hahaha I agree. cats have been one of the longest-running struggle sessions within vegan/animal rights circles too, so when i saw this i just popcorned the whole way through. this fucking cat shit again, i had to laugh
omg yeah, sounds like your roommate was also dealing with his cat-induced dissonance. i took in two strays before i went vegan. but i'm honestly not sure if i'd let another in, once my current furry roomates pass on. i go back and forth on it a lot.
for ethical/environmental vegans cats are seriously problematic since they:
are often seen as property - so they hit all "the problems with pets" notes;
must eat meat to be healthy at this point in our pet food technology - so in buying cat food it privileges one life over countless others;
can be less sociable than other house-friendly animals and when left outside can have intense impacts on their immediate environments - same problem as point 2.
That said (like with all domesticated species), we domesticated them millenia ago, made them reliant on us, dramatically altered their natural habitats, removed them from their natural habitats when we exported them all over the world, and don't have sufficient support programs for them in place to ensure consistent humane treatment and access to necessary healthcare. :cat-com:
Doing the best we can to be responsible and eliminate suffering as far is practical and practicable is all we can aim for at the moment!
My cats were also strays (thrown out and left behind by people who moved out of my apartment building) and it really is hard to say given the choice again in the future that i'd do it any different, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I am very concerned about the obligate carnivore aspect, because it is massively hypocritical of me to care so much for one life over other similarly domesticated animals who suffer immeasurably more than my little furballs do. I seriously can't wait to get lab-grown meat for cruelty-free food options for cats and snakes and other domesticated carnivores who rely on human-provided homes through no fault of their own.
This is really interesting to me. I similarly just have a vicious pitbull from the pound. I just rationalize her meat eating as: look at her fucking teeth, that animal needs meat. But yeah, she's not exactly natural.
I'm with ya, though. Not sure if I'd do it differently.
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holy shit you weren't kidding. that thread goes places
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hahaha I agree. cats have been one of the longest-running struggle sessions within vegan/animal rights circles too, so when i saw this i just popcorned the whole way through. this fucking cat shit again, i had to laugh
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omg yeah, sounds like your roommate was also dealing with his cat-induced dissonance. i took in two strays before i went vegan. but i'm honestly not sure if i'd let another in, once my current furry roomates pass on. i go back and forth on it a lot.
for ethical/environmental vegans cats are seriously problematic since they:
That said (like with all domesticated species), we domesticated them millenia ago, made them reliant on us, dramatically altered their natural habitats, removed them from their natural habitats when we exported them all over the world, and don't have sufficient support programs for them in place to ensure consistent humane treatment and access to necessary healthcare. :cat-com:
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Doing the best we can to be responsible and eliminate suffering as far is practical and practicable is all we can aim for at the moment!
My cats were also strays (thrown out and left behind by people who moved out of my apartment building) and it really is hard to say given the choice again in the future that i'd do it any different, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I am very concerned about the obligate carnivore aspect, because it is massively hypocritical of me to care so much for one life over other similarly domesticated animals who suffer immeasurably more than my little furballs do. I seriously can't wait to get lab-grown meat for cruelty-free food options for cats and snakes and other domesticated carnivores who rely on human-provided homes through no fault of their own.
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This is really interesting to me. I similarly just have a vicious pitbull from the pound. I just rationalize her meat eating as: look at her fucking teeth, that animal needs meat. But yeah, she's not exactly natural.
I'm with ya, though. Not sure if I'd do it differently.