A few days ago I watched a video from PETA called Meet Your Meat. Though it was a bit sensationalist and I would have trusted it more had it not been made by PETA, it reminded me of the biggest reason that I don’t eat meat.

Ever since I read Ishmael (plug plug plug- read it!), I’ve been very aware of the way humanity interacts with the rest of the natural world. The most important idea I got out of that book is that the Earth does not belong to us. It belongs to itself. We are animals like any other animals- the only difference is that we’ve evolved to the point where we are intelligent enough to dominate other species. People tend to look at the world as Us vs. Them- Us being humanity and Them being trees, bugs, monkeys, oceans, volcanoes, diamond mines, protazoa, lice, chickens, and everything else that comprises our world. We belive that we are the masters of our world, and that it is our privilege/right/responsibility to beat it into submission and reform it the way we choose. The earth is not our kingdom. It generously sustains us, and in return we must cooperate with it instead of trying to subjugate it and the others that live on it.

I’ll get to the point before this gets too long. I think that all life has to be respected- not just human life. When we put animals like cows and chickens into tiny cages for their entire lives before shipping them off to slaughterhouses, are we respecting them? No, we are thinking of them as nothing more than a commodity. That’s what I have a problem with. Every other animal on earth has just as much a right to exist as we do. We are not the only ones that matter. It’s terrible to see entire species deprived of real life just so that you can eat a steak without trouble.

Thus, I am not against the act of eating other animals. I am against the way in which we do it. If I lived in a situation where free animals were hunted because people needed their meat, bones, and hide in order to survive, I would probably eat the meat. Animals prey on each other, it’s a law of nature. What I cannot stand is the the way we deprive other conscious organisms of of their lives, not only by killing them, but by making the short lives they do have miserable.

Last, I would like to express my irritation at those who love their pets and cry at the thought of people being mean to little doggies, but turn a blind eye to the suffering of animals in factory farms. If you can’t stand the thought of a cute little puppy in that situation, how is it any better when it’s a calf?

Edit 2/23/05: Since I wrote this, I realized that I would only feel comfortable eating meat if I didn’t have a choice. I believe that if I can live without killing another conscious thing, I should. But I respect your right to do otherwise.