How do you decide which animals are ok to eat and which ones aren't?

@AmbivalentFriability: Thank you for yet another thoughtful answer. It really makes you wonder about just how much people are willing to permit when something is faceless.

Like how we buy our clothes from sweatshops without thinking about it. Our electronics from Chinese factories that exploit their workers to the point where they would rather kill themselves. We buy diamond jewelry a symbol of love, despite the fact that the diamonds were mined by slaves or used to finance wars in Africa. People in the States buy illegal drugs that is fueling a violent gang war in Mexico and supplying cartels with the money and power they need to continue it.

We support so many things that we would be appalled if we knew what happened behind the scenes. When the blood is on someone else's hands, it keeps us from ever having to think about it.

It makes me wonder, how when we look back at slavery and think about how awful it was and how evil you had to be to participate in it, would people realize that it was just considered normal back then. Slaves for the most part were seen as faceless workers that existed for the benefit of their masters. Since white people were mostly freemen in the US, why would they care if slaves were being beaten, separated from their families, or worked to death? It didn't affect them. And if someone made a lot of noise about how wrong the practice was and how cruel their treatment, how would other people react to that person?

That's the thing with eating meat and animal products. It's been normalized. It's so ingrained into Western culture that it's everywhere. Meat is on every menu for every meal. It's not even about survival or ethics or anything like that. It's for our convenience and our pleasure. And it's hard to go against a culture like that. Vegetarians and vegans are mocked all the time, particularly on the internet. On top of making the commitment to eliminate and restructure a big part of your cultural diet, you have to withstand the incredulity or the scorn of people that think your choices are foolish. And if you have friends or family that you want to eat with, an extra effort to avoid meat needs to be made solely because of you. It's not an easy decision for people to make.

Between people opting to take the path of least resistance and not wanting to be an outcast, your options aren't very appealing. I think awareness is the first step, but given the responses I've gotten so far, we haven't even gotten that far

@HalfCactus: slavery of human beings, yes, not other species. i am a hypocrite, just like everyone else. besides, just because you can't hear an organic food source screaming when you bite into it doesn't mean it's not screaming for survival. everything that is alive eats something else that is/was alive. that's life.

@LittleQueen: Slavery was defended because it was taught that black people feel and think far less than white people, and their bodies made them ideal for working.

Eating meat is defended because we're taught that animals feel and think far less than humans, and that their bodies are ideal for eating.

Research has shown us that we've been taught wrong on both accounts

@HalfCactus: i know we're eating animals that have feelings, and research also shows that even vegetation shows signs of distress when culled. it's a wild world full of yin and yang. we're never, ever going to live in a perfect world, no matter how conscientious we try to be. however, i will not toss out my stance on human civil rights just because i and my world are imperfect.

@clothos: That's pretty much all vertebrates and a good chunk of invertebrates. I imagine you don't eat many animals

@HalfCactus: Yep. I'm vegetarian.

@RevanSnowBorne: That could very easily justify cannibalism

@HalfCactus: Except the context of the questions says animals, meaning that my answer is also within the context of the question.

@HalfCactus: i usually stick to Pork , Beef , Ham , Chicken the usual stuff

@FurryFace: Why are they okay to eat and not puppies?

@HalfCactus: why ? do you eat puppies ? , lol

@Rutterman: The more endagered or threatened, the more expensive the wine.

@MasterLee: I'm a Mad Dog 20/20 man myself. Shit tastes like wiper fluid.

@bijouxbroussard: So if you were to willfully ignore the emotional capabilities of other animals, would that make it okay to eat them?

@HalfCactus: Perhaps so. I'm glad fish and shrimp can't scream.