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The Logical Appeal of Vegetarianism


This is the image on a new billboard that was put up over the weekend on my route to work.

My first reaction was to note that there are very obvious reasons for why our neolithic forebears domesticated chickens to eat and cats to kill rodents rather than the other way around.

That is beside the point for the ad campaign, though. The billboard's message is that we should treat chickens with the same respect as we treat cats because they are equally cute.

I finally had to concede that ad campaign raises a very good point. Changes should be made. Although my current pet cat has been spayed, a quick trip to the nearest alley with a can of tuna fish should allow me to collect enough individuals to start a breeding program. My goal will be to create a strain of fat felines with nicely marbled meat that is more suitable for human consumption.

Comments

  1. Anonymous1:03 PM

    Michael, surely you're aware that the chicken was not domesticated by _your_ forebears (unless you are of pale Indian stock), that cats were most likely domesticated during the mesolthic era rather than the neolithic, and that -- regardless when they were domesticated -- cats have been eaten as food throughout human history (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_meat)?

    ReplyDelete
  2. J. Michael Andresen1:32 PM

    Dear Anonymous:

    My sources (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_animals) suggest the neolithic.

    Regarding the fact that people through history have eaten cats, I am not sure I follow your logic. Would you claim that maize was domesticated for the purpose of placing inside dried gourd shells to make maracas?

    ReplyDelete
  3. J-W Maessen4:59 PM

    Me, I just think predators mostly make for bad eatin'.

    Except predatory fish. Them's tasty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8:02 PM

    It is almost certain that the majority of humans have at least one ancestor involved in the domestication of the red jungle fowl.

    It is also likely that the domestication of the cat was actually a self-domestication, making talking about the "purpose" of their domestication even more fraught with peril than most discussions of teleology.

    The problem, I believe, with your plan, Dr. Andresen, is that while chickens are of value both as broilers and as egg layers, feline eggs make for poor eating.

    ReplyDelete

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