I saw a thread earlier with a "live crab" dispensing machine. Brought to the fore of my mind a nagging issue I've been struggling with lately (how we treat those live animals we ultimately eat, before and after slaughter). That photo of the crab about to be killed, you know the one... It's only a crab, after all; but I can't help feeling it's owed a little respect and gratitude (even though it's not developed enough to sense or appreciate it).

Surprised that no-one has raised a moral objection to live animals being sold/treated/ unthinkingly used in such a crass way.

Imagine the horror of human beings being farmed in such a way, for food, and then sold with such nonchalant commercialism, such inhumane, careless, implied brutality... Sometimes when I'm driving I see this too, cattle trucks jammed with living, thinking, feeling beings.

I'm no veggie but I am sometimes vaguely troubled by the moral implications of eating animals, even fish. I feel that everything has an equal right to life (there being no god to assign superiority/ primacy) and that we ought to show at least some respect/ sense of indebtidness or gratitude for those fellow living things we consume.

I particularly object to food that is killed too young or cooked "cruelly". Lamb- playful, happy little things- killed and cooked whilst babies because they taste better; lobster, boiled alive and for the same reason. Imagine babies killed by some foreign race because they are more tender, or adults being baked alive because it enhances their flavour.

These are, after all, living things with what passes for thoughts and emotions; desires and fears.

I just think they deserve for us to show them a little respect, gratitude and moderation.

May sound like troll thread but not... Just wondered whether anyone else had these thoughts/ was vaguely troubled by how we farm/ treat/ slaughter & cook animals.