re: #162 Jack Burton, Gunner on Death Star of David

I eat meat. I love meat. I try to not eat too much though, and I know the environmental impact of it is not good. I will not however as a rule eat the meat of any animal that is intelligent. Elephants pass the mirror-test. I will assume that even if these cloned Mammoths don’t, they will be close enough (and that test is not the only indicator of intelligence).

As far as I’m concerned, killing intelligent animals (Whales, Dolphins, Apes, Elephants, Octopuses, and Corvids) is murder and no different than killing a human. I’m teetering on possibly even giving up pork as it’s looking like Pigs might be close to that list, but I haven’t made that leap yet.

I remember being in Japan and looking at octopus tempura (and I love tempura) and not being able to eat it. One of the other tour participants was all, “What’s the problem?” My response was, “I can’t eat our cephalopod friends.” We don’t understand the intelligence of octopus and I just couldn’t eat it.

(I also couldn’t bring myself to eat the whale we were served at one meal, but for more obvious reasons.)