Think before you write

As I flipped through the Gainesville Sun today, my eye was drawn to an editorial entitled Canned hunts are wrong. The author seems to hold the view that "[a]nimals are sentient, living beings, not pieces of property to be bought and sold." Ummmm... excuse me... sentient beings? And what scientific evidence do you have to back up this claim? What evidence do you have that animals might be sentient? My advice is that, in the future, you should edit all unsupported statements out of your letters to the editor if you want to be taken seriously.

When wondering if animals are sentient, consider the following. Animals will steal from and/or kill one another if they have the opportunity. They don't have much choice in the matter. Your cat, whom you feed every day, will still hunt for birds. The cat is not hunting out of need; it is hunting because it is compelled to by its nature. Humans are different. We can choose to ignore our animal nature. Animals cannot. The evidence is in favor of animals not being sentient. There is nothing wrong with eating animals. Animals kill and eat other animals. Plants kill other plants for a better place in the sun. All living things struggle against each other.

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Update: I have since met the author of this letter and she is a very nice person, so I will not be naming her in this post anymore.