Quote:
Originally Posted by tore
I actually think that one reason why vegetarianism is gaining popularity is that people are so far removed from nature these days. People used to gut their own fish, boil their own crabs, slaughter their own pigs. People learned to treat animals more like things. Nowadays, some people hardly ever see animals unless they are pets. Obviously they don't learn how to use them. If anything, they learn to relate to them more as if they were people whose shapes and cognitive abilities are different from ours.
Obviously, farmers, fishers, people working in abbatoirs and so on - they still see and treat animals as things. The conflict has a basic root in the perception of animals.
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i think you're absolutely spot on with what i bolded. the modern disconnection with where food comes from is becoming incredibly sad. like the letter sent to a newspaper about how barbaric hunters were and how they should leave the animals in peace and just get their meat from the grocery store like civilized people.
although i don't think the idea that people desensitized themselves to seeing animals as 'things' is quite accurate as well. the emotional connection that a pet would have wouldn't be there but most sensible people could see the animal as a necessary living sacrifice. while large scale commercial slaughterhouses might be cold and mechanical the average farmer most definitely gives a crap about their livestock even if they know it's their last season. they don't want to harvest an unhealthy / dying animal as that wouldn't translate to a healthy family.
as for meat = murder... do i really need canine teeth to eat nothing but beans and sprouts?