Posted by Emily (68.13.144.194) on January 30, 2003 at 11:13:26:
In Reply to: Re: To any vegans posted by Mikko (193.234.247.51) on January 30, 2003 at 10:55:34:
> 1) Modern slaughtering methods are painless at the actual moment of death.
So it's ok to kill someone as long as they don't feel pain at the actual moment of death? I disagree. Plus, a nail-gun-to-the-head isn't exactly what I would call a "humane" way to prepare someone for death, plus a big percentage of that time that method doesn't knock the animal out all the way. You can't just stop an assembly line because a few animals didn't get knocked out...that's not economical. As well, it isn't just the killing part that's cruel, the conditions they're born and raised into are NOT green lush pastures and etc.
> 2) Plants do feel pain.
They don't have a central nervous system, they don't have the ability to run and flee from predators. Why would evolution curse them like this if they do in fact feel pain? Tell me, how does an organism without a central nervous system, nerve endings, and brains process pain? I'm sure the thousands of biologists in the world would be interested to hear your answer.
And also, like I said, I am not a purist. I have to live somehow, and I need food to do so. Plants, if by some miracle they can feel pain in some magical way without the known means of doing so, they're still way down at the bottom of the food chain. The further up you get, the more complex an organism is. Humans are at the very top, and if we have the whole damn thing at our disposal, it doesn't make sense to eat at the top where it causes a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, when we can eat lower down and help to end, or at least lessen these things.
I'm 100% sure that I will cause harm in my life, and I will kill things. What I can do, however, is consciously choose to cause the LEAST amount of harm and death as I possibly can. I'm going to accidentally hit a rabbit or a squirrel with my car someday probably, and I'm going to step on ants without seeing they're there, and use plastics which is processed with animal fat, but if I took away every single little animal product in my life I would be out in the forest in a wood shed, and even then I would have had to take away habitat for animals and squashed part of the forest floor to do so.
I am not perfect, and not I, or anyone else on this world, can be completely harmless. But I can do what I can and give a little bit of effort instead of just saying, "Well, I can't do it all so I might as well do nothing".