Cows and pigs are more similar to humans so the likelihood of reducing net harm is much greater by not eating them than for other animals.
This is interesting—I tend to make the opposite argument that people should initially focus on giving up fish, chicken, and eggs, because they constitute the vast majority of animals that die for the average American meat-eater’s diet. The way the numbers work out, you would need to think it’s ~100x less likely that fish and chickens were sentient for the argument for eating fish/chickens rather than cows/pigs to work. I think that fish and chickens are not that much less likely to be sentient, but I’d be interested in hearing an argument that they were.
I was thinking in terms of a per animal basis. I hadn’t considered total consummation. My reasons for being a pollotarian and later a vegetarian has to do with gradual changes in my views over time and not as simple as animal rights considerations. However, one argument along these lines is ostroveganism. Mammals’ understanding of pain is, from what I can gather, very similar to our own. As you move into animals less closely related to us, their nervous systems become less and less similar.
I think that the argument also holds on a per-unit of meat basis (therefore controlling for the quantity that humans eat), although you only get a factor of 20 for chickens vs cows. (Here is source, warning that you have to scroll through pictures of chickens and fish being tortured to get to the numbers). I also sort of agree with the case for ostroveganism, although I haven’t thought about it much since I find the thought of eating seafood viscerally disgusting anyway.
I agree that we should think that animals further away from us evolutionarily are less likely to be sentient and suffer, but I’m not sure that the drop is as big as a factor of 10.
I suggest sticking with poultry, since that reduces the harm by 99% regardless of who’s right. (I pulled that number out of nowhere, but you get the point.)
This is interesting—I tend to make the opposite argument that people should initially focus on giving up fish, chicken, and eggs, because they constitute the vast majority of animals that die for the average American meat-eater’s diet. The way the numbers work out, you would need to think it’s ~100x less likely that fish and chickens were sentient for the argument for eating fish/chickens rather than cows/pigs to work. I think that fish and chickens are not that much less likely to be sentient, but I’d be interested in hearing an argument that they were.
I was thinking in terms of a per animal basis. I hadn’t considered total consummation. My reasons for being a pollotarian and later a vegetarian has to do with gradual changes in my views over time and not as simple as animal rights considerations. However, one argument along these lines is ostroveganism. Mammals’ understanding of pain is, from what I can gather, very similar to our own. As you move into animals less closely related to us, their nervous systems become less and less similar.
I think that the argument also holds on a per-unit of meat basis (therefore controlling for the quantity that humans eat), although you only get a factor of 20 for chickens vs cows. (Here is source, warning that you have to scroll through pictures of chickens and fish being tortured to get to the numbers). I also sort of agree with the case for ostroveganism, although I haven’t thought about it much since I find the thought of eating seafood viscerally disgusting anyway.
I agree that we should think that animals further away from us evolutionarily are less likely to be sentient and suffer, but I’m not sure that the drop is as big as a factor of 10.
I suggest sticking with poultry, since that reduces the harm by 99% regardless of who’s right. (I pulled that number out of nowhere, but you get the point.)