One of the most common objections to veganism and animal rights is the declaration that animals don’t follow a moral code when relating to us. So the omnivorous human reasons, we shouldn’t follow a moral code when interacting with animals.

It’s an absurd rationale that is fueled only by the desire to consume animal flesh and secretions. The justification, “They would eat us,” is not a rational, reasonable decision; “They would eat us” is an excuse.

First, the animals that humans generally consume are the animals who would NEVER eat us. Many are herbivores who eat only plants (cows, lambs, goats, deer) or they are too small to eat us (chickens, turkeys, quail, fish). One of the reasons humans eat these kinds of animals is precisely because they wouldn’t eat us. They tend to be more docile and easier to control or hunt, thus they’ve been chosen by humans to become farm animals.

In the rare instance where humans eat animals who might eat us (alligators, sharks) or animals who might hurt us (buffalo, bears, whales) the individual animals in question are often not the same ones who would actually pose a threat to humans. That is, the alligators people eat are usually farmed alligators who pose no physical threat to the people who consume them. The buffalo people eat are usually wild buffalo who were herded up and slaughtered not because they threatened human lives, but because they threatened human property or because someone decided to make money selling buffalo meat. Most animals eaten by humans are not animals who would “would eat us.”

Second, even if animals don’t use or understand ethics that doesn’t absolve humans from ethical obligations. Our ethical obligations arise from our capacity to reason and to behave ethically, not from another’s lack of capacity. Our responsibility to do the right thing comes from our ability to do the right thing (and our capacity to do the wrong thing), not from someone else’s abilities. For example, adults have a responsibility to refrain from harming children because adults have that ability, not because children have the same abilities.

It’s the same with animals: we have a responsibility to refrain from harming them because we have the ability to refrain from harming them. Nothing is forcing us to hurt animals. No one holds a gun to your head and says, “Eat the meat.” You are not starving without any option to eat something other than animal flesh. You are not incapable of making your own decisions. You are not force-fed.

You make a choice. You choose to act ethically or not. You choose to refrain from harming animals or you choose to harm animals. Don’t skirt your responsibility. Just do the right thing. Go vegan.

Third, even carnivorous animals generally don’t harm other animals unless they have to. In their own way, they do abide by the same moral code suggested by vegans: refrain from harming others whenever possible. Lions don’t kill entire packs of gazelles; they only kill enough to survive. They don’t generally gorge themselves like gluttons. They don’t generally kill for sport. They don’t generally harm animals purely because they like the taste of their flesh. In other words, many animals are more moral than many humans.

“They would eat us” is just a lazy excuse for immoral behavior. It’s yet another stupid thing omnivores say.

Sections: Vegan Theory
Topics: ethics, excuses, omnivores, stupid things omnivores say, veg, Vegan