Everyone became animal rights enthusiasts real fast...
I know I know... "obligate carnivore"
I know I know... "obligate carnivore"
You're still killing animals mainly for fun, which is not ethical no matter how you turn it. Humans generally do not need to eat meat, as they're omnivores. Keeping animals uses up large amounts of land and produces unnecessary greenhouse gases. With the amount of people and cattle being held on this planet, something has got to change in our behaviour in order to get things more balanced and keep a healthy planet for future generations. You try to keep old habits intact, which are not sustainable in the current world. Perhaps you don't want to know about this take on things, but I'm presenting them anyway, hopefully it will have an influence on your future thinking.
You have your religion. Your religion says it's not ethical to kill animals. I don't believe in your religion.
Yup, omnivore. I've got the canines and binocular vision as well as the molars and gut to prove it. I like meat and vegetables. Your religion says it's bad to eat meat. I don't care about your strongly held beliefs: I think they're a bunch of hooey.
I have no ethical or moral problem with killing as I do it. It's not wrong to kill animals and eat them.
Hunting is pretty much built in to being human. It's about the closest thing to religion I have left. Squirrel hunting is my favorite type of quarry. I get to sneak miles through the woods and explore.
Other than a few vegans that actually do a lot of camping and hiking, I'm far more connected to nature, my place in it, and the effects of climate change than most vegans ever will be. My family and I moved 700 miles this summer. Climate change and the future of my children and maybe grandchildren was a big factor that drove the move.
Again, you have strongly held religious beliefs that I think are bullshit. I also really dislike the sneering judgement I see so much of coming from your religion and people. It's just like fundamentalist Christians in tone, stridency, superiority, and sanctimony. You're not any better than me. You just believe some crap that I don't. Again, just like the fundamentalist Christianity I grew up in. You know those televangelists that beg for money? That's a mirror of the people you believe in. The people protesting outside abortion clinics? That's your people with a different set of beliefs.
As far as climate change and greenhouse gases go, yup. Major problem. I'm actually reducing my impact, but, unless we tackle the industrial sources, an individual's impact is a drop in the ocean at the scales that we're talking about. Also, meat taken by hunting is about as low impact as it gets. Especially venison.
You can moral relativism your way out of the ethical problem if you want, but believing killing animals is wrong is not a religious position any more than believing murder, or rape, or theft is wrong. It's cool that for you the opposite is a religion, but it seems like you have just found a convenient way to hand-wave away arguments against your position as "someone else's beliefs" which can't possibly have any bearing on your own.
I'm not trying to convince you of anything - you're right that, among all of those who eat meat, you're extremely low impact. Absolutely do whatever you want. But I'd consider the fact that in this thread you are claiming vegans are the religious ones while writing short essays on your own self described "religion" of hunting animals. The only one preaching here is you, man.