We have a five month old pup who's uncannily clever, and I mean it's creepy. From day one he did everything asked of him like he was fluent in English. He has personality, knows when you're taking the piss out of him, listens intently to everything you say to him and obeys if necessary. Done so many clever things he'd probably score higher than many of my neighbours in an iq test. You get the picture.

I took a bad fit of coughing today and he left and came back with a bottle of water and dropped it at my feet. Something clicked when he did that. These slaughter houses etc for animals, they're wrong if all animals have personality, feel fear, show empathy of sorts, even have the potential for learning to communicate or bond. That makes us potentially the dumb animals, well me, for not seeing it before. I know people argue it's necessary to eat meat but I don't believe that. It's all surreal pain filled horror show type stuff the more I think about it.

I don't know if I can go off meat, but I'm gonna try ween myself off. It's all kinda mind blowing. Thoughts?

did he go to the shops and buy you a bottle of water?

Now that is clever

The argument of being a meatarian or a vegetarian are vast

Of course every animal has a personality and the ability to communicate and bond with us humans

What sort of food are you giving your puppy? It probably has another dead animal in it, horse

If your puppy was in the wild do you think it would forage for carrots or eat roadkill?

I eat meat now, I was veggie for many a year however I try to be responsible and source my beef and pork from happy cows and pigs not factory ones

dawnbreak wrote:
Dawn, long time no see!

Never copped the dog food bit, - another conundrum to get my new found understanding around. No, I aint gonna argue the benefits of one against the other, I wouldn't have a clue tbh, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone their food, I just see it all in a new light. I still had a ham sandwich last night, and I'll probably have one tonight so I dont know where this is going. And aye, I know animals eat other animals, but Earth sucks at the best of times. The way earth is now - is not how it should be imo. I couldn't look at my dog and say, you're dinner - wheres my hatchet, so why can i do it with other animals - some form of ignorance or hypocrisy on my part maybe?

Dogs are pretty clever often... Our dog knows how to move furniture around to see outside or even get to backyard if the window is open. He also opens doors with ease and so on. Once he made himself a shelter by moving stuff around. The most amazing thing was that he moved a full beercase without making it fall and without leaving any tooth/claw marks on it and so on. He also knows hos to tell he's hungry or thirsty, he bangs the foodbowl against the heater if its empty.

About eating meat, well, its darned good food, but killing for food may be questionable. The least people can do is ensure the animals will die quickly and without any unnecessary pain. I think hunting and fishing are much more morally acceptable solution than raising animals just to be killed for food in a factory like setting.

That's a clever dog Hex! I had doubts about our dog at one point when he kept running face first into walls, but i think it was a hardware rather than software problem.

Hunting, yeah, it seems more honourable than meat farming in a weird way. Maybe I wouldn't feel as bad if in order to eat meat -you had to take on a lion single handed with only a spear in open combat. The slaughter houses just seem wrong. Or maybe it's because all the animals sorta trust their handlers, like my dog. It's like a broken trust, you get me?

Yeah.., I'm after going through a packet of ham since I posted the OP and there's chicken in the oven. I think i was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir

The hunting & fishing thing seems like the better alternative, but you're not going to find pigs & hens running about round towns & cities, so it's not practical. If there was just a proper drive to give them decent lives and swift, painless deaths, it would be a step in the right direction, imo.