People should be vegetarian when possible to avoid animal cruelty Essay

People should be vegetarian when possible to avoid animal cruelty - Essay Example But most of moral grounds for refusal of meat are untenable, so the main idea of this work is to refute some moral basis of vegetarianism. On the traditional position, justification of vegetarianism was in terms of animal welfare, happiness, rights and so on. In recent years another type of justification has been given: vegetarianism has been justified in terms of human suffering, rights etc. What seems to be absent in recent vegetarian arguments, is any consideration of animals. Moral vegetarianism has been constructed as a view that there is a prima facie duty not to eat meat or animal products, but this duty cannot be absolute one, as there are certain situations when it can be overruled. For instance, in the situations when killing animals and eating them is the only way to survive, the animal life will be less valuable anyway. (Martin, 14) Supporters of vegetarianism justify the need for this phenomenon, using arguments of the major world religions. They argue that some religions prescribe care for animals. For example, Judaism asserts that man is given the power to dispose the whole world, as on the top of the hierarchy the human is, and below are the inanimate environment, flora and fauna. Each subsequent stage exists due to absorption of the lower. Each of the lower can grow to higher, becoming a part of him. The grass grows from land, cow eats grass, people eat cows. Thus, the food is not just the destruction of the lower, but a step to development for it. Moreover, we all live in a â€Å"dog eats dog† world and eating meat is an inevitability of society. Another argument of meat-eating enemies is the question "Who are you to kill an animal for own profit?". With all the compassion to animals, it borders with unreasonable extreme of putting the animal on one level with a man. History proves that the one, who begins to treat the animal as