shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs) (01/06/84)
In among all the debate about vegetarian morality, I have yet to see a convincing argument that killing plants is better than killing animals. The bit about animals having simple emotions doesn't wash for sea cucumbers, nor does the observation that animals run away hold true for sessile creatures. It's also not clear that plants do not "think" or have feelings - they live much slower lives than we do, and so we may just have not figured out how to communicate at their rates. Personally, I'll eat anything that doesn't crawl away first, and I'm only a little squeamish about knocking them on the head first (once upon a time I was in an ROTC survival course where we had to kill chickens by biting them on the neck, pluck, draw, and cook them. Yuck. I don't think I have very much bloodlust. On the other hand, the instructor pointed out that all meat (except tularemia rodents, rabbits in particular) was edible, while most plants were poisonous). I'm also squeamish about stepping on plants (would hike barefoot if my feet could handle it). stan the l.h. utah-cs!shebs