I catch mice with live traps and let my cats "hunt" them. They seem to enjoy it and I believe it's good for them but really, what else am I going to do with the mice I catch? Kill them and throw them in the trash? Release them in the alley to return to my house?
I don't understand where the idea that eating meat is itself an ethical issue. Humans are omnivores which means we eat meat. Chris is wrong when he states that eating meat is not a universal human practice. It is and the fact that there is a specific name for those who chose to forsake meat but not for those who follow the universal practice helps demonstrate this fact. What strictly vegetarian society has ever existed? None that I know of. Certainly some religious/philosophical practitioners don't eat meat but those exist as small subsets of their society. The fact that some individuals chose to practice celibacy doesn't mean a sex drive is not universal among humans.
Complaints about the barbaric treatment of animals under capitalism is certainly appropriate in my opinion but that complaint applies to all aspects of production under capitalism does it not?
John Thornton