IF WE WERE ALL VEGAN, ANIMALS WOULD SUFFER A WORSE FATE by Terence Grant

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TAKES ITS TOLL AT COLLEGE OF CAPE TOWN by Terence Grant

If there were no meat-eaters, animals would routinely die of thirst and hunger, surrounded by the rotting corpses of animals that had died months earlier.

This would hardly constitute an improvement.

Consequently, vegans are often forced to fall back on the argument that domestic animals suffer intolerably and should be allowed to become extinct -an argument Professor David Benatar, Dean of Philosophy at UCT, uses in his book Better not to have been born: the harm of coming into existence, which argues that all sentient creatures would have been better off if they had not been born.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-case-for-not-being-born

This argument may seem absurd, but it usually suffices to allow someone to remain a member of the vegan community. Besides, some people simply

love having opinions that remind them of how unique they are.

They do not neccesarily have to have a compelling argument at their disposal.

I hence would like to explain why allowing animals to go extinct would be a greater evil than allowing them to be exploited.

1. Our crops could conceivably be attacked by a disease or virus similar to the blight that saw more than a million people die of starvation and disease during the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 to 1849. Allowing domestic animals to teeter on the verge of extinction could have tragic consequences.
2. A wide-spread shift to a plant-based diet, would undoubtedly lead to greater food production, thereby providing a substantial short-term benefit. However, in the absence of an effective birth-control policy, the population could grow significantly by taking advantage of the increased food supply. This could wipe out the short-term benefit and compound our problems. Simply put, the last thing the planet needs is more humans.
3. If animals could talk they probably would consent to living in conditions that are less than ideal , if extinction were the only alternative. Suggesting that animals should be allowed to disappear off the face of the earth smacks of arrogance and an unhealthy preoccupation with keeping one’s hands clean.                                                                                                  In creating an environment free of predators, we saddled ourselves with the responsibility to play a role similar to the one predators would have played. Dying in its sleep -while surrounded by people who attend to its needs 24- is never going to be an option for a cow, pig, or chicken.