> Humor me here, if you will:
>
> 1) Define "living organism", then:
> 2) Identify exactly how far down the food chain of "living
> organisms" you go before you cease to bother yourself with the
> considerations you grant to cows, and:
...I have to kill to live, an implacable fact. I eat as low on the
food chain as is consistent with my material situation [ie. living in
urban north america with no present option to alter that
circumstance] and the continuation of my person. I don't demand that
cows not be killed [I don't *demand* anything], but I think that
blandly consuming a being with a mind without participating directly
in the death of that being, getting your hands dirty, as it were, is
both thoughtless and disrespectful.
...sticking with cows for the moment. A cow is a complex, intricate,
wonderful creature. Cows are beautiful, biologically fascinating and
rife with significance in the history of the humyn organism.
Mechanically raising, slaughtering, packaging and eating creatures
with as much integral meaning to our culture, thoughtways, mythstructures
and history [in story and analysis], doing so while
deliberately distancing ourselves from exactly what that entails, is
blind and ignorant [willfully so] and incredibly selfish.
...you want to eat a cow, fine. Take responsibility for your choice.
hell, realize that you are MAKING a CHOICE. Raise the cow. Put your
own energy and time into the life of this organism. Then participate
in the slaughter and butchery, or at least watch. Have respect for
what you destroy.
-psypher
[I think I answered point 3 above]
>
> 3) Why you draw the line there.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan