding starvation
- no mating competition (though this could be a con)
- travel the world; better landscapes than arid savanna
- really low infant mortality rates
- little to no death due to diseases because of full vaccination and heathcare
All in all, I think life as a domesticated cow really rocks compared to living the life of their feral ancestors. I'd rather much prefer it - someone brings me everything I need, mates me when I'm ripe, and takes complete care of my children. I don't get sick, and I get to see a nice green countryside. It's like a vacation, a socialist's dream. Instead of a Hobbesian world, artificial selection has made cow's lives social, rich, leisurely, and, well, short, but quickly ended.
Meat isn't murder, it's welfare - tasty, tasty welfare.
1 Comments:
I think that you chose a straw man (or is it cow?) example here. Cows, as we have all seen from the California happy cows commercials, have a considerably better life than say, chickens and pigs. They do not get to roam the countryside and often have their offspring taken from them. Yummy.
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