[mrnoodle]

Technology, while it has resulted in the suffering of untold millions of living beings, has also freed us from the necessity to "consume other living things" to survive. We can use our position as the most advanced species on the planet to find ways of living that minimize our horrendous impact on the world around us. You say we are just another living creature, and I agree -- we're no more important than the birds or the fish. So, why do we continue to rape the planet as if we were the ONLY things here?

I'm not saying that the predator/prey relationship is wrong or unnatural. Certain leaders of my group have stated in the past that they would eventually like to see all predators find alternate ways of feeding themselves, but that's not immediately feasible.

What is immediately feasible is for each of us to make the decision that we are not going to contribute to the suffering of other animals for our own pleasure. You might like hamburgers, but Dahmer liked cutting off boy's heads. It's an exact parallel. Your addiction to meat and leather causes mass murder every day, and it's about time someone stopped it. As long as the government is run by special interest murder groups like the beef industry, it won't happen on a large scale. But it can happen on an individual level, and I reserve the right to point out your complicity in murder in whatever form I see fit.