• Synapse@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I not certain to understand how eating snails would be less cruel than making foie gras. You need to starve the snails for several days before you can cook them alive.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Because they’re snails and not geese.

      Or are you going to say that people who kill snails when they’re invading a garden are practicing animal cruelty?

      • Synapse@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s debatable, but I would say the distinction has a lot to do with how we, very subjectively, identity with the animal, how cute the animal is. I am certain snails suffer when they are crushed, or starved, but it’s hard to have empathy for them (they are small, slimy, no face, can’t scream). What about jellyfish, or plants? Very hard to define where animal cruelty starts and stops.

        I am not lecturing anyone here. Just find it interesting to ponder this philosophical question.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Believe me, I don’t think geese are cute. At all. They’re horrific monsters.

          But I also don’t think you can equate the suffering a goose goes through, which takes a long time, incidentally, with the suffering something we normally treat as a pest might go through.