Is there a line at which you give animals a "special moral consideration" because of their intelligence, sentience, maybe they have a soul etc... ?So Gary tosses of some line about how he'd hate to eat crow (sardonic humor is a certain specialty there), and there are a couple of responses about the great apes, dolphins etc... Plus one guy who gives the standard vegan line of "It is unethical and immoral for us to exploit animals now that we have the technology available so we don't have to. Our fellow creatures deserve more respect than that"
In the immortal words of Douglas Adams "So long, and thanks for all the fish".
I hunt, kill, prepare, and cook my own food (though unfortunately no hunting recently). It gives gone a new appreciation for protein and caloric intake requirements; and a greater respect for both the animals themselves, and what it takes to feed ourselves.
I believe cruelty to any animal is wrong; and I believe that killing any animal unless it is for food, or in defense (be it by direct attack or as vermin) is wrong; human or otherwise.
That said, I have no moral problem with human cannabalism for survival (murder aside - assume they froze to death); never mind eating any other animal.
Of course on the other side of that, I don't put any other animal at near to, or the same level as I do humans in consideration of rights etc... by default.
Cruelty in any form is a sin whether one believes in god or not. One should not be cruel. Neither however should one give any animal special consideration for it's special "moral" status, even the great apes. Hell the only special consideration I give MAN is that he is by default assumed to be deserving of more consideration than a bear mauling him.
Prove yourself not worthy of consideration however, and you are just another animal. I would shoot a scumbag in the street before I would shoot somebodies dog. The scumbag has proven he deserves it, while the dog is just an innocent (again, until it proves otherwise).
Oh and for those of you folks who believe a rat is a boy is a man is a dog (morally speaking), you've proven to me that you are undeserving of said consideration; in fact you've explicitly asked for such; and therefore I see no moral problem in snapping your neck. After all, you have no more moral rights then a rat.
Of course somehow I don't think that's what you meant...
