Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for February 20, 2014

Meat may be MURDER, but vegetarianism is GENOCIDE!

I actually agree. In an article I wrote about the hypocrisy of militant vegetarianism, one of my points was that these animals only exist because people eat them and what’s required is better conditions in the meat industry.

Es mejor morir de pie que vivir de rodillas. —Emiliano Zapata

Yet again:

Lyle! Unexpected depths.

In “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, there’s a whole breed of livestock bred specifically to tell prospective diners that it wants very much to be eaten. No more guilt!

Capp was way ahead of the game when in invented the schmoo.

This isn’t so far from the truth. We do have a symbiotic relationship with our domesticated animals (and plants). Corn was a minor grass species in Central America until we domesticated it. Now it dominates entire ecosystems that were once full of native species that we don’t have any “use” for. Lyle’s talking points show quite a bit of insight into the human-domesticated species relationship.(Modern factory farming is, nonetheless, needlessly cruel and dangerous.)

Once again TDB introduces a fascinating question. I can certainly see the point Lyle is making, however, it assumes that any individual pig understands that s/he is part of a planned life and that s/he would prefer an uncomfortable painful life because s/he knows it helps his species. I don’t think that is really how natural selection works because the cumulative result of each individual’s decisions and choices may or may not lead to success for the species, but each of the decisions is made on a selfish basis, without regard for the species. I think that for this hypothetical pig the choice would be based on an economic basis – which life offers the most comfort to me. I happen to think that humane farming can be a very decent life for an animal, but if they knew what was waiting for even the well-treated beasts at the end, would they prefer freedom? It’s hard to say. Such an interesting question though.

M-m-m-m-m-m . . . snow owls.

It’s all starting to make sense to me now.

@wcorvi

I think that’s herbicide…