You use animal shit to fertilize your garden. You use animal remains to power your car.

And anybody who thinks keeping bees is cruel is a pussy and deserves to be subject to predation by some carnivorous animal.

Bad dinner with your vegan friends recently?

Bees=pollination=plants survive and reproduce=all animal life depends on plants.

No bees=most plant life dies=all plant eating animals die=all carnivores die=end of life on planet.

You can't name a single thing on this planet that doesn't start with a plant. All plants need to be pollinated.

The original poster has a valid point (if not a subtle one): If you eat, work, and/or wear clothes in this society, you are almost certianly the beneficiary of some kind of animal exploitation.

Jascob - So, can I beat my dog? Can I beat your dog? Can I shoot as many elephants as I can find? Can I rip the hair off a sheep or must I cut it?

To argue that since every aspect of life exploits animals in some way ( a tenet that some would argue is not necessary) then anyone can exploit animals in any way they deem necessary does not follow. At least, not to me. I'll bet to you too, given the right scenario.

Uhh... you can beat your dog all you want if that's what brings you pleasure.

But one would think that you might find it more beneficial to just bury your dog in a nice woman... or man if that's what you like.

Whatever makes you happy, dude. This is the land of the free.

Whoosh......Right over your head.

Crowe can bury his dog anywhere anymore. Too much soy, you know.

Maybe that's the cause of his frustrations.

crowe:

To argue that since every aspect of life exploits animals in some way ( a tenet that some would argue is not necessary) then anyone can exploit animals in any way they deem necessary does not follow. At least, not to me. I'll bet to you too, given the right scenario.

Crowe, that's a nice strawman you have, but I'm not buying. Sell it somewhere else.

We're not talking about real dogs, are we?

I have heard it called burying the bone. But burying the dog?

If you're saying that it's tough to go through life without using some sort of animal-derived product or impacting animals, you have a good point. But does that mean you should just give up and support factory farming? Have you seen what they do to those animals? Have you check the REAL ingredients of your glass of milk? Google that and try not to gag.

As another poster said, you kind of have it backwards. Animals are the middlemen in our food web. You take the sun, you take water, and you take a few nutrients and you get plants. Plants make animals. What do cattle eat? Grain. What do we eat? Meat from cows which was converted from grain which all started from the sun and water.

(Oh and petroleum -- the stuff used to power your car -- also comes from plants. As do your clothes, your books, your air, your medicines, and your house. Go hug a tree.)