So, it's okay for humans to eat meat, just so long as it's the kind and amount that other apes do? "I have no problem with that," you said.
So--great apes not only eat insects, but a variety of monkeys, bush babies and other mammals, birds and reptiles, including leftover kills of other animals, if they can. They can hunt, but humans can't hunt or raise their own to fulfill what you just admitted is acceptable to you?
Oh, and you make a distinction between insects and the like, and vertebrates like mammals and birds and fish (and reptiles, and amphibians). It’s okay to eat insects, but not vertebrates, because that's a "perversion," even though other great apes do so. ALL vertebrates are "intelligent, sensitive," but insects apparently deserve no such consideration.
Really? Such an interesting line between what’s okay and not okay to eat. Clearly, the basis of your distinction is not the presence/absence of a central nervous system, because insects have central nervous systems, too. There is even evidence that some insects can recognize individuals (both of their own kind, and even humans who are caretakers or pain-givers in laboratory settings). Isn’t that evidence of sentience?
So insects are okay to eat? Your example of mosquitoes is of course ridiculous—they are too hard to catch for the return of energy and nutrients in most cases. But is it okay to swat them to prevent getting disease, and a painful bite, though?
In many areas around the globe, insects—ants, roaches, beetles, termites, grasshoppers, etc., and their larval forms—are already a significant part of the human diet—certainly not in the West, but in Africa, Central and South America, among Australian Aborigines, throughout Asia. Why do these eat insects? To supplement their mostly vegetable diets with a little protein, etc. The same reason that they include meat in their diet when they can get it: it is a rich source of proteins and fats that can only be found in a few plants, many of which do not grow or grow well in their areas, and rarely are accessible year-round. Those people shouldn't eat meat, apparently. Except for insects; insects are okay to eat.
Very curious reasoning, to me.
But, if insects are okay, what’s related to insects? Arthropods, such as shrimp, crabs, lobsters, and so on. If it’s okay to eat insects, is it okay these other arthropods? Why not mollusks, which are also not vertebrates: clams, squid, octopi, and so on? Or are some of these “sentient” (as there is considerable evidence for) and therefore off limits, too? How do you decide which deserves protection and which doesn't? Your distinction that consumption of vertebrates are an "obvious perversion" is not so obvious...in fact, it smacks of an inconsistent application of values, or of values that are simply based in emotion, and not in logic.
Edit: Bonus question: on what basis should the limits of what humans eat be based on what other apes eat? That sounds VERY arbitrary to me.
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