Animals matter. their life matter.

[hunter]

19. I believe it's possible to respect nature and treat food animals with great respect.

My wife is vegetarian and I'm mostly vegetarian. Nevertheless we have dogs as family members, all of them from the animal shelter and I'm not going make our dogs be vegetarians or get too upset when they kill mice, rats, or gophers. (Our oldest dog leaves rats alone. She remembers when our youngest kid kept pet rats. The newer dogs kill wild rats whenever they can, and unlike cats, they do not "play" with their food. That's their nature.

My mom's family are cattle ranchers and my dad's family were California Dairy people. My dad loves to fish. Fish was a major source of protein in our family when I was a kid. One of my nieces is an agriculture major in university. Her interest is dairy goats mostly. She believes goat meat, milk, and cheeses will displace dairy cows to some extent as the climate becomes more unpredictable.

I think some animals are intelligent enough that they ought to enjoy near-human legal protections. The great apes (chimps, gorillas, orangs, etc...), many cetaceans, and many birds belong in this category.

But even invasive species like feral pigs in California deserve our respect, even when we allow them to be freely hunted.

Hunting for food is one thing, hunting for "sport" or "trophy" or just because some sick person just likes to kill animals, is quite another.