<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201canimals that provide us with healthy, life-giving food deserve not to be subject to torment and agony and immeasurable misery<\/b><\/i>\u201d
\n — Daniel Payne, “Why You Should Eat \u2018Humane\u2019 Meat<\/a>,” The Federalist<\/i>, June 24 2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAgreed.<\/p>\n
So too do animals who do not provide us with healthy, life-giving food deserve not to be subject to torment and agony and immeasurable misery.<\/p>\n
No living, feeling creature deserves to be subject to torment and agony and immeasurable misery — perhaps not even those who have subjected others to torment and agony and immeasurable misery.<\/p>\n
But neither does any animal deserve to have its life taken to feed humans if it is not necessary for the survival and health of humans.<\/p>\n
And it isn\u2019t<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Nor is it possible to deprive a living, feeling creature of its life humanely, any more than it is possible to rape someone humanely.<\/p>\n
Euthanasia is a way to end a life of torment and agony and immeasurable misery humanely.<\/p>\n
But the needless slaughter of healthy, helpless animals is not euthanasia \u2014 nor should it be called humane.<\/p>\n
At best some slaughter can be called “less-inhumane” than slaughter that causes torment and agony and immeasurable misery \u2014 just as rape without strangulation can be called “less-inhumane” than rape with strangulation.<\/p>\n
But unnecessary life-taking is not and cannot be humane.<\/p>\n
Craig, W. J., & Mangels, A. R. (2009). Position of the American Dietetic Association: vegetarian diets<\/a>. Journal of the American Dietetic Association<\/i>, 109(7), 1266-1282.<\/p>\n
Eisnitz, G. A. (2009). Slaughterhouse: The shocking story of greed, neglect, and inhumane treatment inside the US meat industry<\/a>. Prometheus Books.<\/p>\n