I don’t empathize with the suffering of all sentient beings, and don’t think that I should either. There are some human beings even who I don’t empathize with (much), like serial murderers or active sociopaths.
I empathize with animals on an essentially arbitrary basis, according to what’s been taught to me by my culture; it also helps if the animals do something “nice” for me. I don’t think there are any moral justifications that run deeper than an individual’s values, so I don’t think that this is incorrect for me to do.
However, I do think that most human beings directly involved in slaughterhouses and similar things are damaged by their experiences, as this is what many former workers have reported. There’s something wired into our nature to react badly to the smells of blood and death, and we’re fairly imaginative beings so empathizing with the animals is probably somewhat inevitable if we work with them daily. Many other jobs damage their workers, though, so this is not a reason to outlaw meat.
Additionally, I think that vegetarianism is reasonably well justified by the idea that feeding plants to animals then eating animals is a less efficient process than eating plants directly. If more people were vegetarian in this way, we would either have cheaper food prices or less agriculture that damages ecosystems, and I think both of those are good things. (I am somewhat uncertain about cheap food prices, as developmental economics is apparently quite complicated.)
On a somewhat related note, I’m of the opinion that animal rights activists and perhaps even some types of vegetarians should ally with hunters and promote hunting. Hunted animals live their entire lives in the wild and are presumably much happier than animals in cages. The more meat that is eaten from free animals, the less meat that is eaten from captive animals.
I don’t empathize with the suffering of all sentient beings, and don’t think that I should either. There are some human beings even who I don’t empathize with (much), like serial murderers or active sociopaths.
I empathize with animals on an essentially arbitrary basis, according to what’s been taught to me by my culture; it also helps if the animals do something “nice” for me. I don’t think there are any moral justifications that run deeper than an individual’s values, so I don’t think that this is incorrect for me to do.
However, I do think that most human beings directly involved in slaughterhouses and similar things are damaged by their experiences, as this is what many former workers have reported. There’s something wired into our nature to react badly to the smells of blood and death, and we’re fairly imaginative beings so empathizing with the animals is probably somewhat inevitable if we work with them daily. Many other jobs damage their workers, though, so this is not a reason to outlaw meat.
Additionally, I think that vegetarianism is reasonably well justified by the idea that feeding plants to animals then eating animals is a less efficient process than eating plants directly. If more people were vegetarian in this way, we would either have cheaper food prices or less agriculture that damages ecosystems, and I think both of those are good things. (I am somewhat uncertain about cheap food prices, as developmental economics is apparently quite complicated.)
On a somewhat related note, I’m of the opinion that animal rights activists and perhaps even some types of vegetarians should ally with hunters and promote hunting. Hunted animals live their entire lives in the wild and are presumably much happier than animals in cages. The more meat that is eaten from free animals, the less meat that is eaten from captive animals.