What animals are morally wrong to eat?

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Animals not bred to be slaughtered and used as food, unless they're being killed in a sustainable way. (i.e. venison? for sure, blue-fin tuna? might be immoral).

Tho honestly I'd never say no to some nice otoro blue-fin sashimi anyway.
 
gave it to me as a living animal? obviously not — i don't have any idea how to skin a cat, much less prepare and eat it.

if i went to el bulli and it said "my neighbour's cat" on the menu, however, and i knew the cat had been donated for that reason? sure, i'd give it a go.



that's an absurdly artificial distinction, not to mention relative. i live in japan, tons of people eat horses here. dogs are eaten in many nearby countries.

breeding animals for meat is kind of fucked up, but it's how meat-eaters rationalise what they do.
There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I don't think putting the cutoff at companionship animals is an artificial distinction at all. Have you ever had a pet? They're basically family. They live with you, eat with you, sleep with you, lick your toes, etc. These are animals living among us, helping us, and sometimes loving us back.
 
breeding animals for meat is kind of fucked up, but it's how meat-eaters rationalise what they do.

I don't see how breeding animals for meat is fucked up. Animals bred for meat (or other human purposes) often have higher population numbers than they'd normally have if left on their own. We've all but guaranteed that the chicken, cow, horse, dog, etc... will not go extinct as long as we are on this Earth.
 
There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I don't think putting the cutoff at companionship animals is an artificial distinction at all. Have you ever had a pet? They're basically family. They live with you, eat with you, sleep with you, lick your toes, etc. These are animals living among us, helping us, and sometimes loving us back.

right, but that's a personal relationship between the animal in question, not some random dog off the street. i've owned dogs, cats, fish and hamsters and wouldn't dream of eating those animals. i'm just saying that the logical extension of saying that "eating dogs is fucked up" is saying "korean people are fucked up", which is kind of not true.

it's purely relative. meat-eaters put animals in "food" and "not food" boxes to conveniently disassociate themselves from the brutality of mass animal slaughter. who cares about eating a pig? it can't play fetch!
 
What we eat is arbitrary.

The animals we have deemed taboo to eat are the ones that we've domesticated and have personal feelings toward: dog, cat, horse, human.
 
right, but that's a personal relationship between the animal in question, not some random dog off the street. i've owned dogs, cats, fish and hamsters and wouldn't dream of eating those animals. i'm just saying that the logical extension of saying that "eating dogs is fucked up" is saying "korean people are fucked up", which is kind of not true.

it's purely relative. meat-eaters put animals in "food" and "not food" boxes to conveniently disassociate themselves from the brutality of mass animal slaughter. who cares about eating a pig? it can't play fetch!

If it helps at all, I don't view eating dogs as immoral. I make no judgements about cultures that eat them or breed them for meat.

I already laid out that the only animals I find it reprehensible to eat are:

1. Those with enough intelligence to have lasting emotional consequences from the removal of family members (ie. Humans).

2. Endangered species.
 
Surprised people are saying horse. I eat horse meat like every week on mah sandwich :D.

As for morally wrong? I cannot comment on that. Personally I'll eat anything exept cats/dogs/humans ect.
 
Endangered animals and humans.

For those asking about starvation - I would steal if I was starving but I wouldn't say stealing is moral. If it's for survival, it's excusable.
 
I always find disturbing how people jump into equating humans with animals, even though we are animals, I'm not even sure if you people are joking or not.

Also dogs are bred to be consumed in China, I wonder how you people feel.
 
Dolphins, Whales, Primates and any animal who is self aware. They should be granted non-human personhood and have the same rights and protections as humans.

Dolphins have a complete language with regional differences, they use tools and more than anything else they have culture.
 
We're already eating worse than animals. Processed shit out of the syrupy amounts of shit from blood, sweat, and urine/fecal matter from employees at animal factories and farmers at plantations, even the pickers. After all said and done, we're just no better off than just eating man anyway. But I don't think I'd even want to since man is probably the most disgusting mess of processed shit along GOD knows what else in its system (drugs and alcohol) that has consumed for the past several decades. :\

Also, the scene of the food processing factory in Xenogears still gets to me. I like how Citan knew and didn't tell Fei or Elly about it. There's a point there. :\
 
Surely dogs and cats are self aware?

No they aren't and they don't even pass the mirror test. Animals who are able to recognize themselves in a mirror are.

Humans
Bonobos
Chimpanzees
Orangutans
Gorillas
Bottlenose dolphins
Orcas
Elephants
European Magpies
 
Surely dogs and cats are self aware?

They aren't, not in the same way Apes/Dolphins are. We still have no idea just how intelligent Dolphins are, if they aren't intelligent in the same way we are, then they're at the very least as intelligent as Apes. Anyways, the way I see is it, if I were to die my dog and cat would eat my body.
 
I'd say yes for those that are near extinction or that have very long gestation periods or that don't reproduce a lot per year like whales since fishing them can reduce their numbers dramatically. Everything else is fair game. I don't really care about intelligence, most smart animals are assholes anyways.
 
They aren't, not in the same way Apes/Dolphins are. We still have no idea just how intelligent Dolphins are, if they aren't intelligent in the same way we are, then they're at the very least as intelligent as Apes. Anyways, the way I see is it, if I were to die my dog and cat would eat my body.

Well that's a not a good metric. If you were to die in your house and your dog or cat were starving after a while they may eat parts of you but so would a human who was locked in there with your dead body and needs food. There are many documented cases of cats and dogs staying by their dead owners side and not eating them.

Dogs and cats wouldn't eat other dogs and cats unless it was a survival situation.
 
Although this doesn't have anything to do with morals, I would probably only eat herbivores. I might be wrong, but I think that even in the wild carnivorous mammals don't eat other carnivorous mammals (they still might kill them though). So basically, I would eat horses, rabbits, deers and whatever. I would also eat a horse, but it wouldn't be by my own initiative. Every answer regarding endangered species and cannibalism also makes sense.
 
No they aren't and they don't even pass the mirror test. Animals who are able to recognize themselves in a mirror are.

Humans
Bonobos
Chimpanzees
Orangutans
Gorillas
Bottlenose dolphins
Orcas
Elephants
European Magpies

They aren't, not in the same way Apes/Dolphins are. We still have no idea just how intelligent Dolphins are, if they aren't intelligent in the same way we are, then they're at the very least as intelligent as Apes. Anyways, the way I see is it, if I were to die my dog and cat would eat my body.

I don't think the mirror test should be the ultimate test of whether or not an animal is self aware though. I mean, dogs obviously feel emotions like guilt, for instance.
 
I always find disturbing how people jump into equating humans with animals, even though we are animals.

Why is it a problem to call humans animals if we are animals?

I don't think the mirror test should be the ultimate test of whether or not an animal is self aware though. I mean, dogs obviously feel emotions like guilt, for instance.

Dogs also don't really rely on site as their key sense. We need to account for this when using the mirror test. It is a good test, but severely flawed for that reason.
 
There should be a rule where if you can't kill and prepare an animal yourself, you shouldn't be able to eat that animal. The meat packaged these days dissociates the animal too much from the meat product.
 
I don't think the mirror test should be the ultimate test of whether or not an animal is self aware though. I mean, dogs obviously feel emotions like guilt, for instance.

They have emotions, nobody is denying that but dogs and cats live off of instinct. They have been domesticated for thousands of years and have developed a certain relationships with humans. Chimps and dolphins are not domesticated however they are able to socially interact with humans on a much higher threshold than cats and dogs. Dolphins and chimps don't see humans as masters, owners, pack leaders, sources of food. They are individuals and able to interact with us as other individuals.
 
There should be a rule where if you can't kill and prepare an animal yourself, you shouldn't be able to eat that animal. The meat packaged these days dissociates the animal too much from the meat product.

Why? I'm not being smart or confrontational, I just don't understand the logic behind this.
 
Why? I'm not being smart or confrontational, I just don't understand the logic behind this.

I agree with him. people have no idea how and meat is coming to here plate. They have to understand meat was once a alive animal. So many people i have knows are disgusted by looking at slughter of animal but they would waste two burgers without any problem.
 
Why? I'm not being smart or confrontational, I just don't understand the logic behind this.
I think he's trying to say that having to kill an animal gives you a greater appreciation that the meat comes from a living, breathing animal. People are so distanced from that now. We view a hamburger as something coming from the grocery store and not a living thing.
Edit: Jeez. Beaten by a monkey. Even with a burger example.
 
Some consideration has to be given to

1) Rare animals

2) Animals that cannot be bred or raised in captivity

3) Animals that take a long time to reach maturity

Blue whales are a great example. Very low numbers. Impossible to breed for consumption. Long lifespan and take several years to reach maturity. It would be immoral to consume them knowing that it could easily lead to extinction.

There is NOTHING wrong with eating Blue Whale.
If they get to the point where they become endangered then they will be declared endangered & it will be against the law to kill them period. BUT until that happens I'll be eating my Blue Whale tail for dinner.
 
I agree with him. people have no idea how and meat is coming to here plate. They have to understand meat was once a alive animal. So many people i have knows are disgusted by looking at slughter of animal but they would waste two burgers without any problem.

So it's an issue of education? I could just watch 60's filmstrip of "How beef gets to you plate" an I'm allowed to eat cow again?
 
Why is it a problem to call humans animals if we are animals?

I don't see a problem with calling us animals, I see a problem with putting us in equal level as other animals.

Even if our intelligence wasn't superior, and it is, it is still your own species you know, we should look out for each other. Sometimes I think that is something completely obvious and basic, but then you have radical vegans that get scary. I can only hope the responses in the thread that mention humans are just joking, why would it even cross your mind?
 
I don't see a problem with calling us animals, I see a problem with putting us in equal level as other animals.

Even if our intelligence wasn't superior, and it is, it is still your own species you know, we should look out for each other. Sometimes I think that is something completely obvious and basic, but then you have radical vegans that get scary. I can only hope the responses in the thread that mention humans are just joking, why would it even cross your mind?

So basically you have a problem with a viewpoint not expressed in this thread and unrelated to the current discussion.

As for why people listed humans, that is because we are animals. Humans are an animal that is morally wrong for other humans to consume. I fail to see how those statements put humans on an equal level with other animals. And cannibalism exists.
 
So basically you have a problem with a viewpoint not expressed in this thread and unrelated to the current discussion.

As for why people listed humans, that is because we are animals. Humans are an animal that is morally wrong for other humans to consume. I fail to see how those statements put humans on an equal level with other animals. And cannibalism exists.

Yeah, most humans suck as food anyway which is why animals hardly ever eat all of us. Not enough meat on our bones.
 
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