If we didn't eat animals they'd become extinct

I've been a vegetarian for a few years now, as I believe it is cruel and wrong to kill animals that have just as much right to be here as we do.



However, my boyfriend continues to argue that if everyone were to turn vegetarian, then these animals wouldn't even be here and would become extinct because they cannot survive properly in the wild.



Although he says he admires me for not eating meat, he remains convinced that if everyone stopped eating it, there would be no sheep, cows etc. As there would be no need for them.



I'd like to hear your opinion on this.





x x x

 

This is also one of my centre arguments against global vegeterainism. Yet, it will never become global, so I do not use it often.

Some cows have been known to adapt in the wild. Yet, we cannot know if the whole of them, if freed will adapt. They will be prone to decease, murder by humans, becoming pray for preditors, and such. They have adapted themselves to living with umans for thousands of years now, it's hard to turn evolution around, yet, probebly possible.

 

Do you know this for sure?

 

Yes, I'll try to google for the articles. It has happened in Holland (or Scotland, i'm not sure), and California.

Edit: I could not google for it, yet it was posted on these forums (well, the old ones) about half a year ago or so... it was a big thread... a debate about this very topic.

Article said that the cows got defensive and aggresive when living alone in the wild.

 

I don't think most people could survive in the wild.

 

But nobody's trying to eat you are they? ay

 

Thankyou, let me know if you find anything

 

i think he is right. and as much as i love animals, and hate to see them killed, we were meant to eat meat! humans are carnivorous, that is why we have those two sharp teeth in the front. so, its our nature to eat meat. i dont beleive in being a vegitarian. also, the animals that are killed for food were born for that purpose, so yeah, there wouldnt be a whole lot of cows and things of nobody ate them. but i hate the way they kill the poor things...

 

We may have been given sharp teeth to eat meat, but we were also given the intelligence to figure out different healthy ways of eating, which doesn't involve destroying animals. And people have evolved over thousands of years as lifestyles have changed.

 

Of so many differences between carnivores and herbivores, two little sharp teeth mean nothing. The most important difference is our digestive systems. A carnivores is short with strong acids to digest meat quickly before it decomposes in their digestive tracks. Herbivore's digestive system is long and has both a weaker acid and saliva glands for predigestion. For an herbivore to eat meat comes with alot more bad than it does good. Our digestive system matches a herbivores on all parts, except those two little and far weaker than a real carivore's teeth. There are quite a few other differences, but the digest may be the most important and the teeth, possibly the least.

 

Also true carnivore have glands in their, somewhere, that allow them to eat raw meat. Humans cannot do such things.

 

a few puny edit canine (Lol) teeth dont mean much, horses also have those sharp teeth canine and wolf teeth, have a look in a horses mouth and there are some sharp pointy teeth there that they dont use for eating grass... some are quite large..i think many herbivore animals have some.

 

I wish I could have gotten here sooner, before the endless teeth discussion cropped up again, lol.
Anyway, you should realize that our appetite for meat IS actually driving cows, pigs, and other animals to extinction.
Modern factory farms want to be efficient as possible. Thus, they propagate only the highest-producing breeds of farm animals--such as Holstien cattle, and Broad-Breasted White turkeys. The other breeds of farm animal--some dating back centuries--are left to dwindle and die out. These animals are in some cases more genetically fit, but since they aren't as good meat or milk machines, breeding them is ignored.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Assn., globally, two breeds of farm animal go extinct each week; and a third may die out within the next 20 years. (Rare livestock site:http://www.albc-usa.org/about.htm)
About 18 percent of North America's livestock breeds are already gone.
So, if you're concerned about the extinction of livestock, you wouldn't support commercial meat production, at least.
Also, if we stopped eating farm animals, it is highly doubtful they would all disappear. Few of us still use horses as primary transportation, ferrets to hunt rabbits, or domestic dogs to catch rats or bring down bears and bulls. Yet these were the original reasons for breeding these animals. Some people already keep pigs, chickens, goats, and other farm animals as companions. It's not outrageous to think farm animals could someday be bred as pets, rather than primarily as food.

 

http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6332

I raised this issue here a while ago.... I just think this argument is a sad attempt to grasp at straws for people who just aren't educated on the issue.
*shrugs*

 

He is actually right, after all farm animals are the product of years of human manipulation.
There are of course wild cows, sheep etc but they are very diffrent from the domesticated versions.

Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Given the choice between being born into a life of utter hell or not being born at all I know which I'd pick.

 

A) Your boy is a jackass. That's the most pathetic excuse I've heard for eating meat... that and the ' we have two sharp little teeth for a reason' argument. Just because we learned how to eat meat so many thousands of years ago doesn't mean we need to continue to. People have also been eating an animal-free diet for thousands of years and living quite contentedly.

B) They wouldn't go extinct. And even if they did at least they would do so having lived out the remainder of their lives free to roam and live. Do people honestly believe that a farm animal would choose life on a farm enslaved by their human captors as opposed to a life of freedom? These people have major denial and or selfishness issues. Or maybe possibly they are truly ignorant to the reality of these farms (although I believe most are not they just choose to pretend to).

C) Someone who say they love animals yet partakes of their flesh and fluids is full of shit. They don't give a shit about anyone but themselves and their own selfish desires.. their actions speak this out nice and clear.

D) So they were born to be food 'eh? Well does a child who is at the mercy of a pedophile deserve to be raped and abused by that person just because he/she attained them for those reasons? Does a victim deserve to be tortured to death by a kidnapper simply because he/she took them specifically to do that to them? To them that is their purpose therefore by the afore mentioned logic to eat meat they shoud serve those purposes and be happy about it.
Why is it so hard for these people to just admit that they don't give a shit about the lives and suffering of these animals? Why can't they just admit
that they only care about what THEY want to eat and wear and drink and that they can't be fucked with caring about someone else besides themselves and that it actually has nothing to do with the animals being born for food or going extinct? At least they would be being real.

 

so many thousands of years ago? Try 1.8 million years ago....

http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html#C

Modern human(talking in general terms of course) has always been an omni..we've never been anything different.


if you do have any study that shows that any sizeable portion of early humans lived on a a veggie diet, i'd be interested to see it.

 

QUOTE]

That is unfair, and completely untrue. I'm a vegetarian, and I disagree with what you are saying. I'm sorry but just because someone eats meat doesn't mean they "can't be fucked with caring about someone else besides themselves" I don't like the way you generalise people so easily.[/QUOTE]
Well.. I may not be the most self censored person when it comes to the way I express my beliefs but it's true... eating meat is not a necessary part of life nor is consuming dairy or any animal product for that matter.. we don't need it to live. Therefore when one eats it they are indulging in a purely selfish act of self interest, there's no question about it. And I AM speaking of the general populace of animal consumers therefore a generalization is in order.. like it or not. Now I'm not saying these people are evil.. ( although I have to admit I think many, many of them are ) I'm saying they're selfish and inconsiderate to the life they are consuming plain & simple. A lot of my friends eat meat and they know how I feel about it and they don't deny it. Now don't get me wrong.. I don't stare people down & hate on them when they eat that shit in front of me, as I know ultimately it's one's choice to eat whatever the hell they want, I'm just not down with it. I still and always will believe it to be a selfish act.

 

I stand corrected... 1.8 million years...but I was not referencing any specific timeline to begin with. My point here is that we don't need to partake of any animal products whatsoever to live. Just because we've been eating meat for so long doesn't mean we have to continue to especially not for the sake of staying true to historical actions. The past is dead, we should let it be just that.. the past. People have always raped and murder.. should we condone this behavior and encourage it simply because we've been doing it ever since we can remember? It's time to evolve from the past and step into a better future.