I would highly recommend the recent Freakonomics Radio series about whaling. It's Episodes 549-551 and the bonus episode from 2023-08-06. If you're firmly against killing any living creature (or at least sentient creatures), I highly doubt it will change your mind (and I don't think that it should or that it tries to), but I also think it is really fascinating learning about the history of the whaling industry and hearing the perspective of a modern whaler in the bonus episode. Putting aside the obvious ethical issues with killing sentient creatures, it's interesting to consider things like whether there's a sustainable level of whaling, what a sustainable quota would look like, and how much we're in competition with certain whale species for harvesting fish as food for our own species. I personally appreciated how unbiased Freakonomics tried to be in their discussion of the topic.

[–] cloud@lazysoci.al -2 points 2 years ago (5 children)

There's a sustainable level of eating dogs, cats and drink human blood too. Should we open dog farms to create more jobs?

[–] Soulg@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There is no inherent difference whatsoever from eating cats and dogs to eating cows or horses or sheep. Meat is meat.

[–] fat_flying_pigs@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Eating predators is supposedly less healthy than plant eating animals for a few reasons. As I understand it, carnivores have a notably higher level of parasites, they share diseases with other carnivores more readily than herbivores, and they’re more lean and the meat is more tough/stringy.

There’s also a realistic level of sustainable effort to farm raise a carnivore vs a herbivore. https://www.britannica.com/science/trophic-level

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Should we open dog farms to create more jobs?

China already does

[–] polskilumalo@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Dog meat in China is considered taboo and is something actively fought nowadays, it's mostly popular among the eldest and resented by the youngest. And even then, there is only one (1) place in China where a dog meat festival happens. Yulin.

https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3138158/rescue-68-dogs-headed-slaughterhouse-spotlights

It is also kind of dishonest to ignore South Korea which does in fact have industrial dog meat farms.

https://m.workplace.com/scmp/videos/south-korean-dog-meat-farmers-push-back-against-consumption-ban/1003013387714217/

And it is very dishonest to say that China does this on an industrial scale with the government supporting this.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3086813/dogs-are-pets-not-food-says-chinese-agriculture-ministry

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3090059/dog-meat-festival-opens-china-activists-hope-it-last-time

It unfortunately is also all over asia... Not just China. But fortunately, there is pushback from animal rights activists.

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2151975/asias-booming-dog-meat-business-and-activists-seeking-en

[–] frathiemann@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why not? I dont think that dog farms would be that profitable considering the price of dog food, but I dont see a reason why it should be illegal.

[–] kaj@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago

They're bad for dogs

[–] cnnrduncan@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Dog farms are no more unethical than pig farms.

[–] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world -3 points 2 years ago

Why not?

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