11 sats \ 4 replies \ @Signal312 21 Oct \ on: Do cows cry? alter_native
I would guess that the cows do feel sadness when their calves are taken away. That's a very basic, very primal thing.
However I also believe that ALL life depends on the deaths of other organisms.
Even if you don't eat beef, you're eating plants that cause death to animals. Not cows, but field animals like rabbits, mice, deer, etc, that are killed by the processes of plowing and harvesting.
If I plant a garden, how am I killing animals that would have eaten that food? For my own health, I like to consume that which is closer to the light. Which is not dead flesh, but living food. To me, the sun is pure energy, the source, the light, god. And eating the gifts of a fruit is a lot closer to that than eating the thing that eats the thing that is closer to god. And I am not against eating meat. But if I were going to do it now, I would want to be a hunter as well. And honor the animal. Not a fan of factory farming. We have become so disconnected from our food and where it comes from.
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This is an issue more with commercial agriculture. With plows and tractors in wheat fields and the like, you're killing lots of animals. That's just the way it is.
Here's an article discussing the issue: https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/s10806-018-9733-8 (Fischer, B., & Lamey, A. (2018). Field Deaths in Plant Agriculture. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. doi:10.1007/s10806-018-9733-8 )
With a home garden, I don't know what the situation is in terms of animal deaths. Probably much less.
However, I have a brother who has a very extensive garden. He's very much hindered by "varmints" getting into his garden (raccoons, rabbits, field mice, some burrowing animals) and really destroying his yields. He's tried all kinds of things (traps, shooting them, big huge fences, even going a bit underground with the fencing) and it helps, but it's still a problem. And while it's a big garden, it doesn't provide anywhere close to all of the family's food - it's probably about 10%, just their fresh veggies.
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That makes sense. I am the type that saves bugs and stuff so killing anything isn't ideal to me. And it is inevitable. I kill spiders that set up homes in our home. I just do my best to be in flow with nature and harm as little as possible. And factory farming seems to be the worst option when it comes to food.
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