The only nugget I can summons is to suggest you may be overthinking it just a bit. I fucked a cow when I was employed at a dairy farm and morality of consuming meat, or milk, never entered my mind during the days and weeks that followed. I was more concerned about what would have happened were anybody to have been witness to me fucking a cow.
We all have to eat, and I refuse to ever consider a life without meat. I have raised two cows since they were less than 2 months old. If I am not able to find a butcher to process them for me the only inkling of thought toward morality that has potential to come to mind is how to ensure they don’t suffer when I put them down prior to beginning the process of preparing the carcass for butchering. I do have feelings for them in a way. I would feel some regret and sympathy toward them were one to brake a leg or suffer harm of some type. Last winter when one nearly froze to death I was very concerned and frantically attempting to think of any way to prevent it from dying. The reason for the concern had not an iota of morality attached to it though. I was concerned it would freeze to death and by the time I woke up to find that the case, the carcass would be in no condition to salvage any meat from. The reason for this concern was due to the simple fact that cow is going to provide the higher quality and quantity of meat.
When I suggest you may be over thinking it, I mean it in a sense that you have put more value or weight on the consciousness of the cow than necessary. Another way of wording that would be to say you are comparing the cows life and existence similar to your own. Which could be extended to include the life and existence of another being that you are emotionally attached too. I say this because my uncle was rather traumatized when he was forced to consider the possibility he might be witness to the cow freezing to death last winter. He felt horrible for the cow and was concerned because his thought process was attached emotionally to the cow. While my thought process was attached to the meat that is going to be a result of the cow life’s.
My uncle was raised in the city and lived in the city his entire life. I was raised on a farm, and have returned to a farm after 20 years in the city. In the city people tend to value the existence of all the living creatures around them as being equal and comparable to their own existence. It is an almost instinctive thought process that is rather difficult to alter. The difficulty altering it comes from the unwillingness or the inability to place a higher value and higher weight upon your own existence, or your own consciousness. This I believe is why some people cannot bring themselves to put an animal down, and will in some situations allow a animal to suffer as a result of feeling guilt by equating it to murder it euthanasia. It is because they find it to be comparable to committing murder, due to have no other way to define it within the thought processes that happen when considering the act. When I use the word consciousness, I use it in a sense of having a connection to a soul. If you consider another being or creature to have a soul (I feel) you will put a higher value on that being or creatures life. This has religious connotation, and is neither here or there, this or that, but I had to clarify in case it detracted from what I was getting at.
As you may have noticed I will not have second thoughts about putting my cows down when the time comes. It is not because I do not have any sympathy, empathy, or any other emotional connection to them. It is because of the value I have placed on their existence in comparison to my own. Their existence in my mind has but one purpose, and that is to benefit my existence. Yes a very selfish way of thinking about it, but the only way I know how to phrase it and/or think about it in order to enable you to visualize and understand the process that allows me to create and maintain the emotional/psychological barrier necessary to enable me to be prepared to do what may be required of me one day.
When soldiers go to war, like I did years ago, it is very difficult for them, and near impossible for some, to mentally prepare themselves to be ready and willing to take another humans life. I believe this is why the majority of soldiers have been proven to aim high and intentionally miss the first time or three that they are in a position of having no other choice but to fire back. Their brain needs to warm up to the idea and in the process learn and acknowledge it is a kill or be kill reality from that point going forward in order to take down or alter that psychological barrier.
Even though I will be able to put my cows down with not a second thought about it. After everything else I have done and experienced in life I have absolutely no desire to hunt anything for sport, even though I have done so many many years ago. The reason being; if I were to go out today and shoot a wild deer, or even a wild turkey I would feel a pang of guilt and remorse toward that animal for doing that. The reason being is that animal was living its own existence, free to do what it wanted, and not a piece of property or a possession. I don’t need the venison for any reason and therefore it would be an unnecessary act that would cut short a life that would have, if not for my actions been allowed to continue to experience life.
I am not a religious person and do not believe we have a soul that is somehow attached to another existence as Energy or anything else. I do respect life though and believe we shouldn’t unnecessarily cut any life short just because we have the ability to do so. If there is justified reason like preventing a life that would otherwise result in suffering, or to feed those that need to eat then that life is not going to waste and not being ended unnecessarily.
The largest difference in my way of thinking and your questioning the morality of actions is due to my view of property and that a person’s property can be used as they see fit. This has the ability to negate morality altogether. As I also touched on if you allow another creature existence to hold the same weight or consciousness as your own due to the belief in Souls or in a sympathetic way there are many instances I would deem something acceptable where you and my uncle probably would not. This would be due primarily to my valuing a respectable humans life as being more valuable than other creatures. I intentionally specified respectable human life though because I am a firm believer that due to some people conscious willful decision to pursue actions that can be described as repulsive, dishonorable, or inexcusable to name a few. Depending on the actions and resulting damages I could value one human life well above most creatures while a less than respectable human (such as rapists, sexual predators, or chomo’s) life could be valued lower than that of a slug. Again this could have the result of nearly or entirely negating morality entirely.
Before I proceed to ramble on any more than I have already. Yes there is a very complex process to deciding what is acceptable, what is necessary, and what is excusable emotionally.
I haven’t touched on emotional attachment to some animals. I would value the life either of my dogs well above that of a lot of people in this world. Both of my dogs are fixed and have never been sexual partners in any way, that does not change the fact that there is still an emotional attachment. With that emotional attachment also comes another complex decision. They are closer to me than most people in this world and would be valued as such. I had another dog who was a sexual partner but due to his inability to get along with my other male dog he ended up being rehomed to a family member. Showing even a non sexual animal can have a higher value than a sex partner due to the emotional attachment that is present.
If someone offered me dog to eat would I? As long as it wasn’t my dog, yes without a doubt I have always been curious as to the flavor dog meat as a meal.
Now say it was somebody’s pet or a sexual companion who happened to find its way to the grill maliciously? I would feel not a inkling of remorse, guilt, or anything else after liberating an appendage from that persons body and feeding it them after putting it on the grill. Again emotional attachment and the relationship that forms between human and animal in my mind has the ability to elevate the value or weight of the life of that animal to far exceed the value of a human life in some circumstances. There are lots of people on this planet who don’t deserve the respect that is afforded them simply because they are human. Just like some animals will rape and torture without remorse or second thought; there are people in this world that act the same way and we allow this to be exuded because they are human. When in reality animals, especially certain species, don’t have the brain structure necessary to comprehend their actions are morally unacceptable. The humans that act that way have no excuse, aside from a small fraction who might suffer a mental disorder. Yet we excuse this behavior due to them being human. Where is the morality of the rapists, the chomo’s, the murders? For many they simply decided to leave it at the house in their coat pocket that day and due to them being human it is considered excusable.
