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comment by threelittlebirdies
threelittlebirdies  ·  3873 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why is slavery wrong? (A late answer to b_b's "An interesting question")

Indeed. Why should agency be restricted to humans, when all large animals have the self-awareness, sentience, and survival instincts that predicate agency?





user-inactivated  ·  3873 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's the former two that are really fascinating. Sentience is damn hard to prove, by a strict definition, but I think it is after a fashion proved by self-awareness. And that can be shown in a lot of ways.

But I always hit a wall when I try to go vegetarian. I'm up to all but one meal a week, generally.

threelittlebirdies  ·  3873 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Quoting Jeremy Bentham on the question of sentience: "The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

I'm not perfect by any means, but I've been about 95% vegan for 2 years now. Maybe I'm just stubborn, but once I made the connection between dairy, egg and meat products and suffering, I couldn't take part in that cycle any more.

user-inactivated  ·  3873 days ago  ·  link  ·  

About where I am. Then too -- my cats would die on a diet of kale...