Jacklyn: Your earlier post boils down to a lot of self-serving hot air. Just a lot of tired rationalizations wrapped in college textbook speak. Why are you so opposed to using that special gift that definitively seperates us from the animals: the gift of reason? A reasonable person could very easily see that we do not have the moral right to inflict unnecessary pain, suffering, and death on a so-called lesser beast just because their mental capacities and senses are not equal to our own. That argument is flawed beyond belief. Do you feel that you should have the right to do whatever catches your fancy to a mentally retarded human? Of course not. Many severely retarded human beings have mental functions and senses well below that of a pig, for instance (a "food animal" with intelligence equal to that of a dog--- yet one is food and the other is "man's best friend"), yet no one would ever say that a retarded human's most important interests should be overlooked or denied. And that's the way it should be, of course. But why must this sort of basic, common sense consideration be afforded to humans only? I'm not saying that animals and humans are EQUAL--- of course they are not. What I'm talking about is the equal consideration of like interests. We as humans have an abiding interest in living our lives free of suffering, pain, and death. Doesn't it just naturally follow that animals share those interests(in their own way, of course) as well?
RE: PETA: I am my own man in all things, Jackie--- I don't "need" PETA or anyone else to make my opinions/decisions for me. While I certainly don't always approve of PETA's methods, I DO agree with their basic goals/beliefs, and that is why I am a member. And because there is strength and influence in numbers, of course--- PETA has a membership of roughly 800,000 people, and it generally takes large amounts of people to get things done or to even be heard by the powers that be. Smaller, grass-roots animal rights campaigns and programs are great (I belong to more than a few of them myself), but it generally takes strength of numbers to effect significant change.
