Vegetarianism is a perfectly reasonable thing. However, one thing annoys me about it. Meat may be murder, as Morrissey likes to point out, but it is a delusion to believe that wild animals have a happy, jolly time. Nature is a brutal, heartless thing, and every wild creature is clinging on for dear life most of the time. Disease, predators, weather, and starvation are just a few of the phenomena that they have to deal with, and most members of any animal species die at a fairly young age. When farmed humanely, most if not all of these dangers and problems are removed, and the animals can actually live a longer, more contented life. This doesn't make domestication and agriculture "right" or "good" but neither does it deny animals their rightful place gambolling merrily across hills and meadows without a care. Such places do not exist. Instead it is a choice between two different evils - is it better to be a free range chicken eventually swiftly despatched with a sharp knife, or a partridge pursued by a hawk that then tears it apart with its talons?
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