>After all, we do not go to great lengths to intentionally torture
>microbes, even those that directly threaten our survival.
Speak for yourself. I tend to bear a grudge especially against anyone or anything that is a lot smaller than me! Microbes, can definitely expect no mercy. I'll go out of my way to kill them slowly. Never mind a full course of anti-biotics, I'll go for a few tablets everytime. Or just some oral antiseptic.
Same goes for weeds, I don't bother to kill them quick, I'll just keep amputating a limb or branch over and over again, or give them a little dose of poison repeatedly every year for year after year. So that they die an agonising and slow death. I like to think that their death will thus serve as an example to others.
One day I figure, those microbes will learn it doesn't pay to tangle with me and go pick on some bleeding heart vegetarian instead.
As for competing carnivores, the ones that kill my domesticated animals, it doesn't pay to show mercy. Some of them, like the domesticated cat, are simply so obnoxious that they should be exterminated from the face of the Earth. Some, like the native Quoll, are so bloodthirsty that they make Homo Sapiens look like a bunch of innocent babies. But there are laws against torturing animals, so even if I wanted to, or did, I could hardly brag about it.
Of course I wouldn't contemplate torture food animals. Doesn't really pay. So even though some of them are unfuriatingly stupid, it is necessary to avoid causing suffering. And I think its stupid to assume that it causes suffering to kill them. better than eating them alive, which is what many competing carnivores would do.
But its a matter of personal ethics. Vegetarians mostly do no harm to me. Unless they try to impose their moral viewpoint on me of course.
Which reminds me of a science fiction story I read donkey's years ago. Can't remember the title, or the author, but it was about an alien invasion of a sort. A single extra-terrestial lands on earth and is captured by the authorities and imprisoned. Next thing you know, there's a great mass of unexplained deaths across the globe. And prison guards and cops are exiting their jobs in droves. Alomng with politicians, bosses, judges, the entire lot of them.
Seems this extra-terrestial has introduced a virus to Earth. The virus spreads to all invertebrates on the planet and has the effect of making any infected animal suffer the same pain or injury as it causes any other invertebrate.
Instant karma!
The alien eventually explains that his species had decided that Homo Sapiens was ready to take the next step in its development. Too bad for carnivorous vertebrates on Earth, now headed for mass extinction. And we better get on with developing birth control for the herbivores, if we didn't want to be responsible for a lot of suffering there. Instant karma, remember. Be VERY afraid of causing any suffering.
Great story. What science fiction is all about. If anyone knows the author or the title please remind me.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas