This maybe unorthodox than all the opinions here; and, I don't agree with animal sacrifice for religious purposes.
To compare. When we think of pigs etc in a slaughter house, do we associate this with our religious beliefs? Is it helping our spiritual well-being? (Not the eating of it but the actual slaughter) Some parts of the world, as not to generalize, just see animals as food. However, I see animals as life. So, to eat an animal is to eat a sacred being's life. I always say we (humans) are not special; we're not. We kill to survive. That is the purpose of the slaughter.
Religion and religious acts are not "just to slaughter." It isn't impersonal. These are personal actions and beliefs that a person affiliates him or herself with. So when that person slaughters a chicken, they are slaughtering it to obtain the life force from it (or however described) and in other religions a physical display of sacrifice. Whether or not it is ate later is not the point. "That's like saying, well. It's alright to kill Joe because he's going to the death house anyway" type of thing.
Religious acts of animal sacrifice isn't done for survival. People can actually live without sacrificing animals. So, I can't excuse "Joe" just because he will be killed anyway.
I see it as, if I were to slaughter an animal for religious purposes, I am taking the life from that animal and I am making it personal. I am joining my morals to that act of killing. That is wrong. It is no longer survival as in nourishment. I can live without meat. It's making that act of killing a part of who I am. That, in my view, is wrong.
There is a difference.
I'd never work in a slaughter house. It's just against all my principles of killing. Animals kill to survive. We package meat. Add preservatives. Try to make things taste delicious to gather more money rather than exchange food as money among a community to sustain each other without needing "collateral" as you can see it becomes greed.
I understand the need to slaughter animals for people to eat. I agree, it wouldn't make a difference if it were a pig or a dog regardless of how we culturally relate to them. I don't care for killing; and, I understand why in this case.
I do see the difference because we do not personalize the pigs we slaughter for food. So, it is seen as "alright" in many people's books. Like dogs as social animals, religions that have animal sacrifice have a different way of seeing the pigs and chickens they kill.
Killing for religious purposes becomes a moral combination between killing; and, that I disagree with whether or not the community eats the food afterward. This I disagree with.
That is why there is a difference between one and another. It's a big difference.
No one actually has to eat meat to survive. I've become mostly vegetarian lately and I've felt better because I simply changed what I've been eating. I've every few days at most have some chicken or fish but it's not really necessary. We are omnivores and can eat pretty much anything but that doesn't mean we have to eat everything. So we actually have more flexibility in diet than many pro meat eaters would say.
Why not both? No but really I'm not endorsing or condemning animal sacrifice for the purposes of this thread.
