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To: justa-hairyape

They show a form of "morality" in their rivalries with one another, and most of all in the solicitude they have for their offspring. The pack instincts of dogs make them a model of the virtue of loyalty. Their hunting behavior was of course their original attraction to men who ardently pursued the same practice. Anyway, I'm pretty sure most carnivores strive to kill their prey before they eat them, as they are a lot more cooperative as a meal when dead.

Note the Pythagoreans were vegetarians on moral grounds. Cf. Ovid Metamorphoses, Book XV, for an imagined discourse of Pythagoras abhoring and warning against the practice of slaughter for food. This is an argument and an appeal, not a divine commandment. He acknowledges carnivores as animals whose nature is "savage and untamed", and hence not models for human behavior.


20 posted on 10/28/2006 10:27:21 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew
Anyway, I'm pretty sure most carnivores strive to kill their prey before they eat them, as they are a lot more cooperative as a meal when dead.

Actually, unless you are 'designed' or 'evolved' as a carrion eater, most uncivilized carnivores prefer their prey to be alive when eaten. Dead animals tend to go sour very fast. Lots of bad bacteria and other disease organisms proliferate in a dead carcass. FYI - I eat meat killed professionally and cooked of course. However, sushi is fairly decent if fresh.

34 posted on 10/29/2006 2:35:44 AM PST by justa-hairyape
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To: dr_lew

Vegetarians are not adherents of a higher morality. Rather, they simply hunt game that can't run away or fight back.


60 posted on 10/29/2006 8:46:14 AM PST by muawiyah
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