• AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    This is hard because yes dogs are awesome.

    But so are cows, and pigs.

    I’m no vegan, but It’s interesting that the revulsion line for so many is dogs rather than fellow land mammals, land creatures, or something more distinct than a mammal you find particularly cute.

    I’d argue the moral judgment here largely comes from people who just plain abstain from pointing that same moral judgment to sentient creatures they do eat. A cow or a pig is no less an individual than a dog.

    As for me, I am eagerly awaiting lab grown meat becoming more available as an end to our species’ barbarism. Usually all I hear back is disgust at the concept. Give it a chance, for the sake of all the creatures we breed to torture and kill. If we can grow animal protein that tastes the same, that’s a win for everyone.

    • gullible@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      We bred dogs specifically to love people and to be expressive in an innately human way, so it feels wrong to kill them. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc. were bred for food. There’s less betrayal if the idea was always to eat them.

      • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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        11 months ago

        Cows are not bred only to supply meat, they supply labor to till fields and provide manure for crops. The dog breeds used for food in those regions are bred specifically for food, no different than current domesticated animals. Its the lack of that understanding and diminishing the work that other domesticated animals do that cause the problem. Hell there are plenty of studies that show pigs are smarter than dogs, we use them for organ transplants and stuff. You can legitamately argue pigs are more innately human than dogs are.

        • gullible@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Pigs don’t have expressive faces, built-in emotional understanding of humans, and, most importantly, infinite affection. Horses supplanted cows as farm… workhorses, which severely altered our perception of them in the west. It’s a marketing issue.

          • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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            11 months ago

            Emphasis on the west. In eastern culture, cows are still used (e.g cows in india are considered sacred). Hell, an example of a cow that was originally not bred for consumption is the wagyu, a highly sought after piece of meat. But of course, as westerners, apparently we disregard that fact…

            • gullible@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              In 1868, Englishman Edward Charles Kirby established the first slaughterhouse in Kobe, and in 1869, a sukiyaki restaurant called “Gekka-tei” opened in Kobe.

              TIL

          • masquenox@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Pigs don’t have expressive faces,

            Yes, they do.

            built-in emotional understanding of humans

            No, they don’t.

            • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I think some dogs do but not all breeds. Some dogs are dumb as shit but still awesome in their own way.

      • ElcaineVolta@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        I really appreciate your usage of the word “betrayal” here, I think it’s incredibly apt.
        but do you think this makes any moral difference? or that it would matter at all to the being having their throat slashed or thrashing in a gas chamber?

        • gullible@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Not really, I’m vegetarian out of preference but I get where people come from. I’ve offered the truth of the matter, irrespective of my feelings on it.

      • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        It’s more. Your farm goat is your friend. That wild goat you caught as a baby will be more like a wolf than a dog. The point is really that we didn’t just breed cows to be fatter than previous cows, but also to be nicer to humans just like dogs.

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      I made a comment like that to my younger sister when I was just out of high school and you’d think that I had just burned the Bible in front of my father or something.

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      I’d argue the moral judgment here largely comes from people who just plain abstain from pointing that same moral judgment to sentient creatures they do eat. A cow or a pig is no less an individual than a dog.

      so the issue isn’t whether cows or dogs are individuals.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This issue is about that, as people are upset about cruelty to dogs but just put blinders on for cows.

        No person anyone would consider sane would advocate on behalf of saving watermelons, as they have no emotions like fear or sense of self-preservation. Most westerners know intimately that dogs do, but we choose not to dwell on the similar plight of cows, mostly because of the long standing tradition of eating cows. Tradition as always is an idiot thing.

        So yeah, the issue here does revolve around these creatures being sentient individuals, and our erratic recognition of that among the species we choose to consume.

        • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 months ago

          This issue is about that, as people are upset about cruelty to dogs but just put blinders on for cows.

          the distinguishing characteristic isn’t necessarily the individuality of each, and given that you’re right that there is no appreciable difference in that regard, there must be some other factor at play.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Doesn’t taste nearly as good, doesn’t satiate the pallette. And yes I’ve tried all the impossibles and faux stuff multiple times because I like to try new things.

        That said, I’m completely for alternative routes to meat, and will give them every opportunity as they mature to break my bad habit. Plant based meat just isn’t an adequate nicotine patch for such things, at least not yet.

        • ElcaineVolta@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          it really snaps into view when you think about it as an addiction; which also just so happens to be fueling and unfathomably cruel bundle of industries that is destroying the planet - so the stakes are pretty high here.
          I would encourage people to try veganuary this year, it’s growing massively and there’s tons of support.

          • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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            11 months ago

            I mean couldn’t you argue that anything that gives enjoyment be considered an addiction then. I mean thats sort of the function of seratonin.

    • interceder270@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Case and point: affluent white women go goo-goo gah-gah over doggies so Westerners immediately revere them above other animals.

      It’s cognitive dissonance at its finest, but I don’t expect more from meat-eaters.