How important is animal life to you?

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Nice Guy Wrote in a previous question: “Matt has basically stated that animals are equally important as humans. I'm sorry, but no animals life has as much importance or relevance as that of a human. For one to think that an animals life is just as important as his own is absurd. Can anyone possibly believe that the life of a pig, cow, or chicken can even compare to the life of a human being?”

How do you feel about this? Does an animal's interest in living have any weight in our deciding how we treat said animal? How is an animal's interest in continued existence qualitatively any different than our own?

I'm not trying to give Nice Guy a hard time, I just think this is something that should be discussed, and his answer provides a good starting point.
We have some real deep thinkers responding so far.
Beebs' Answer sort of misses the point of this question. But to the point it does adress I could not agree more.
What I would like people to ponder is that animals have the same interest in their continued existence that you do yours. We have no morally relevant reason to respect a human's interest in continued life wile denying to afford animals the same consideration.
@ Niceguy, I wrote you a responce but it is too long to fit here. You can find it here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/veggiefacts/message/58

Take care

-Matt
@ Nice guy: I’m fairly disappointed in your last post. If you want to debate these issues then lets go. If not, then don’t pretend to engage in one and then back out mid discussion. You say “I believe my goal of simply reducing animal suffering to a minimum, is simply more realistic than that of abolishing it.” And I give you plenty of reasons (and there are plenty more) as to why that will never happen, which you make no attempt to address. You also say, “And though veganism can perhaps make a very small difference, I don't think it can, will, or ever has lead to any significant noticeable change.” I find this a very curious statement to make seeing as the term “Vegan” has only been around for about seventy years, and the theory of abolition has only been with us for thirty years. Animal welfare on the other hand has been around for at least two hundred years, or if you consider India then around 2000 would be more accurate...
I fail to see your historical basis for making the claim that Veganism and abolition cannot create change, it has not had the chance to. Finally, a Vegan diet (or very near Vegan diet) can work for everyone. Read the China Study. Also who are these “credible sources” that claim to be against a Vegan diet? Name names, I’m sure it would be interesting to see just how credible they really are.
First, in response to your comments regarding the health of Vegans, I used “very near vegan diet” in parentheses after the words “Vegan diet” The near Vegan diet was referring to Dr. Dean Ornish’s early work in reversing heart disease. The “Vegan diet” which appeared out of parentheses referenced all other works by prominent scientists such as, Dr. T Colin Campbell, and Dr. Neal Barnard. Even the American Dietetic Association agrees that a Vegan diet is completely healthy by saying, “Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy,
childhood and adolescence.”
Second, with regard to your “intuition” about the animal rights movement, I guess we are just expected to take your opinion because you do not “foresee” a radical change in people’s diet? I think you were right, we are done here in regards to Animal Rights Vs. Animal Welfare.
. You obviously are ignorant to even the most basic augments from each side, let alone the state of the movement and the struggle that is taking place for the grass-roots sections of the movement to beat back the corporate welfare groups that have done nothing but retard growth. In sum, your information about the healthfulness of Veganism is outdated at best, misinformed at worst, and your “intuition” about the possibilities and direction of the Animal Rights movement is just plain wrong.
I recently saw pictures of a Hurricane Katrina animal rescue. I saw houses that were destroyed, and next to the house, would be a dog, tied to a steak.... It made me SICK. Thinking of it now brings up so much anger in me. What kind of depraved person would do that. It was not as though there were seconds left, and they were going to be beamed out by Scottie in immediately. There was a long, slow evacuation process, and they left those animals to slowly die.

If your house is burning down, you try to save your animals. I will say though, that you save your children first. But you bring an animal into your house and under your protection, you better care for it.
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I once had to do a report on the Psychology of Slavery for an African American Lit class. One thing I noticed through my reading was that slaves verbally lost their human status. They were often called animals. I decided to do an extensive survey about this, but the only group we verbally do such a thing to today is actual animals. We call one “pet” so we know to love them. The other we call “animal” so we can distinguish not to care about them and believe we have a right to torture and kill them. After the animal is killed, we call it “meat” so we never have to make any mental correlation.

My search was to find where we draw the line as we have done this to groups of people over and over again throughout history. I am just saying the same mental process people used to go through the African American Holocaust is the same mental process we use to make animal slaughtering ok today. It is something we click on and off, and the words we use to describe a being have a lot do to with it.

I had many categories in my survey, which I gave to the students in all my classes.
One section was “Animals.” I had questions such as:
“Would you eat a cow?”, “IF you were starving, would you kill a cow to eat?”
… eat a dog, starving, kill a dog, kill your OWN dog
I even went on to compare animals to people.

I found that many people, in a hypothetical world, would kill a human stranger before killing their own dog... and yet, would eat a dog if they needed food. Familiarity and how much we are willing to know about an animal has a great deal to do with things.
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Another tool we use is how to condone such behavior is understanding. Understanding does not mean language, but culture. If we had not yet discovered the other hemisphere (I’m in the U.S.) and we set on a voyage to France. We would not be able to understand the language, but the culture would be similar enough to our own that we would consider them *like us* aka, civilized society.

If we went to a place where people lived of the land, half naked or naked, in small tribes (and we had not been exposed to this before) we would label them as *not like us,* uncivilized and animal like. This is historically accurate, so you know it is true.

We grow up with dogs. We can tell they understand us; culturally, we have come to understand when they are happy and sad; we have come to know they feel pain, and we feel for that pain. We know no such things of cows.

If human culture had made different choices in history and randomly decided to have cows or pigs living in their homes, and decided to eat dogs/wolves, then we would be giving our pet pigs presents on Christmas and have cats and dogs in factory farming without every questioning.
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I am sorry I got so very very off track, I have just put a lot of thought into the value we place on life and its relationship to language and culture.

To answer your question, I believe life is important, and no living creature deserves to suffer needlessly. Yes, an antelope is going to suffer when a lioness or what have you kills it, but that death needed to happen. However, as a human, I suppose I do consider human life more important. If I was in a hypothetical situation where someone was going to kill me or kill my cat, I would choose my cat (sorry Simone!) But if it was kill me or kill my nephew, I would choose me. The optimal situation is of course that I save me, my cat and my nephew, but that’s not what hypotheticals are all about.

If the situation was torture however, I would have a difficult time condoning the torture of another at all.

What all this means on the grand scheme of things? I have no friggen clue. You wanted discussion, so I rambled my behind off like I have never rambled my behind off before.
Just email me if you want me to take this long rant off your question.

:)

EDIT: Yes, I believe animals have the same interests in continuing to exist that I do. I believe they don't want to be tortured, and they don't want to die. (Who would?) I believe they protect their young; I believe they mourn; I believe they fear; I believe they suffer, and I believe they want.  (+ info)

What animal products are in which types of makeup?

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I know that collagen is derived from boiled animal tendons and bones, and that it is used in lipstick. But I need to know what other animal products are used in what kinds of makeup.
Thanks!
http://www.geari.org/ingredients.html
^There's alot of animal ingredients used for makeup in there as well as alternatives to those ingredients. You can also google it to find more sites that would contain the information that you are looking for. :)  (+ info)

What state has the largest animal agriculture?

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I have to write an essay about the negative effects of animal agriculture but I have to be specific (geographically).
What state has the largest animal agriculture in the US?

More details about the topic would be great too!
Thank you.
Category
Science & Mathematics > Agriculture
It depends on the type of animal.

According to the Cattle Network, the state with the most cattle ranches is Texas, which has over twice as many head of cattle as number 2- Kansas.

The states which kill the most pigs are Iowa and North Carolina.
North Carolina, Minnesota and California kill the most turkeys.
Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia kill the most chickens.  (+ info)

Is there a website that evaluates or tracks humane animal treatment for animals used for food?

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My husband and I enjoy our meat but i am really disturbed at some of the horror stories I have heard or seen about animals being treated terribly if they are going to be used for food. I am backing cage free eggs 100% to make sure that they are not being mistreated. Now I am planning to get a turkey for Thanksgiving and I wanted to find out about the companies/farms that process the animal to make sure I am not supporting harm towards animals.

So basically I am wondering if there is a website that evaluates or digs into companies so I know which products to support or not support?

I appreciate any answers you may have
By killing something you are technically harming it. There is a lot of inaccurate information written on here with regards to farming of animals. Most farmers treat their animals well. By not treating them well, they lessen the price of the end product. That would be bad business. Milking cows are very content in their environment. They are well looked after. If you maltreat a cow she will stop milking due to stress.
I'm not saying there is no cruelty in this world. Heavens above, many humans maltreat other humans, but don't believe everything you read or hear.
I doubt you'll find a true and independent website with regards to your question.
I was an agricultural student years ago  (+ info)

Is a animal cracker a cracker or a cookie?

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Is a animal cracker a cracker or a cookie. I mean look at the fact and the Characteristic.
I believe that the British call cookies "crackers", if I am not mistaken  (+ info)

What are some foods that have hidden animal products in them?

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I'm just wondering because I'm a vegetarian and prefer not to eat any animal products by accident. Like I've heard gelatin is made from animal bones, animal tissue, etc. So I don't eat gelatin.
I know the difference between vegetarian and vegan. I just was not sure how to word the question.
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Is it ethical to dissect an animal if it helps save others ?

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I'm vegan,and obviously love animals.
I plan to have a career helping them as a vet tech,or marine biologist.
Therefore I need to learn to actually perform surgery in order to get to that point,and the only method to get to that is practicing it.
I am asking,Is dissecting an animal to save a few others lives legitimate?


I oppose dissecting animals who were bred for that sole purpose,I'd much rather have to dissect an animal who died of natural causes.
It is not a question of ethics, it is a question of necessity. If it needs to be done, it will be done, if not by you then by someone else. If you feel you should not do it, then don't. A marine biologist does not perform surgery by the way. But you may have to capture, kill and chemically preserve some animals in order to study them.

Soldiers have always been asked this very same question.  (+ info)

How do you wear animal print ballet flats?

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What kind and color clothes do I wear with animal print ballet flats? Can you share some tips to someone who has no sense of fashion?
since you are wearing a "loud" shoe go with a solid outfit. for example if you are wearing leopard print ballet flats wear a black or beige dress or wear jeans and a black shirt. if you have zebra print ones then wear all black or all white or jeans with a black or white top. just make sure not to wear more than one animal print (or any loud print) at a time because your outfit will look too busy.  (+ info)

What part of an animal are we actually eating?

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I know that there are certain parts of the animal that we eat beside the actually body part such, as the leg or ribs. But beneath the skin, and above the bone, what is it really?
meat is muscle from many different parts of the animal. You can see where different cuts of meat come from on charts in the butcher shops.  (+ info)

What is the name for a fear of stuffed animals and mounted animal heads?

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I have a fear of stuffed animal and animal heads. I can't walk past them when I see them in museums or houses. I thought that the correct name for this fear was Doraphobia, but then I read somewhere that that's fear of fur. That's not right, because Im not scared of the fur itself. Anyone got any other ideas?
Deborah... Thanks anyway! I think I may have a phobia of taxidermy.
Animals- Zoophobia.
Animals, skins of or fur- Doraphobia.
Animals, wild- Agrizoophobia.
I don't see any thing on taxidermy.
Maybe it's a form of necrophobia-death or dead things.  (+ info)

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