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[Tim Drayton]

I know where you are coming from.
I have two cats, now aged one and a half, both of which were rescued as small kittens. I found one of them at the age of two weeks and, as you have described, I fed him with formula from a bottle and then had to rub his private parts so he could go to the toilet.
Yet, if I spot a flea on one of them, I apply flea killer to both of them immediately to get rid of them.
The hypocrisy is not lost on me. On the one hand I am prepared to rescue these cats, but have no worries about killing the fleas on them. Yet, fleas and cats are both living creatures!
As for meat, yes I eat it.

[alexISS]

Miltiades ... man by nature is not carnivorous, he does not have the teeth nor the intestines of a carnivore.

Man is omnivorous, we do have "dog teeth" and our eyes are at the front, not at the sides of the head.

[purdey]

Sotos,yes I hunt and I kill.I asked a question regarding cruelty,I was not been critical.I know many Cypriots who care for their animals.I have seen many a waiting Cypriot waiting outside the vets for treatment for their animals.
I have also witnessed hundreds of abandoned dogs in the mountains,children playing football with small cats.

[Sotos]

IMHO it is not hypocritical to condemn animal cruelty while still choosing to eat meat.

While I would not personally like to see the food that I eat slaughtered, one hopes that the process is carried out with the least possible pain and stress to the animal. I am reminded that people on farms that care for and raise their own animals still slaughter and eat them.

There is a big difference between slaughtering an animal for food and being deliberately cruel to an animal – be it abandoning it on a motorway, putting down poison, kicking or beating it.

Thats just passing on the blame to somebody else. If you went to a cannibal country and they had farms with humans and they were killing them in humane way so you could then go to supermarket and buy 2 kilos of soft baby human meat that would not be cruel? I think that would be the most cruel thing than any other kind of cruelty and abuse that humans get. Its treating the animals just like products. And I can assure you that the animals are not handled or killed in a humane way in most cases. The discovery channel showed how just born chicks are pushed left and right on conveyor belts and then in boxes. Imagine how they are handled when their slaughter time comes. And other cases are even worst. Like lobsters who are cooked alive!!

[cyprusgrump]

IMHO it is not hypocritical to condemn animal cruelty while still choosing to eat meat.

While I would not personally like to see the food that I eat slaughtered, one hopes that the process is carried out with the least possible pain and stress to the animal. I am reminded that people on farms that care for and raise their own animals still slaughter and eat them.

There is a big difference between slaughtering an animal for food and being deliberately cruel to an animal – be it abandoning it on a motorway, putting down poison, kicking or beating it.

Thats just passing on the blame to somebody else. If you went to a cannibal country and they had farms with humans and they were killing them in humane way so you could then go to supermarket and buy 2 kilos of soft baby human meat that would not be cruel? I think that would be the most cruel thing than any other kind of cruelty and abuse that humans get. Its treating the animals just like products. And I can assure you that the animals are not handled or killed in a humane way in most cases. The discovery channel showed how just born chicks are pushed left and right on conveyor belts and then in boxes. Imagine how they are handled when their slaughter time comes. And other cases are even worst. Like lobsters who are cooked alive!!

No.

It’s a silly argument about cannibals. What we are debating is the difference between killing an animal for food and deliberately inflicting pain on an animal or treating it in a way which will lead to pain.

For the most part animals are slaughtered in a way which reduces the fear and suffering to a minimum.

The chicks you mention for instance, the ones which are the wrong gender are separated on the conveyor (I’ve seen the film) and then gassed humanely. Chickens that are slaughtered for meat are stunned with electricity before being dispatched by having their throats cut.

I’m not saying that the process is perfect but it is being improved all the time. Lobsters for instance (to use your example), current advice is to put them in the freezer before boiling them to reduce suffering to a minimum…

As I said, the process may not be perfect but there is a huge difference between those that eat animals in the hope or belief that they have been as well treated as possible and those that deliberately inflict pain ion animals.

[purdey]

I am not sure which post to put this in but here goes.
I grew up in Limassol 60s-70s and a few more,Limassol then was over run by cats.Hungry,disabled,deseased and in more cases than not wild.There was wide open spaces in those days in Limassol,but very little rubbish,people ate what food they had and very little was thrown away.
Cats were everywhere,breeding consatantly,no neuting system in operation I cannot remember there been a vet in the area,or people keeping cats as pets.
So cats bred,people picked up kittens,bagged them and walked a few hundred yards and dumped them on waste ground,most died from the heat or starvation.
Some were picked up by my mother,who had no real love of cats but did not like to hear them crying and see them suffer.She would take them home and drown them in a barrel of water.Cruel,yes,nowadays she would be called a monster,but then it was considered an act of mercy.

[Nikitas]

I love my dog, and my cats when I had them (23 of them). I hunt. I respect all animals, even the ones I do not love.

And not, folks, hunting is not about enjoying the kill. If you think that then you are way off the mark. If we enjoyed killing we would be doing something much less costly than hunting, like working part time in a slaughterhouse.

Hunting and fishing are skills which cannot be purchased for money, skills of getting food from nature. Greek celebrity chef Myrsine Lambraki said she enjoys hunting wild greens. And I know what she means, because you hunt wild greens and mushrooms and other wild foods, you dont just pick them. That is the pleasure of hunting. And it is a pleasure regardless of the result.

[dms007]

I agree it is hypocritical when someone says "Iam a animal lover" and continues eating meat but then we all do it.
I am guilt of that too.
We have become so much dependant on meat for food that it is quite difficult to give it up.
The only thing we can do is reduce our consumption and stop killing animals for sport, games, fishing and all that.

As for people who dump animals and abandon them, they should not be considered human at all and not compared with people who eat meat or not eat meat for that matter.

There is another way to look at the whole thing.
Human are animals, as all animals we eat meat too. Other animals hunt and eat their prey.
We don't hunt our food but we still eat meat.
Considering meat as food does not mean that we do not love animals.
There are people who love trees and plants and there are so called treehuggers who continue fruits and seeds and so on. If they really loved plants they should not be killing them either because they are living beings too.

For the sake of argument....
So that leaves us with a question what should we eat, is there anything which we can eat without killing?
Water. Sand. Oh i just realised that there are micobes and bacteria living in them. They are not really animals but they are living beings too.

Next time better think twice before you take that tablet to get rid of the flu.

[Alassa]

Actually, I don't agree with OP. I am an animal lover - I've rescued countless dogs and cats over the years and currently have 6 dogs at home as pets. I love them dearly but I do eat meat. I don't see how being a meat eater means you cannot love animals?

[Oracle]

Actually, I don't agree with OP. I am an animal lover - I've rescued countless dogs and cats over the years and currently have 6 dogs at home as pets. I love them dearly but I do eat meat. I don't see how being a meat eater means you cannot love animals?

Please show us where you found that nugget of deduction?

I don't think OP or anybody else, said anything of the sort!