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harold said:
People kill domesticated জন্তু জানোয়ার for খাবার because that's one reason জন্তু জানোয়ার were domesticated in the first place. জন্তু জানোয়ার were domesticated to provide খাবার and to perform work...in that order. As humanity developed better and better agricultural practices - eventually inventing রুটি and other high-carbohydrate foods that made civilization possible - it became possible to have জন্তু জানোয়ার for companionship. Different countries have different mores at to which জন্তু জানোয়ার are আরো acceptable for food. While many English-speaking countries have an aversion to eating domesticated জন্তু জানোয়ার usually thought of as companion creatures - horses, cats, সারমেয় - other populations do not make the same distinctions. As a result, many large খাবার জন্তু জানোয়ার - the ones that need significant resources to breed, raise and keep (like sheep, pigs, cows, buffalo and horses, but not cats, সারমেয় অথবা goats) are shipped from every country that can support them to the countries that eat them. We in the US, Canada and the UK find it distasteful. The argument in favor of slaughtering জন্তু জানোয়ার for খাবার for export follows two precepts: 1) Humans need protein to survive and thrive. We are omnivores, designed to eat both meat and plant matter (as well as fungi). 2) Domesticated জন্তু জানোয়ার that can do no work must be disposed of, somehow. The argument flows like this: not all জন্তু জানোয়ার that are born can be pets, especially not জন্তু জানোয়ার that require huge resources to maintain, such as ঘোড়া বিষয়ক - not even close to all of them. Only domesticated জন্তু জানোয়ার which are pets are buried when they die (not even all of them) - there certainly isn't room for burying all the ঘোড়া বিষয়ক born in the US. So the ঘোড়া বিষয়ক get sent to the knacker yards when they die, for the fat to be rendered, and the অস্থি used for gelatin, cosmetics, and other useful items. The meat is lost, as the meat on an animal that dies naturally isn't particularly healthful. So if an animal is going to die, why not slaughter it so that people can benefit from the meat as well (both sellers and consumers)? If that's palatable, then the প্রশ্ন becomes: why should the owners wait to slaughter an useless animal (can't be sold as a pet, can't do work) until the animal, প্রদত্ত the expense and resources needed to sustain the animal until that point? I should add that there is a corollary argument in countries that actually eat horse meat: that is to say, domesticated animal meat is meat to eat. I myself, while I would have a hard time stomaching horse meat, have eaten alligator, ostrich, elk, bison, rabbit and various others. So for me, at least, it's a double-standard.
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