We are calling on the company to withdraw sales of the meat, due to the cruel exploitation these wild animals suffer at the hands of hunters.The reason this does not pass the smell test is that Viva! are an animal rights group: Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals. It does not matter how humanely the animals are treated, the fact that they are killed and eaten will likely be viewed as abuse. They even oppose dairy:
Cow’s milk is neither a natural or healthy drink for humans who are the only mammals to consume milk after weaning, not only that but the milk of another species!And yet we still produce lactase to digest milk into adulthood. Seems like we are designed to consume milk.
While I am no fan of "animal rights," I do not support the abuse of animals. It is both unkind to the animals and detrimental to the human perpetrator. Many farmers who raise livestock oppose the mistreatment of animals. What I found amusing, was this complaint by Viva! about the practice,
More than 70 per cent of reindeer slaughtered for meat are calves that have grazed during the summer, which means they never even get to see snow.No snow for the little reindeer children.
Good grief, they are deer!
It is either acceptable or unacceptable to eat animals. If it is acceptable then killing them before or after they have seen snow makes no difference. And if it is not acceptable to eat animals, then their slaughter is the issue, and killing snow exposed reindeer is just as problematic as killing snow unexposed ones.
Whatever the ethical status of carnivory, the whether or not they have seen snow is irrelevant. Further, as animals they negotiate their environment, snowy or not. They do not have subliminal moments as they gaze upon winter forests, crystal plains, and hoary mountain peaks.
I was having a hunt around your blog to see if you had done anything specifically on vegetarianism. I have recently encountered an attitude amongst younger Christians where it is believed wrong to eat animals because they were living breathing creatures.
ReplyDeleteI feel this is elevating animals to a status that they biblically do not have in the order of things and said so. The response I received was; "where in the Bible does it say we ought to eat meat?"
God certainly gave the Israelites meat to sustain them on their wanderings in Exodus 16 and in Corinthians there is Paul's advice that it is ok to eat whatever is sold in the meat market and not to raise questions on the grounds of conscience and earlier he says out of consideration for a brother don't eat meat if it will cause them to stumble. So, the eating of meat itself is not the issue but how it is eaten needed to be considered.
I can understand someone not wanting to eat meat for health reasons in that they don't want to be exposing themselves to the fat but to take the stance that it is wrong full stop strikes me as not one that can argued from a Biblical injunction apart from what Paul mentions.