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Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

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Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#251
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I'm vegan but I would definitely not turn down eating animals caught in the wild, especially if I was part of the hunt. But I would also never hunt just for the sport. It's the mass production of intelligent beings* in horrible conditions that bothers me the most. Fishing is another dilemma. Technically as per above definition eating fish (unless bred) would be fine, but then again we've destroyed so much of…

Personally, I'm on completely opposite side. Nothing detests me more than killing a free creature. I absolutely loathe hunting and fishing, and I wish it was either made completely illegal, or the hunting of the hunters legalized (I heard comments that they do it for the thrill, so having another hunter on your back should be even more exciting!). I do eat pieces of farmed meat from time to time, though.

Can't argue against how you feel and yeah I agree it's sad to see a poor animal being hunted down and killed by another animal, or a human, but wild and free animals are constantly getting preyed upon and generally don't die of old age so you're not really adding to their suffering in any way by hunting/killing them.

That said I wouldn't have anything against making hunting hunters legal. :D At least if they're above a certain income level and thus don't have a practical need to hunt.

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#252

When I was a child, a school teacher showed me this hoax video of flying penguins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4 . Unfortunately, for a brief period of my childhood, I was under the assumption that penguins could indeed fly. By the time I had uncovered my teacher's subterfuge, I had already made a fool of myself by publicly positing that such penguins existed. Admittedly, my teacher was only playing a p…

I know we're talking about penguins here, but watching the BBC video made me remember a flat mate at uni who told me about the BCC covering the Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino. (Yes that's right. Spagehtti-Harvest.) He was really disappointed to learn later in life that 'Spaghetti don't grow on trees'. https://youtu.be/tVo_wkxH9dU

One of the top comments on the penguin video is

"The bastards destroyed the entire spaghetti crop last year. I don't see why anyone still fawns over them."

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#253
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you stopped eating meat and replaced it with a balanced vegan diet you wouldn't be depriving yourself of anything other than heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes etc. You'd be the winner. Also, you'd be doing your part in reducing the demand for all those animals to be raised and slaughtered. If everyone had the opinion of "well what's the point unless everyone does it" no good change would ever happen.

I do agree that there are a lot of people eating too much meat, but the diseases you mention are all caused by overeating in general, and are just as easy to get on a vegan diet.

No. I said a balanced vegan diet. Even over eating whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and legumes whilst not eating foods that have cholesterol (meat, eggs, dairy - literally any animal products) plus the evidence of red meat and processed meat causing cancer, means I do have much less chance of having any of those diseases I mentioned.

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#254
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And context: "At the time (1957) spaghetti was relatively little-known in the UK, so that many Britons were unaware that spaghetti is made from wheat flour and water; a number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees."

> so that many Britons were unaware that spaghetti is made from wheat flour and water I doubt many Britons know that now to be fair. I could easily imagine this jape catching people out today.

Really? I suspect many people wouldn't know the exact ingredients or manufacturing process, but I think almost everyone knows that it doesn't grow on trees!

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#255
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not what I was saying. Eating meat is natural, it's been for cosmic ages, and to an extent I have no issue with that. The mass globalized consumption does bother me. I reduce my consumption. I might try vegan but I'll surely miss all the meat based products. Maybe I'll find a middle point by breeding, killing producing it myself so at least I did it on my own, think what you want, there's a form of respect in that. I…

>Eating meat is natural Relieving yourself outdoors is natural, and we've been doing it for ages. Killing intraspecies rivals/competitors is natural, and we've been doing it for ages. Dying of a preventable disease is natural, and we've been doing it for ages. I don't think we should base our behavior off naturalistic fallacies. Is eating meat better for your health than abstaining? Usually not. Is eating meat better…

Our political and cultural system is largely based on the naturalistic fallicy, one can't blame people too much for following it.

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#256
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humane painless animal death after living a full life? How can you humanely kill something which does not want to die? No matter how painless, if you killed me and I had not asked you to, it would not be humane.

Actually, if you asked me to kill you and I did, I'd still get arrested due to anti-euthanasia laws (depending on jurisdiction!) Using your reasoning, we should happily eat any animal (possibly including human, but animals also commit suicide sometimes) that suicided... I think death is an inherently ugly thing no matter how you approach it, and given the existence of carnivores and omnivores who are not vultures wai…

But a hyena is a carnivore. Humans are not. A hyena cannot contemplate the finality of death and probably doesn't understand much about the pain it's causing, it's just eating a meal. Humans do understand all those things and on top of that humans do not need to eat meat and are very possibly healthier without it, yet we continue to do so. Also, nearly all meat consumed by humans comes from factory farms which deprive the victims of even at least a natural life up to the point of death. It's a life of emotional and physical torture from birth. What makes you think any animals raised for meat get to live a long life before being killed? Most won't make it to 1 year... After all, who would eat old tough meat? Given that most people in the west can easily get to a fully stocked grocery store with more variety of legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds not to mention tofu, tempeh, seitan, cashew cheese, ready made vegan goods like beyond burgers, pizzas, vegan egg, vegan sausage... To me it seems incredibly cruel to continue to eat animals and their eggs and milk. We don't need to do it anymore and to continue to do so is willfully supporting cruelty against animals.

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people are necessarily that ignorant. But the dirty business of slaughtering animals has been hidden away from public eye extremely well. There's a certain "out of sight out of mind" aspect to it. If, to eat meat, people had to kill the animal themselves, what proportion of meat eaters do you think would continue the practice? I obviously don't know the answer, but I suspect it would be far less than 10…

If the urban dwellers like me suddenly had to kill their own prey, I agree we'd see a surge of vegans. But on the other hand, I think that's also because that disconnect allows people to think about cows as "cute". The people I know who grew up raising and killing their own animals have a much more utilitarian view of the matter. It could be that the alienation brought by modern slaughter is the keystone in bringing…

Fascinating thought. Echoes Seamus Heaney's poem The Early Purges about farm life, especially the line "living displaces false sentiments" and "'Prevention of cruelty' talk cuts ice in town/Where they consider death unnatural" https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-early-purges/

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#258
post #8

> It's technically illegal to have a wild animal as a pet in Brazil, as officials want to ensure vulnerable creatures don't get separated from their families and that they can be reintroduced into the wild after injury. Same where I am. I've wondered, though. What constitutes a pet? For example, I give peanuts to the wild squirrels around my house. This is not illegal where I live. It is illegal, however, to keep a w…

I'm going to say something that people probably won't want to hear, but I hope to justify it and convince others of it as well. Don't feed wild animals. The difference between a pet, and a wild animal is that a pet owner takes responsibility for the wellbeing and actions of a pet. Feeding wild animals is detrimental to their wellbeing. They become accustomed to people, and not all people are nice to animals. You won'…

If you're in the Bay Area you should also visit the Marine Mammal Center in Marin. Make sure you time it so you can take the backstage tour!

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The parent still considers them 'wild' despite providing alternate food source which changes their behavioral patterns. Who says this is changing their behavioural patterns? Maybe native people in north america have been randomly feeding grey squirrels for thens of thousands of years. Maybe for longer in Eurasia? In fact if it weren't in the animals behavioural repertoire to recognise the opportunity of taking food…

> Who says this is changing their behavioural patterns? Can you guarantee 100% that is isn't? No, of course not. Then just leave them alone. What is it with people feeling they can just constantly interfere with animals lives. These are not your pets, not your playthings to do as you wish.

You must be a vegan to hold such strong opinions on this. I wonder how widely your view is shared by other vegans... I certainly see no problem with offering an animal food, though I wouldn't cage or otherwise forcibly tame an animal.

Re: Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)

#260

When I was a child, a school teacher showed me this hoax video of flying penguins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4 . Unfortunately, for a brief period of my childhood, I was under the assumption that penguins could indeed fly. By the time I had uncovered my teacher's subterfuge, I had already made a fool of myself by publicly positing that such penguins existed. Admittedly, my teacher was only playing a p…

Reminds me of an incident in my early education when I happened to catch a documentary spoof about Stonehenge on TV that depicted whales building the ancient wonder. (I think Steve Martin was involved.) Coincidentally, a few days later the topic of Stonehenge came up in class and my teacher asked if anyone knew anything about it. I immediately raised my hand and, when my teacher called on me, smugly announced, with f…

There is evidence to suggest that the stone came from Wales, so perhaps you weren't too far from the truth. ;)
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