Is a lions life more important than a pig?

[bongosdad]

I was horrified like most about this dentist that killed the lion this week. However i do feel that its double standards with all the protests as they will probably go home and eat pork chops. Ok i know the pork is for food but pigs are inteligent animals.

[Balanbam00]

Yes, we can see the pictures and read of the killing of this lion. But in the background we are brought up by an influence of religions,and their effect on us. Most of the religions at some time have offered animals at their alters to 'please the gods' Being brought up with the idea that eating animals is normal. Nearly all the religious and cultural traditions on this earth engage in the gross mutilation and rampant killing of animals during times of festivals. We can say that all the holidays from the Semitic religions (Christianity, Judaism, & Islam) revolve around meat-eating. That is the tradition.

According to the laws of nature, canine teeth are necessary for chewing meat properly. Carnivorous animals such as cats, dogs, tigers and lions possess canine teeth, but cows, monkeys, elephants, wild asses, etc. do not possess canine teeth. Nature does not want them to eat meat. But what do greedy human beings do? Even though they do not possess canine teeth, they cook or boil

[bongosdad]

Brilliant post Ballanbam and i learned alot from it. Great points and i really should become a vegi. Never really thought about the religious side of things. I guess its a bit like the theory we are all one sea birds animals rivers clouds ect

[ozfan]

Can't agree with that Balan. Of coarse we have Canine teeth. They're the pointy ones next to the central incisors which are also for cutting meat. Otherwise we'd have a mouth full of molars. I detest trophy hunting but hunting for food is perfectly natural and something humans have always done. I don't see your connection between hunting animals and greed. Unless you're referring to the harvesting of domestic animals for food/ profit? If you were suddenly stripped of access to supermarkets you would need to eat therefore you would need to hunt or wait for a cycle of crops to grow for which you would then starve.

Yes a Lions life is more important than a pigs. Apex predators are critical to the balance. The wolfs relatively recent reintroduction to North America has brought a balance back to vegetation and forest growth as well as controlling the population of Deer/Elks/Bison etc.

[bongosdad]

Fair point oz. We did hunt animals for suvival and if we didnt we would die. I dont see a lion being more important than a pig though but understand the ballance in nature. Im interested to here Balans views on your coment.

I recently saw a program called 10,000 bc and people had to survive how people back then did. They were digging up worms, eating turtles and fishing. However a vegi did get by eating root veg and stuff like that. I guess how would an eskimo survive without fish and blubber from seals?

[Balanbam00]

Hi there OZ , You have some good points there ,so you stretch me to 'push' myself on those points.Here we are debating if humans naturally started eating meat? (...and we want me to win because then Bongo will start being a vegetarian)!!
So did those first humans eat foods which grew naturally in forests ,woods etc ,or did they start eating meat? I think they would have chosen a place where fruits, berries, plant leaves etc naturally grew. Humans chose the food they eat ,animals are driven by instincts. So in the case of disasters, fire, earthquakes etc, they would have found another place suitable to the environment they knew.
Human characteristics are in every way like the fruit eaters, very similar to the grass- eater, and very unlike the meat eaters. The human digestive system, tooth and jaw structure, and bodily functions are completely different from carnivorous animals. As in the case of the anthropoid ape, the human digestive system is twelve ti

[McVillan79]

Balan, you are correct that humans are not carnivores, we are omnivores.

[McVillan79]

Our teeth are proof (if it was needed) that we are not meant to be vegetarian, in fact eating meat had a massive impact in our evolution. As for digestion, the fact that we can digest meat says it all.

Do we need to eat meat in the 21st century, probably not, but it sure does taste good.

The only argument I can think of right now for vegetarianism is the environmental cost of producing it.

As for the subject title, yes, a Lions life is more important than a pigs.

[Balanbam00]

Is a lions life more important than a pig?

People in this age have a notion to think of animals having an Existential value, and a Utility value to humans. For example we do not use cart horses as we did some 30 years or more ago,so their utility value to humans was much greater then than today. We could see them pulling their loads from such places as a beer factory's. Today all is done with lorries.
The existence value for humans is just the same value as the existence value for animals!
In a spiritual sense all are equal.
Today cows give us milk from that milk we can produce other products cheese .yogurt etc Therefore we can say the cow has a high utility value, but what if scientists can produce milk in labs then factory's? What will become of cows ??? I would hate to think that some cows we would just slaughter having no more use for them?? Worst is who are those that can say that those creatures who have lost their utility value,have no right to exist? Nobody

[McVillan79]

Balan, do you think that YOUR life is more important than a pigs? If you reply, please answer this question honestly.

Meat can already be "grown" in a lab, milk can be produced from beans and there are obviously vegetarian flavoured equivalents to most processed meat products.

Most of the animals people eat are domesticated, if we stopped eating meat then the pigs, cows, sheep, goats etc that we are so used to seeing in our fields would be gone to make way for crops or buildings. Domesticated animals left to their own devices would become endangered if not extinct pretty quickly in most parts of the world. In the UK our apex predator is the mighty Badger so they'd be prob be OK on that front but those that could find enough food would prob decimate any local ecology and be culled.

Doubt morals have much to do with your last comments, we can't change the past and if you want to change the future then you'll need to accept that there will be consequences and you may have to side