more on vegetarianism

debate from a newsgroup…

> Now coming back to the main point, I totally and completely agree your point
> that people who “choose” to have non-veg should demand that the animal
> should be treated properly…. it should be well fed.

They are already being well fed no doubt – because they need to become fatter 🙂 but animals also like to have space to move around and things like that. Anyway thanks for acknowledging this for a start.

> The plants should be “mercifully ” cut

I think this goes to show the root premise behind the whole defense of non-vegetariansim. That there are two different perspectives about animals:

– one is on the lines of “human beings are animals” as Subbu said. Or in other words animals are more similar to human beings than plants. Humans are definitely superior since we are at the top of the chain but for most practical purposes can be considered the same. From this perspective, eating animals comes somewhat close to cannibalism.

– Humans are *infinitely* superior [given it is unthinkable by most veg/nonveg alike that anybody would save a human instead of an animal given only one choice, but this is stressing more on the difference] Consequently, animals are more similar to plants than human beings, they can be considered
and dealt with as vegetables.

We know know what is correct scientifically, but scientific proof is purely intellectual, and may or may not coincide with one’s attitude or what one feels with one’s heart/conscience.

As Manoj has remarked, taste and upbringing is another factor. For some this changes slowly, but I am sure that for everybody this evolves over time in some way or the other.

And if this evolution is based on intelligience alone (for example someone suddenly figuring out his freedom from some religious constraint, or finding himself in a veg-unfriendly place, etc) then such people might start relishing more varieties of meat over time. Alternatively based on increased understanding and empathy with other creatures, esp based on some actual experiences, such as with pets, then evolution can be the other way around too. Maybe even watching a movie like Finding Nemo!! 🙂

Of course the following fact is confusing to me but is nevertheless the truth: there are a lot of people esp in the west who in fact totally depend on their pets for emotional support and treat it with great care like a member of their family. They would never allow any harm to befall their pet. Basically they have extended their circle of compassion from beyond humans to an animal. But still not only are they meat eaters, they also dont worry about meat production/cruelty standards etc. IMO, not because they cannot understand – but simply because they never meet their meat.

As for your other question is milk vegetarian i.e. does it follow the ideas of behind vetarianism? After reading some previous (Milesh’s) posts, and learning more about modern diary techniques – I have to unfortunately agree that it is not, even though I dont like the idea. Certainly in future I am going to evolve my lifestyle to reduce / be more selective about diary products over time… just as I have already managed to completely phase out meat. [disclaimer: Only reason I mention this is not to boast or whatever but to try and prove that I am not just saying things.]