RE: Boy cycles over chicken, rushes it to hospital with his ‘savings,’ becomes viral hero
Actually, you're unknowingly contradicting from your sub-conscious. This news is a proof that everyone of us is born vegan at heart. When this child grows up, it's possible that he won't think twice before eating a chicken ...just like his neighbour. This happens due to social conditioning. We get accustomed / trained to eat flesh by the society we live in. But somewhere our inner consciousness is not in alignment with our actions.
A meat-eater who talks about the importance of afforestation or environment is a contradiction in itself. A meat-eater loving and taking care of pet animals and birds is also a contradiction in itself. The virtue of empathy and compassion isn't limited to one animal species i.e. homo sapiens but rather it's nature is boundless. Restraining it is against our nature.
And if you delve deeper, you will realize that exploiting and slaughtering animals is contradictory to human compassion & empathy towards his fellow beings too. (Problems like world hunger, climate change, water pollution and scarcity, deforestation, species extinction etc. are deeply related to animal farming).
I see what you're saying, but I feel like you could blame 'social conditioning' on a lot of things we do. As a baby, we survive off breast milk, but as humans grow, we (as parents) gradually introduce new food - whether it be meat, vegetables or fruits. If we were never to introduce new food, then we would always want breast milk. So is that not 'social conditioning' to eat anything new, including fruits and vegetables?
How is a meat-eater who cares about afforestation/environment a contradiction in itself? Can't farmers take care of their ground and rotate which field the cattle are in to replenish the grass/plants? If farmers don't take care of the ground they have, then it will be useless to them. Therefore, they rotate which field they use for livestock and what they plant to preserve the land. If they don't preserve the land, livestock won't grow. As for a meat-eater loving/taking care of pets, I get your point, but there is no animal or pet that someone throughout the world won't eat. Depending on where your from, your society decided what animals are pets.
Human compassion and empathy only go so far. When a small child stomps on an ant or spider, there is no compassion. It's only when the animal appears to be soft, lovable, etc., that a child cares.
Actually, weaning off suckling on breasts shouldn't be viewed as social conditioning. If you observe Nature, you won't find members of any species suckling mother's milk all their life. It's just an initial arrangement where infants feed on what mothers' are eating and digesting for their babies. But once the baby grows older, she can eat and digest on her own.
I agree with your point of crop rotation to keep land fertile and productive. It's not that we are abandoning arable land but because we need more and more land for growing feed for animals, we are destroying forests for our land requirements. Esp. refer the case of destruction of rain forests to cultivate palm trees for palm oil. Please Google up a little and you will find all relevant details regarding this.
Come to my place some day. You won't see anyone eating animals here.
What others are doing shouldn't be the benchmark of our own activities. We should held ourselves responsible for our own actions.
I disagree here. I've seen many small children playing with ants and if they get killed by them accidentally or unknowingly, they cry. One of my friends used to rescue flies and bees from water when they landed in swimming pools when she was a small kid. She also used to put stray worms in the middle of the road to safety. A friend's son started playing with snakes when he was still in cradle and his love with snakes continued in his growing up years. Today, he rescues many snakes in his town as a hobby.
But yes, not everyone has the same level of consciousness and their compassion & understanding may vary. But fundamentally we're all the same.