ddyment@water.UUCP (Doug Dyment) (08/11/86)
A. Dupuy's recent posting concerning the eating of animals lower on the evolutionary chain (as described in Pete Singer's "Animal Liberation") motivates me to add the following two comments: 1) there are, of course, many reasons other than concern for the welfare of animals to embrace vegetarianism (though that is a good one); some shun animal foods for health reasons, ecological reasons, conviction that the human digestive system is not suited for carnivorous purposes, etc. Note in particular that health concerns would suggest avoiding such bottom-feeding scavengers as lobster, which tend to be large concentrators of industrial wastes, DDT, and other goodies. 2) if moral concern for the welfare of animals is your REAL reason for following a vegetarian diet, then you should seriously reconsider the lacto- portion of your regime. Milk comes from cows who produce it in order to feed their offspring. They do not do so indefinitely; in order to keep them producing milk, they must be bred regularly in order to generate offspring. The dairy farm has no use for an exponentially growing number of calves to feed (though a few are obviously saved to replenish aging stock), so guess what happens to them. They become part of the veal industry, arguably the cruelest form of animal victimization (I'll spare the net the details) -- all in order to keep milk on your table. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Doug Dyment, Department of Computer Science |\ University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1 /| \ office: 519/888-4451, home: 888-7895 / | \ UUCP: ..!{utzoo,decvax,ihnkp4,allegra}!watmath!water!ddyment / | \ ARPA: ddyment%water%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa / | \ CSNET: ddyment%water@waterloo.CSNET _/____|======, _______________________________________________________________\_________/____