A green sea slug that is part animal and part plant has recently been discovered. I can hear the nonvegans already, “what about the green sea slug? Would you eat that? It’s a plant!”

No! I wouldn’t eat a green sea slug! Would you? Would any sane person?

Not that it matters. Green sea slugs aren’t on any menu I’ve ever seen, but dead cow is. So are dead chickens and pigs. Cows, pigs, and chickens, who feel pain and are capable of suffering not just physically but also emotionally when they’re confined to small spaces, deprived of a natural habitat with grass and sunlight, and kept away from their family members.

And fishes, too. They’re on many menus. But fishes suffer tremendously when they’re captured and forced to drown in air or be butchered alive. Fishes in fish farms suffer even more in crammed, dirty waters.

Why cause pain to a creature that’s capable of sensing pain? Why? There’s no good reason.

Do green sea slugs that are part plant and part animal feel pain? I don’t know. I think it’s likely, at least more likely than unlikely. And for me, that’s all that matters. I won’t eat the sea slug and I won’t eat anyone else who probably feels pain. Simple as that.

But if you want more to think about: this sea slug and his trans-species ways suggests that species is a social construct. For details on that concept, please read Vegans Of Color:

• Where’s the line? The body?
• Keeping the Species Pure

What do you think? Is it helpful to think of species as a social construct much like some of us think of race and gender?

1,882 views
Sections: Vegan Theory
Topics: border crossing, chimera, gender, green sea slug, pain, race, sea creatures, sea sluug, sentience, slug, social construct, Theory, trans, veg, Vegan