Question about the legality of meat

[vegan32123]

Hey guys, I have a question. This is not an attack, it's a genuine question I'm just asking out of curiosity. I'm vegan, but I think meat should be legal. It seems like most vegans think meat should be illegal, but also acknowledge that some people can't go vegan for health reasons, and some pets need meat to survive. So I was just wondering, if meat became illegal, how would that work? Would there be exceptions for people who need meat for health reasons, and people who own pets who need meat?

 

[silva]

Hey guys, I have a question. This is not an attack, it's a genuine question I'm just asking out of curiosity. I'm vegan, but I think meat should be legal. It seems like most vegans think meat should be illegal, but also acknowledge that some people can't go vegan for health reasons, and some pets need meat to survive. So I was just wondering, if meat became illegal, how would that work? Would there be exceptions for people who need meat for health reasons, and people who own pets who need meat?

There are so many things that need to be illegal before considering farmed animals it's ridiculous!
Like trophy hunting
culling local animals that overpopulate
spaying and neutering dogs and cats
mandating stricter animal abuse charges
shutting down backyard breeders........

Honestly, I believe, at least in the US, we'll get closer to vegan by corporations making money off promoting it than we will by health care.
I will say though, the wfpb movement is increasingly popular for those with disease and old age

I don't even think about meat becoming illegal

I also have yet to hear any research on anyone not able to be healthy without animal products. Can you link something?

 

[Lou]

It seems like most vegans think meat should be illegal,

I've never heard anyone say that. Not sure what vegans you are talking to. but I don't think that is the general consensus. of even a well thought out idea.

Here in the US we never even tried to make cigarettes illegal. And when we make liquor illegal it was a disaster.

 

[Graeme M]

I don't think I have heard anyone suggest that meat should be illegal in and of itself. But many people advocate for animal rights, so assuming they believe that means that animals should have the same basic rights as humans do - ie the right to their own bodies, to be free, to not be treated cruelly - then they presumably mean those rights should be protected at law. Just as for people. THAT would make meat illegal, in the same way that human rights don't need to specifically spell out that cannibalism is prevented by our rights.

It is extremely unlikely that other species will ever get those rights as a blanket claim. Not having researched just how advocates believe such rights could be described and protected I haven't a clue how it could be done, practically speaking. Perhaps Martha Nussbaum's idea in her recent book would have more hope of being taken up whereby justice is awarded to specific species one by one according to an evaluation of their particular ways of life.

For now, I think that ethical vegans are people who act as though animals have those basic rights. That means they make choices that reflect that and thereby behave as though meat were illegal (or more exactly, that the means by which meat is produced were illegal).