Why do humans not have the right to eat other animals?

Ask a lion or a grizzly. Just go out to Yellowstone and interview one of them.. They'll explain all that you need to know.

Human beings are not anything special. We are ANIMALS and we are carnivores. We have canine teeth because we physically require a balanced diet that includes meat. If you embrace evolution, you MUST embrace the human need to eat meat. Even the great apes eat meat.

The human digestive tract is quite different than animals that do not eat meat, while exactly similar to animals that do. This is NATURE and EVOLUTION speaking clearly.

THAT SAID, I respect anyone's choice not to eat meat, if it is a fundamental crisis of character for them to do so. But let's be serious, they are making a choice that is based on personal choice, NOT nature and NOT evolution.

No animals have any "rights". The minute you start talking about that, you are talking about a RELIGIOUS concept, and not evolution nor natural science. Again, nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't try to push your religion on others.

Do we have the right to inflict massive amounts of suffering for purely selfish gains? I would say no.

If you were living in the wild, and included animals you personally caught and killed into your diet, that is one thing.

However, people do not need to eat meat, they do because they "like it". So when you consider the confinement and slaughter of billions of animals every year, I would say that outweighs any perceived rights. Or when you consider the massive impacts on the environment and world hunger, again those perceived rights seem pretty silly.

Banjoman-

You just proved without a doubt that you did not read the bible :)

God created man vegetarian and animals as his companions.

Also, reread Cain and Abel as you have missed the point entirely! God blesses and protects Cain, even though he murdered his brother and lied to his God. Actually, the lesson of Cain and Abel is one of THE major themes of the Old Testament, you cannot really miss this and claim to have any understanding of the Bible.

You would do much better to actually read the book if you are a Christian, and study the text with scholars who can help you with the original language.

That's an interesting question, because other animals eat each other. It isn't solely a human trait. In the animal world, you are usually either a vegetarian, like a cow, or a rabbit, in which case you become dinner for a meat eater, like a lion or an eagle. Man is the only animal to make conscientious decisions about what he will or won't eat.

We have the right to eat meat we have made a consciencious choice not to

because those animals as sentient creatures have the right to live freely and naturally, provide for themselves, have a family, etc.

and by eating meat we are invading that right.

that's just my opinion though.

redneck:you don't need meat to survive, those animals do

missdeviance: we are NOT carnivores, we are omnivores, we have choice on what we eat unlike those wild animals, humans do not need meat.

who are you to say that omitting meat from our diet isn't the next step in evolution.

show me nature in factory farming.

i don't mean to sound rude, but i don't think you really know what your talking about.

Because it's a selfish want that ends in death. Think about it, could you just kill beat your dog for fun? No, so why should we kill anything just for the taste. Wild animals kill because they need to humans do not.

The bible doesn't say anything about not eating animals. In fact, we see several instances of people eating meat in the Bible "Kill the fatted calf...". In fact, Cain was rebuked for making an offering of vegetables, while abel offered killed animals and his sacrifice was accepted.

Why should we? I do not NEED to end another life in order to survive myself, so I am not going to purely for the sake of taste.

you know i don't really know because what do animals do in the wild? they eat each other! i guaratee you there is no lion on earth that walks by a herd of water buffalos or zebras or whatever and go all " you know i think we should spare these creatres lives becase they have feelings too and who am i to kill and eat these animals. im gonna go much some grass." NO! i respect it if people wan't to be nice to the animals, but lets face the reality of life. 99.9% of your average cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep dont die of old age. its just that simple.

That's just how it is now....but back in the day, there was no rule against cannibalism.