this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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As you maybe can imagine ethical vegetarians and vegans do not want to just release all domesticated animals into the wild. Most of them were genetically modified by humans through selective breeding and won't be able to survive. Some of them suffer because of the way breeding changed their bodies. The main goal is to bring the breeding to a halt. And to take measures that current domesticated animals can live their lives in relative peace.
And just to try an predict what your next two points might be: Yes that would mean that some of them would live in not so great conditions. For example the last domesticated cow will die lonely. It is still much less suffering overall than to continue breeding them.
And of course that would mean these domesticated breeds will go instinct. I see no problem with that because they do not add to the diversity of the fauna in any significant way. Stopping to breed them will increase diversity even, because there is a considerable amount of space occupied by monocultures for animal feed and the industry around meat and dairy itself.
You're skipping over a hell of a lot of points with your 'just let them live in peace' bit. There are tens of millions of livestock just in my country that are entirely capable of living in the wild because that's how they currently live. In the UK, cows live in fields for ten months of the year and sheep live in fields throughout. There they are given antibiotics and protected from predators.
You let them out without anyone to take care of them and they will die by the millions every year. Do you know how many yows would die giving birth without human invention? Do you know the survival rate of twin lambs without human intervention? Do you think a life of disease, exposure and predation is better than the life they currently have?
The species as a whole would survive, but at a much lower population and in much worse conditions.
I swear vegans spout off about things they know nothing about.
You can just stop breeding them. I have no problem with all domestic animals going extinct. It's hilarious how meat eaters are appalled by that idea but gladly torture and murder animals just to feast on their carcasses.
You understand they breed themselves, right? The same species that were native to the area for millions of years before industrialisation will continue to survive there afterwards, just in much worse conditions and at a much lower population.
You have no problem with animals dying in pain as long as it stops them dying painlessly? Awesome
You really need to educate yourself about the meat and dairy industry. It is quite obvious that you aren’t making a rational or moral decision, but an emotional one. The overwhelming majority of animals in this industry do not breed themselves. It is easy to stop it from happening at all. And what species are you talking about anyway? Farm animals aren’t native anywhere and haven’t lived for a million of years. They were created by humans.
This is getting ridiculous, you are arguing from a place of ignorance. I've raised cheviot sheep for more than twenty years.
All species are native to somewhere, we haven't made species out of nothing. We've bred breeds, for sure.
I'm fascinated by your gormless attempts to explain my own culture to me. The sheep I raise come from flocks dating back to the neolithic. The techniques for raising them have barely changed in that time. The quad bike might raise a few caveman eyebrows but that's about it.
They free roam the moors nine months of the year, field graze for three. I honestly don't care what you think now. You have your own misinformed opinion of what all farming is like and you won't listen to someone who does it any other way.
And you can feed all humans with the eggs, milk and meat of those sheep everywhere on earth? Because the last time I checked we were writing about the ethics of eating meat. And you are trying to build a straw man because you actually do not have any arguments why it is “ethically good” to exploit animals.