Is it natural to eat animals?

The first time I heard that a friend was going vegetarian I laughed and thought it was a silly, although harmless, idea. After all, other animals eat animals, so not eating animals would go against the very laws of nature!  But does being “natural” really determine what is right? What is “natural” anyway? Are we, human beings, still a part of nature? In what sense are our societies governed by natural laws? Would we want it that anyway?

It is clear that humans have long moved away from the “laws-of-the-jungle” and “survival-of-the-fittest” as a means of managing our relationships with each other and the rest of the planet.   Through religion and the progression of moral thought and social institutions, we have created laws and mechanisms which aim to protect each other from theft, murder and rape, as well as help those that are struggling. Yet, aren’t murder, rape and theft natural instincts? Isn’t it natural to exploit those that are weak or natural to leave them to die?  The idea of naturalness being equivalent to rightness is something that we, as a society, should seek to avoid.  Due to our also natural abilities to experience empathy and compassion and to reason ethically, we as a society can choose to create and reinforce a more compassionate and just world.  Other animals, particularly those that live in social groups, also have capacities for compassion, friendship and cooperation. So it turns out that “nature” is not what we perceive it be anyway.

Most people would agree that we should move away from the cruel “laws of nature” for managing our affairs, but they may still implicitly believe that eating animals is not only natural, but also necessary. Therefore, farming and killing animals for food is a necessary and acceptable use of our power over other animals.  However, upon further investigation, they would find that millions of people around the world are vegetarian and vegan and many have been so for their entire lives.  For instance, many religious groups have eaten vegetarian diets for millennia including Jains, Hindus, Sikhs, Hare Krishnas, Black Israelites and some Buddhists.  Most of these groups also refrain from eating eggs and Black Israelites are vegan. From a western, scientific perspective, the American Dietetic Association has stated that we can lead healthy lives on vegetarian and vegan diets!

Since eating meat and animal products is not necessary for a long and healthy human life, we cannot say that the act of a modern human killing and eating an animal is equivalent to a lion killing and eating a buck.  Lions must eat animals to survive, but that is certainly not the case for us. Therefore, we make a choice to kill and consume the flesh of other animals.  Given that other animals clearly do value their lives, as anyone would know who has had a pet or companion animal, it is wrong to deprive animals of their very existence and the opportunity to enjoy their lives for trivial reasons.

In addition, in practicality, there is no painless way to kill animals, who experience pain and fear just as we do.  Lethal injection may be the kindest way to kill, but it would make their flesh inedible.  The next “kindest” way, might be a gunshot to the head. But how would a person ensure each and every time that the bullet enters the right part of the brain to cause immediate death? Also, how can they ensure that the animal is unaware of being hunted or stalked so that it does not experience fear?  The only possible way one might attempt to ensure a death that is free of pain and fear would be to develop a close relationship with the animal so that he/she has complete trust in the person who would kill them, thereby allowing the person to come close to the animal. The person would then have to hope that the animal doesn’t make any sudden movements before pulling the trigger. Besides being completely impractical, surely this would be a betrayal of a trusting relationship between two individuals, akin to shooting one’s own beloved pet in the prime of their lives?  Surely, this goes against all moral feeling and kindness?  Surely, it is a little psychopathic?

The reality is, that human beings are so far removed from living naturally, that ad hoc attempts to be “natural” are a farce.  To feed our massively growing human population, now close to 7 billion people, we must employ industrial methods of agriculture.  There is nothing natural about industrial agriculture which depends on scientific research, large machines, genetic engineering, manmade fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, intensive feeding operations, confinement, artificial insemination, antibiotics, etc.  To provide meat to a vast number of people at cheap prices requires an intensely mechanistic and economical approach that treats animals as nothing more than production units.  Compassion, respect, dignity and ‘naturalness’ are not and cannot be part of this system. From start to finish - birth, growth and death – the lives of farm animals are controlled by external, heartless and unnatural human, economic and scientific processes. 

If a person truly believes in the “naturalness” of eating meat which makes it ethical to eat animals, then they must give up on formal meat production. Even so-called family animal agriculture, with its management of breeding, confinement, cutting, separating of kin, killing, butchering, transporting, packaging and selling, is a departure from the natural process of hunting and gathering as our long gone ancestors once did.  If we wish to embrace a truly natural lifestyle, then we must become a part of nature again, giving up modern day privileges including the Internet, washing machines, houses, electricity, running water, grocery stores, refrigerators and medical treatment. We must live in the bush and on the land. Everything we use must come from our immediate surroundings and be returned to them.  If we eat other animals, we must also allow ourselves to be eaten. When we die, we will lie where we fall and let other animals scavenge off our bodies. Our bones will be cleaned by insects, worms and bacteria and our flesh will return to the soil as compost. Yes, then we will truly be a ‘part of nature’ and on equal terms with the rest of the natural world.