I think we're getting onto a whole different ball game here. It's a very sticky issue, and one I haven't given a great deal of thought on. For the sake of keeping OT, I'ma leave it.

Mostly it comes down to culture (IMHO). The first is that since pre-historic times, we've come a long way, but we haven't evolved much. That's more a cultural evolution. If you look at the world now compared to what we had, say, 1000 years ago (in europe), we've come a long way. This involves shunning old truths and realising new ones. Perhaps one of the older, and most important ones is this: It is completely impractically and nigh impossible to not eat meat to survive.

Certainly, this was true. I know animal rights and vegetarianism are different matters, but they both follow the same arguments. As I previously mentioned, most of our lack-of-respect for animals is due to their uses, primarily in the food industry.

If, for a moment, we blotted out our past preconceptions on what we should eat, and we stand in a field with a bush of berries and two cows, what would you kill and eat? It may not be the most beautiful, huggable and friendly creature, but a cow feels pain and sadness. I don't know a single person who, with a clear mind, would take a knife to the cow, given the option of something just as good.

Oh, and I know berries don't contain the same stuff as meat. It's not an issue, if you look into a vegeatarian/vegan diet.

In my opinion, the only thing that keeps us eating dead animal is that we eat dead animal. It then comes down to your opinion on whether animals should die to uphold unnecessary traditional values.

Animal rights follows this. If people started caring that what they eat once had a curly tail we'd pay a lot more attention to the drug companies who drip chemicals in chimpanzes' eyes.