Killing Animals for Food

As human beings, nobody likes to get killed by anything or anybody and we are afraid of the death. When it comes to all living beings they all afraid of death too. Not only humans, all the animals, birds, fish have an interest in living. So why are we killing them to make our foods?

And as humans we don’t like to get hurt. Even a little scratch in our skin will hurt us. So do animals. In slaughterhouses, animals experience fear and huge pain before they die. We all see that, but we are not acting against that. Is that fair?

When it comes to caring about animals, although we say we care for all living beings, we care only for some domestic animals like dogs and cats. If we hear some countries kill dogs and cats for food, we will cry all day along, aren’t we? But in our country and all over the world people kill millions and millions of animals, most of the time they are not dogs, not cats but animals like pigs , cows, chickens, fish and etc. Animal killers will kill those animal for us. But we don’t feel any guilty or sad. Even if some of us felt that, it lasts only for few minutes. Why don’t we care about all of the living beings?

Let's see some excuses that people give to kill animals for food.

The Genetic different between animals and humans

It is generally considered morally impermissible for a human to kill another human for food. Then, what makes it fair for a human to kill an animal for food?

An identifiable difference among the two species is DNA. If DNA justifies the need to kill animals for food, then it is also justifiable for some kind of alien species to kill us, humans for their consumption. But it is not.

Applying this same theory to humans and animals, considering the difference in genetic makeup, is this morally permissible for humans to kill animals for their consumption? The answer here should be no according to the above theory.


People are Smarter

As Humans, we think have a higher intellect than animals. Reason for that is the bridges, buildings, technological devices, art improved by us. However, if we take the entire human population, all humans might not be smarter than pigs. So, is it morally permissible for other humans to kill these dull humans? Answer is No. So it proves that this reason is also not a valid point.


We care about People

Humans tend to maintain bonds among each other. And if the person, is one who need help then our affection toward him or her will get increase as usual. As a human, I wouldn’t kill my brother since I care about him. But, what if I didn't care about my brother and no one else also did, does it make it justifiable to me to kill my brother? It is not morally permissible even in this scenario to kill my brother. So why don’t we care about the animals? We should.


People are higher up in the Food Chain

Humans are higher up in almost all food chains. Therefore, it could be inferred that people should eat animals beneath them in the food chain. If so, then stronger humans should also be able to eat weaker humans. According to the above food chain theory this is morally permissible. However, it is not in reality. So is it permissible to eat animals beneath us? It is not.

So, none of the above these reasons/excuses could be used to infer that it is morally permissible for humans to kill animals for food. 

Animals also have fear, they also afraid of death. They also don’t like to get hurt. And they need affection and they love caring like us. So all these reasons we are holding to kill animals are not fair and it is morally impermissible for us to kill animals for food.

Hope this article will help us/you to change the way of thinking about the animals. Thank you!


References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HAMk_ZYO7g&t=2s

Kalpani.