Wally Ballou wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Sep 2000 21:39:36 EDT [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > At the expense of extreme cruelty to animals?  This is very
> > upsetting to me.
>
> The entire focus of this list is the paleolithic diet, which is largely
> meat-based.  There are a few here who try to get as close as possible to
> "paleo" nutrition without eating meat, but meat is still what it's really
> about.  If this upsets you, then this is probably not the best place for
> you to hang out...

Setting aside issues of what exactly is "extreme cruelty," if one
believes that animals have subjective experience, and that they have
preferences about what sorts of subjective experiences they have, and
if we value these preferences, then it seems clear that we can choose
how much to respect those preferences insofar as we can speculate on
what they might be.

Based on this it seems reasonable for a human meat-eater to prefer
meat that is raised and killed in particular ways, for moral or
ethical reasons having to do with various aspects of the animal's
subjective experience.

For example, I prefer not to support factory farms because of my
perception that animals raised in certain conditions are accorded less
respect than other animals.  This seems entirely reasonable and
logical to me.

To make the example more extreme, it would be possible to blind a calf
at birth, completely immobilize it via mechanical means, stimulate its
muscles electrically, feed it exclusively through an IV, medicate it
heavily for optimum growth and disease resistance, and then fifteen
(or however many) years later to slaughter it by cutting and stabbing
its abdomen with a pair of childrens' scissors until it eventually
died.

It is also possible to raise a calf in one or more open pastures, give
it medical care as necessary, and to slaughter it in a way which
produces a minimum of stress.  I don't know much about animal
husbandry, but I think the general direction of the details here is
probably fairly clear.

I have beliefs about each of these hypothetical methods of meat
production, and I have a preference for which one I would tend to
support over the other.  This is an extreme example, but I hope it
makes the point.  I eat animals, but I would prefer not to eat certain
animals and thereby to support the means of production involved.  This
does not seem contradictory to me.

Obligatory introduction: I'm a long-term vegetarian (well, sushitarian
really) who has read just a bit too much for his own good and who is
starting to eat paleo.  I was introduced to the whole concept by
another member of this list who may or may not choose to accept
responsibility publicly!

-jeremy



--
                   jeremy bornstein <[log in to unmask]>

             to be free of all authority, of your own and that
             of another, is to die to everything of yesterday.
                [j. krishnamurti, _freedom from the known_]

                           http://dissolute.com/