There’s something special about every animal, dogs are no exception. If you spend time with cows and pigs, you’ll know they’re capable of being gentle, loving creatures. Pigs are arguably smarter than dogs in some ways.
Many people will argue that it is morally permissible to eat non-human animals because of the difference in intelligence. This isn’t a very good argument though. Suppose an alien species with an IQ of 300 visited Earth. Using the logic above, you would have to concede to their request to eat you.
At a bare minimum, the benchmark should be based on suffering. But even this has flaws. If I was to raise my human child until they were 10, then kill them painlessly in their sleep so I could eat them, people would be mortified.
I personally don’t think there is an ethical basis for eating meat of any kind, provided you don’t live in a food desert.
Eating any farmed predatory species is also inherently about 10x more unsustainable enviornmentally than farmed herbivorous species (which are already unsustainable both water consumption and CO2 wise) as about 90% of the energy is lost at each step of the food chain. So essnitally not only do you have to farm these dogs (that haven’t been selectively breed for thouaands of years to have a large quantity of tender meat), but you also have to farm their food. Dogs aren’t obligate carnivores but they do still need a significant amount of meat in their diet.
I agree that there is something special about every animal, but you seem to be talking about generic specialness, about intelligence and capacity for suffering, but you haven’t really addressed my points, i.e. there are actual biological hallmarks of humans and dogs having forged a stronger mental and emotional connection in the course of evolution than humans and any other animals that we eat.
I wouldn’t phrase it in black and white terms (permissible - not permissible), but to answer a question similar to yours - yes, I think it’s normal for people to feel stronger repulsion on the thought of eating animals with which we can form stronger bonds. So I, for example, cringe more at the thought of eating a dog, than eating a cat, than eating a cow, than eating a fish, etc…
There’s something special about every animal, dogs are no exception. If you spend time with cows and pigs, you’ll know they’re capable of being gentle, loving creatures. Pigs are arguably smarter than dogs in some ways.
Many people will argue that it is morally permissible to eat non-human animals because of the difference in intelligence. This isn’t a very good argument though. Suppose an alien species with an IQ of 300 visited Earth. Using the logic above, you would have to concede to their request to eat you.
At a bare minimum, the benchmark should be based on suffering. But even this has flaws. If I was to raise my human child until they were 10, then kill them painlessly in their sleep so I could eat them, people would be mortified.
I personally don’t think there is an ethical basis for eating meat of any kind, provided you don’t live in a food desert.
Eating any farmed predatory species is also inherently about 10x more unsustainable enviornmentally than farmed herbivorous species (which are already unsustainable both water consumption and CO2 wise) as about 90% of the energy is lost at each step of the food chain. So essnitally not only do you have to farm these dogs (that haven’t been selectively breed for thouaands of years to have a large quantity of tender meat), but you also have to farm their food. Dogs aren’t obligate carnivores but they do still need a significant amount of meat in their diet.
I agree that there is something special about every animal, but you seem to be talking about generic specialness, about intelligence and capacity for suffering, but you haven’t really addressed my points, i.e. there are actual biological hallmarks of humans and dogs having forged a stronger mental and emotional connection in the course of evolution than humans and any other animals that we eat.
Edit: clarity
So?
Is the implication that it is ethically permissible to eat other animals like cats, because they haven’t had the same evolutionary privileges?
I wouldn’t phrase it in black and white terms (permissible - not permissible), but to answer a question similar to yours - yes, I think it’s normal for people to feel stronger repulsion on the thought of eating animals with which we can form stronger bonds. So I, for example, cringe more at the thought of eating a dog, than eating a cat, than eating a cow, than eating a fish, etc…
What is normal, what we’ve been conditioned to believe, or what produces feelings of repulsion are not good moral foundations.
I’m only interested in what is ethical. I’m not convinced there is any reason to consider cows, or even fish, to be less deserving of life than a dog.