Hi Robin,
And interesting question, which I've thought a lot about, for a very
long time...
Personally I'd say the whole carnivore thing stinks.
And I say this as a (resigned and) dedicated carnivore.
I have (more or less) come to terms with the fact that this *is* a
predator/prey planet, where things eat other things. Do we assume that
grass (or apples or spinach...) is indifferent to being munched, or
does it only seem that way because of our "limited consciousness"?
Is it inherently more awful for a steer to spend his life lazing and
grazing (that's what ours do), and then be slaughtered and eaten, than
for a human to spend a huge chunk of his/her life doing... well, take
your pick--some jobs are better than others; some of them are NO ONE's
idea of a "good time"! We all die sometime, somewhere, for some
reason, by some means. Does the steer really have it so much worse
than, say, a homeless person? Or anyone who "hates his job", or busy
exec with an ulcer, whatever?
Do I therefore love the idea of eating "sentient beings"? Nope, but
I've never really liked the idea of gravity either, and no one asked
me about that one, either!
Cheers,
Shannon