Ban bacon

Ethics and animal cruelty A. Establishing sentience B. Establishing suffering C. Supply and demand II. EnvironmentIII. HealthIV. SummaryV. Rebuttal of Con's argumentVI. LinksI. Ethics and animal cruelty A. Establishing sentience Now do animals do animals have sentience, the capacity to suffer and feel pain? Yes, there is scientific proof. “After 2,500 Studies, It's Time to Declare Animal Sentience Proven (Op-Ed)” Marc Bekoff livescience.com [1] “All of these mammals, and all other mammals, are sentient beings who share the same neural architecture underlying their emotional lives and who experience a wide spectrum of emotions including the capacity to feel pain and to suffer.” Bekoff [2] B. Now it is established that pigs have the capacity to feel pain and to suffer. The third link will be a youtube [3] video graphically showing the cost of bacon. “Pigs commonly have their teeth cut to the gum line, their tails chopped off, and their ears notched, and some have rings forced into their sensitive noses in order to permanently prevent them from rooting in the grass and dirt.” peacefulprairie.org [4] Both the capacity to suffer and suffering have now been established. Suffer definition “: to experience pain, illness, or injury : to experience something unpleasant (such as defeat, loss, or damage) : to become worse because of being badly affected by something. Merriam-webster [5] The actions seen in the video and from the peacefulprairie are consistent with all three meanings of the word suffer. Supply and demand When purchasing a pig product, in this case bacon you are creating a demand for bacon. Suppliers will then match the supply. Matching the supply means breeding more pigs and new pigs brought into existence. Those pigs will undoubtedly suffer. Chain reaction, a customer buys bacon which causes demand to increase. Demand increasing causes supply to increase. Supply increasing causes more pigs to be bred. More pigs being bred means more suffering for pigs. Thus buying bacon causes suffering of pigs. Environment It is common knowledge that meat products are more environmentally damaging than plant products. Just for starters trophic levels. Only 10% of biomass is transferred along trophic levels. Health “Hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats cause cancer, World Health Organization declares” Peter Whoriskey [6] IV. Summary Bacon production causes pig suffering. Is detrimental to the environment, and is harmful to human health. Because of both the harmful effects to health and animal suffering purchasing bacon fits the definition of animal cruelty. “Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the human infliction of suffering or harm upon any non-human animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival.” Wikipedia [7] Specifically that eating bacon is in no way related to survival. V. Rebuttal of Con's argument “1. It tastes amazing and can enhance almost anything” Taste is subjective. I for one do not think bacon tastes amazing. “Our tastes can and do change over time for a variety of reasons. Do you now dislike something you used to love, or vice-versa?” theguardian.com [8] “2. Bacon is just one cut off of a pig and so if you banned bacon you'd be wasting a portion of the animal during butchering unless you are wanting to ban pork altogether “ That is an excellent argument for banning pork altogether. “3. Bacon is part of a sustainable food source” Vegan is more sustainable. “4. Bacon has a lot of protein and if eaten in moderation it's not that bad for you” Beans have lots of protein too. The World Health Organization might disagree with you. 5. “5. Breakfast just wouldn't be breakfast without bacon” I've eaten plenty of breakfast without bacon. VI. Links http://www.livescience.com... http://www.livescience.com... http://www.peacefulprairie.org... http://www.merriam-webster.com... https://www.washingtonpost.com... https://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.theguardian.com...