(You can skip the first two paragraphs if you want . . . )
Sometimes meat eaters argue to a vegetarian, "If we stopped eating meat, there'd be no cows" or use the fact that cattle only exist because we bred them as partial justification for meat eating. Of course, vegetarianism will never sweep the nation so quickly that cattle will be slaughtered en masse, so that's a mute point (and even if it weren't, who cares? There was gonna be mass livestock slaughter anyway, it would've just lasted longer). So if meat eating goes out of style, the remaining livestock would be slaughtered for the remaining meat-eaters and no more would be bred. But . . . if this bothers anyone (or rather, if it bothers enough people) that means humans collectively care about livestock for more than just food, which means we'd still keep them around. Maybe they'd be cared for on ranches the way people have horses, some would be kept as pets, maybe some would be raised for competitions of one form or another. So either humanity doesn't care about livestock beyond food in which case who cares if there'd be no livestock, or people do care in which they'd still be around.
Edit: Looking at wikipedia, every domestic animal is used outside meat, and a surprising lot of them are used for racing; http://ift.tt/KvTxJK. All the major livestock are apparently have way to many uses for us to be wiped out by a little thing like the collapse of one industry. No matter, I think the spirit of my question still stands
So, all that aside, things people say that inspired this topic just makes me wonder, and inspires interesting questions about the value of a species. Is every species intrinsically valuable, even if the species isn't even natural or valuable to anyone? Should livestock not kept as pets be preserved just because of cultural significance, because all those children's stories and idioms referencing livestock would feel really weird if they were around when we were kids but our own children will never see one alive? If the meat industry became obsolete, would livestock be kept around in small numbers just out of historical preservation like preserved buildings, etc.? Should they be preserved in such a way? Would they? Do you value cows, pigs and chickens beyond their dietary contribution? Do you think they should be preserved?
Sometimes meat eaters argue to a vegetarian, "If we stopped eating meat, there'd be no cows" or use the fact that cattle only exist because we bred them as partial justification for meat eating. Of course, vegetarianism will never sweep the nation so quickly that cattle will be slaughtered en masse, so that's a mute point (and even if it weren't, who cares? There was gonna be mass livestock slaughter anyway, it would've just lasted longer). So if meat eating goes out of style, the remaining livestock would be slaughtered for the remaining meat-eaters and no more would be bred. But . . . if this bothers anyone (or rather, if it bothers enough people) that means humans collectively care about livestock for more than just food, which means we'd still keep them around. Maybe they'd be cared for on ranches the way people have horses, some would be kept as pets, maybe some would be raised for competitions of one form or another. So either humanity doesn't care about livestock beyond food in which case who cares if there'd be no livestock, or people do care in which they'd still be around.
Edit: Looking at wikipedia, every domestic animal is used outside meat, and a surprising lot of them are used for racing; http://ift.tt/KvTxJK. All the major livestock are apparently have way to many uses for us to be wiped out by a little thing like the collapse of one industry. No matter, I think the spirit of my question still stands
So, all that aside, things people say that inspired this topic just makes me wonder, and inspires interesting questions about the value of a species. Is every species intrinsically valuable, even if the species isn't even natural or valuable to anyone? Should livestock not kept as pets be preserved just because of cultural significance, because all those children's stories and idioms referencing livestock would feel really weird if they were around when we were kids but our own children will never see one alive? If the meat industry became obsolete, would livestock be kept around in small numbers just out of historical preservation like preserved buildings, etc.? Should they be preserved in such a way? Would they? Do you value cows, pigs and chickens beyond their dietary contribution? Do you think they should be preserved?
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