I frequently don’t make the ethical choices that I feel I ought to make. This would be less of an issue for me except that I have a friend who consistently makes better choices; and, although, she never makes an issue of my failings, the discrepancy troubles me.
The easiest thing to fix is probably to stop choosing to eat other sentient beings. I’ve gone entire weeks eating nothing but peanut butter and Nutella, but every so often I want more.
I rationalize eating fish and fowl pretty easily because I don’t feel them. Even where I had frequent contact with them, I felt like they were just hanging around me because I fed them. If I wasn’t carrying the feed bucket or didn’t set about feeding them pretty quickly, they’d go on about their business. That’s not a death-penalty offense, but it seems to make them more okay for me to eat.
Eating other mammals is more of a problem for me. I’ve tried to rationalize it, but I can’t make it right. If I accept that all of humankind are one and any apparent distinctions no more significant than different categories of canines, then how do I make ethical distinctions between species? How is that different from racism among humans?
Homo sapiens isn’t the only species of mammal that has intelligence, that shows emotion, that shows thoughtfulness. I think it is only our hubris that allows some of us to declare that only humans have souls – however we define that. How can I ethically choose to eat them not from need but in preference to more humane food sources?
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It’s not enough to say that I seriously love me some bacon. It’s not enough to say that I only “have to” have a big ol’ bacon cheeseburger maybe once every month or two. It doesn’t even work for me that many breeds of prey animals only exist because we have bred them for consumption. I really feel like I’m just rationalizing unethical inhumane behavior, and it says something about me that I don’t just stop it.
As I said, I’m less troubled eating fish and fowl, although I’d have difficulty defending making that distinction. There’s also the thing with eggs and dairy to deal with.
Really, I virtually never think about food unless I’m hungry, and sorting this out is just daunting enough that I’m probably just going to keep kicking the can down the road for awhile anyway.
“Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.” – David Hume
As I know you know, but others may not, we raise cattle and sheep. We raise them on natural grass and in herds and flocks as natural a way for them to live as is possible. But when the season comes when they are to become beef and lamb, it’s always tough for me. Because we live quite close to our animals in that the sheep have free movement around the house, only blocked from the flower and vegetable gardens, they are part of daily living. I absolutely hate this time of the year when the reason the rest can live is paid by the ones who will die. We make sure we only sell to those who kill mercifully and fast. We sell direct to customer as often as we can to make sure that happens. Before I would let my livestock go to an auction yard, I’d shoot them in the head and bury them here. So they don’t go through that experience but still their innocence and the way they have no idea what is coming really does bug me. But I eat both lamb and beef from this property. I do it by thinking as the Native Americans did– it sacrificed itself for us and the herd. I thank it for that sacrifice. If it didn’t happen this way, we could not have the sheep and cattle as it is not something you can do as a hobby or for pets– way too expensive. I justify it by my belief it’s healthier for the ones, like my grandchildren, who are eating meat that has no hormones or chemicals with less fat. Still, it’s a hard time of the year for me. I do my best with it because I am not ready to give up the herds and I’d have to if I couldn’t handle this season. I don’t eat much meat though– not fish or poultry– and btw poultry is my biggest guilt as we don’t raise our own and we buy from a store where I know how terrible the conditions are for chicken to be raised for the eggs I love and the meat. We might eventually try chickens here again but it’s one of those things you have to be right there to gather the eggs and face the reality that a hen doesn’t produce them for all her life; which means stewing chicken or feeding a lot of birds that aren’t doing anything but eating. They are also tough to protect from all of the predators that roam our land so close to the creek as we are. Life is always a trade-off, I guess…
You’ve written before about your relationship with your animals, and I respect that. The home I grew up on was a one-cow and chickens small farm/large garden thing, and the chickens were my chore. If chicken was on the menu, one of the chickens was about to meet its maker. I was more troubled by the short life of the cow’s calf.
Carnivores aren’t “bad” because they eat meat, and vegetarians aren’t necessarily “good.” Humans are omnivores. By evolutionary design, we have the opportunity to choose. I think the essential element is respect for the life that we all share.
Our calves live to be about two; so not quite as short as dairy would be. The lambs though have to go when they are less than a year old or they aren’t lamb. I absolutely hate it but I absolutely love having the sheep as part of our life– and the lamb we raise does taste good ;). I don’t think I could raise animals like say a pig where we saw it daily as part of our life and an individual. And with the lambs, we can pick out those we want to keep; so they don’t all go to meat. We also let the old sheep live as long as they can until they begin to fail. It is a trade-off though.