It is hard to explain a non sequitur. And the worse the reasoning used the harder it is to give an explanation more precise than “WTF? Um, no.”. Fortunately your argument is not that bad—it is just missing a premise “it is wrong to cause pain to animals”.
That’s the premise I am trying not to use, because I don’t think there is a supportable reason to draw a distinction between humans and animals when it comes to the acceptability of causing them pain and suffering. Let me rephrase.
I think it’s wrong to needlessly cause the-thing-we-know-as-pain to any creature capable of experiencing it. We know this includes humans, because we ourselves feel pain and can communicate that fact to others. We have every reason to think this includes a whole lot of non-human animals, because their physiology and behavior are similar enough to ours that it is very likely.
While we can’t live up to this moral guideline in every respect, some things—like not killing animals to eat them—are low-hanging fruit.
Your conclusion does not actually follow from the listed premises.
Then I’m either missing something or have explained inadequately. Please elaborate.
It is hard to explain a non sequitur. And the worse the reasoning used the harder it is to give an explanation more precise than “WTF? Um, no.”. Fortunately your argument is not that bad—it is just missing a premise “it is wrong to cause pain to animals”.
That’s the premise I am trying not to use, because I don’t think there is a supportable reason to draw a distinction between humans and animals when it comes to the acceptability of causing them pain and suffering. Let me rephrase.
I think it’s wrong to needlessly cause the-thing-we-know-as-pain to any creature capable of experiencing it. We know this includes humans, because we ourselves feel pain and can communicate that fact to others. We have every reason to think this includes a whole lot of non-human animals, because their physiology and behavior are similar enough to ours that it is very likely.
While we can’t live up to this moral guideline in every respect, some things—like not killing animals to eat them—are low-hanging fruit.